Collection Development: Pricing and an update to reviews

  I've been investigating the lower discounts from Baker & Taylor - books that I used to get 40% off are now 20% off - and eventually figured out that, according to the information I received from B&T - it's the publishers. There's a very complicated scheme of discounts, but in a nutshell the publisher decides what type of binding the book has and they are listing more and more books as "reinforced" which only gets a 20% discount as opposed to "hardcover" which gets a 40% discount. This doesn't sound like a lot, but it adds up to an additional $5 per book.
  Additionally, I've discovered that the ISBNs for books in trade catalogs whose binding is listed as "hardcover" are often listed on Baker & Taylor as "reinforced" with the lower discount, with no option to choose "hardcover."
  I'm going to start listing prices on Baker and Taylor for items in my reviews. My total budget for youth materials is approximately $23,000 a year and we may have to make budget cuts next year. I don't think this will affect larger libraries and systems as much - they have larger budgets and/or can negotiate better discounts. But I don't see any other options for us smaller libraries and it's very discouraging to have to so carefully consider price when what I really want to focus on is buying the best books for my collection. I have also been spending hours checking discount sites and Amazon for better prices to try to squeeze in the books I want with the budget I have.

  I'm curious to see if other librarians doing collection development, especially those with similar budgets and library sizes, are paying similar prices.

No Bear Anywhere by Leah Gilbert

*Very fun storytime book by a local author*

ISBN: 9781547605620

List price: $18.99

Edelweiss: Hardcover picture book

Amazon: Hardcover $15.39

Baker & Taylor: Reinforced $15.19