Suggest a Purchase

Please check library holdings at bpl.bibliocommons.com and www.commonwealthcatalog.org before suggesting a title for purchase. Please be aware that we generally do not order items for our collection more than two months ahead of publication date. Priority is given to suggestions that are currently, or soon to be, published.

To suggest titles for purchase please log into your library account and complete the form “submit a suggestion” found in your library dashboard.

When you submit a request you will see a history of suggestions you have submitted. Within two weeks of submission you will see a new notification about the status of the request (if the request was approved or denied) within your library account.

Holds will be placed on the patron behalf for print books and AV material, with the hold being sent to the patron’s preferred location. We are unable to place holds on the patron’s behalf for digital material, and unable to guarantee first place in any queue for material.

Due to the volume of requests we receive, we cannot offer notification of any suggestion by email or phone.

You can suggest up to twenty titles per month for all formats of material.

While we do value your input and consider each suggestion carefully, we cannot buy every suggested title.

We cannot guarantee priority placement on the hold list and recommend that you periodically check bpl.bibliocommons.com and www.commonwealthcatalog.org, as the recommendation could be ordered closer to its date of publication.

We do not purchase books directly from authors or publishers. However, the best way for us to consider your book for our collections, is to have an independent, positive review in one or more the of the major review journals (such as Library Journal, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist and Publisher's Weekly). We are more likely to consider adding a self-published book to our collection if a major review journal has reviewed it.

To submit such a request, email us at ask@bpl.org and include the following:

• Basic bibliographic information about your book (title, author, ISBN, publisher, date of publication, number of pages, price)
• A link to your book's website and links to reviews or other coverage in the news media (if available)
• A brief description of your book and its intended audience and information about how or where to buy it

Unfortunately, we cannot notify you if your book is not selected because of the number of submissions we receive.

Donated books are subject to the same selection criteria as other books we buy. Materials not added to our collection cannot be returned, and are sent to the City-Wide Friends for their bi-monthly book sales.