Course Catalog Editing Instructions Information for Book Sellers

Any day that an Amherst faculty member or department coordinator indicates that a course booklist is complete or adds a new book to an already completed list AND lists your store as the one to carry one or more of the books, you will receive an e-mail notification that your book order information has been updated. You will receive just one notification, regardless of how many new book orders were placed that day.

When notified, you can use the link in the e-mail to download an updated book information file in CSV format. This file contains all the book ordering information for the current semester. You can use the date information in the file  to separate new or changed orders.

College staff can leave specific instructions for the bookseller in the notes column, including things like the book being optional, the instructor requesting a desk copy with the book, and so on. Booksellers should always review the notes column.

Contact information

If you have questions about any orders your store receives, we've provided the list of Academic Department Coordinators below. ADC's can generally answer questions about book requests that come from their respective departments, or put you in touch with the faculty member who requested a specific volume.

American Studies: Graves, Karen H. (khgraves)
Sociology and Anthropology: TBD
Art and the History of Art: Beckett, Louise M. (lmbeckett)
Asian Languages and Civilizations: Williford, Christopher L. (clwilliford)
Astronomy: Feld, Ellen F. (effeld)
Biology: Emerson, Julia A. (jemerson) or Rubeck, Tracie L. (trubeck)
Black Studies: Keyes, Karla (kkeyes)
Chemistry: Stillerman, Catherine A. (cstillerman)
Classics: Upton, Sara W. (swupton)
Computer Science: Torrey, Anne W. (awtorrey)
Economics: Reinle, Jeanne E. (jereinle)
English: Howland, Julie R. (jrhowland) or Raymond-Fic, Susan (sraymondfic)
Environmental Studies: Graves, Karen H. (khgraves)
European Studies: Furlong, Saloma M. (sfurlong)
French: Eddy, Elizabeth A. (eaeddy) or Helinski, Roberta S. (rshelinski)
Geology: Newberry, Jacqueline L. (jlnewberry)
German: Furlong, Saloma M. (sfurlong)
History: Cabin, Rhea I. (ricabin)
Law Jurisprudence etc etc: Estes, Megan L. (mlestes)
Mathematics: Torrey, Anne W. (awtorrey)
Music: Farnham, Suzette M. (smfarnham)
Neuroscience: Margolin, Isabel (idmargolin)
Philosophy: Brace, Dee J. (djbrace)
Physics: Feld, Ellen F. (effeld)
Political Science: Laizer, Theresa A. (talaizer) or Simpter, Donna M. (dmsimpter)
Psychology: Margolin, Isabel (idmargolin)
Religion: Dix, Diane L. (dldix)
Russian: Mabry, Heather-Lee M. (hmabry)
Spanish: Eddy, Elizabeth A. (eaeddy) or Helinski, Roberta S. (rshelinski)
Theater and Dance: Celi, Linda T. (ltceli)
Womens Studies: Ford, Amy A. (aford)

File format

The csv contains the following columns:

A: Date added or changed: The date the publication was added or modified

B: Year: The academic year of the course

C: Subject: The academic subject of the course the book is requested for

D: Department: The department the subject is a part of

E: Course number:Self explanatory

F: Course name:Self explanatory

G: Course section: Usually blank - only populated for a type of course offered at the college where the course numbers are the same but the titles are different. English 95 courses are the most common example of this.

H: Expected enrollment:Total expected enrollment for all sections of the course

I: ISBN:  This is the ISBN entered on the book list form.

J: Title: Self explanatory

K: Publisher: Self explanatory, though note it often contains additonal info (year of publication)

L: Authors: Self explanatory

M: Comments: College staff comments on the publication, for the bookseller or the students or both

N: Sections: Section the publication is requested for - normally all, or the specific section numbers

O: Instructor/s: Last name of the instructor/s teaching the course/s, with the semester they're teaching it in ()

P: Cross lists: If a course is crosslisted, this lists the subject+coursenumber/s it is crosslisted as

Q: Provisional or Complete: Complete indicates that the ADC/Instructor has signed off as the book will be used by the course.

R: Current Enrollment: Number of students currently enrolled in the class. This number will be in flux during add-drop.

S: ISBN 13: The 13 character ISBN got from ISBNDb.com.

T: ISBN 10: The 10 character ISBN got from ISBNDb.com.

U: Price: Price charged by the book store.

V: Date of price entry: Date the price was input by the booksellers.

Issues to be aware of:

College staff are able to edit booklists even after flagging them as complete, which could lead to a given day's csv containing only changed (and not new) book requests -   for example, staff may have updated book requests to provide missing ISBN's , correct typos, etc.

There are two columns for course sections in the csv for complex reasons. Basically, column N represents the section a book has been requested for when staff are adding books to courses, and will contain either 'all,' which indicates the book is for all sections, or will contain the specific section number/s the book has been requested for. Column G will be blank for most courses, but is provided because the college's course numbering scheme is idiosyncratic, and certain course numbers are only distinguishable by this section number. Some courses at the college have the same course number but different course titles and section numbers - an example that exists every semester is the English 95 courses.