Modes

Ways to get your hands on the books you need:

Mode ^Books owned by ^Books held by ^Bill paid from ^
^Central Library	Institute	Central Library	Library Budget
^Dept Library	Institute	Dept Library	(see below)
^Project	Institute	Coordinator	Project
^PCF	Faculty	Faculty	PCF
^Contingency Grant	Faculty	Faculty	(see below)

====== Central Library ====== Fill the book suggestion form with as many details as possible (ISBN, contact details of possible vendors, Price etc.,), get it forwarded to the Central Library through the Department representative (dept-rep) who is also a member of Library Advisory Committee (LAC). Library will do the procurement and inform the dept-rep when the book is ready to be issued. Time frame for the process is typically several months.

[[http://www.cenlib.iitm.ac.in/docs/library/index.php?page=Books_Acquisition

Library Website]] contains links to the suggestion form.

====== Dept Library ====== Apart from books lent by the Central Library on permanent loan, the Dept Library can also host books procured from its own sources such as continuing education programmes. Someone can comment here if Department Development Fund (DDF) can be used for procuring books. Process could be similar to that of project purchase of books. FIXME

====== Project ====== Books can be procured from the contingency head of all projects (sponsored research as well as industrial consultancy). One can also have the “Others” head with a provision for books/literature if the project sanction makes the provision. The procedure is as follows:

Procure the books from the vendor and get the invoice in triplicate. Certify on the back of the invoice that the billed amount is reasonable and justified for payment from the project.

Fill up the [[http://www.cenlib.iitm.ac.in/docs/sections/downloads/form_pl.doc

Permanent Loan Form ]](plf) in triplicate and get signatures of dept-rep and HoD along with the seals.

Submit the plf, books and the certified invoice to the Books Acquisition Section of Central Library.
After two days, collect from the same section two copies of the invoice with the librarian’s sign on it. Pick up the books and two copies of plf from the Books Accession Section (right opposite to Books Acquisition Section). The plf will now contain the access numbers of the books as entered in the library database. The books will contain a note that they are issued on permanent loan to you.
Submit the invoice, copy of plf with a covering letter to the Dean, ICSR for payment to the vendor by cheque.

If you have bought the books from Amazon or any online vendor using your credit card, you can request for reimbursement in your covering letter. Enclose a copy of your credit card statement highlighting the corresponding entry to be sure.

Library likes to buy books from the vendor who offers maximum discount on list price. Vendors are usually expected to give about 20% discount. Your certification on the back of the invoice should take care of justifying payment if the discount is less that that or even zero.

Since these books belong to the institute, you don’t have to wait for your retirement to return the books to the Central Library. You can return them as soon as you feel like.

====== PCF ====== Read up more about PCF if you need to. Check how much you can spend from your PCF from ICSR. The process of buying books from PCF is very simple:

Procure the books from the vendor and get the invoice. To be sure, certify on the back of the envelope that the billed amount is reasonable and justified for payment from your own PCF.
Either fill the form or write a covering letter to release the payment to the vendor.

Obviously you can also pay online using credit card and get the amount reimbursed. Most online vendors give a machine generated invoice. To be sure, you can enclose a copy of your credit card statement as proof of payment.

====== Faculty Contingency Grant ====== FIXME. This section will change after the sixth pay commission is implemented. As on 25-Dec-08, it was not. Read more about this elsewhere.

Since this grant is given to you upfront and is meant to cover personal expenses for books, local travel etc., you can are as free to buy books from this grant as from your own purse.