Good day,

Thank you for contacting the library to discuss your acquisitions department question regarding reading materials.

Because we are an academic library, our primary purpose is to support student research, and thus, the accreditation of the educational institution.

Are you a student (or employee) at FC? 

If not, but you live in one of the areas listed below, please come by to purchase a community user card. This way, you can borrow the book – should it be ordered. Our ordering process usually can be rushed to a one-month turn-around, upon request.

Do you live nearby?

Community User Cards

The general public can purchase a Community User Card for $5.00 with an expiration date six months after the purchase date. To replace a lost Community User Card there is a $1.00 fee.  To qualify for a Community User Card, the applicant must be 18 years of age and reside in one of the following cities:

• Anaheim
• Buena Park
• Brea
• Cypress
• Fullerton
• La Habra
• La Habra Heights
• Placentia
• Yorba Linda

A patron with a Community User Card may have a maximum of 5 books checked out on his/her card at a time. The loan privileges for the community library card extend only to books in the circulating collection.  If the applicant is less than 18 years of age, a signature from a parent or legal guardian is required.  No exceptions.

Regarding research/reading materials – the Fullerton College Library offers students a well-developed, growing collection of print books. We welcome faculty, student, and community user library card-holder recommendations for supplemental research collection acquisitions. If you would like, you might reach out to an instructor at Fullerton College to design an assignment that encourages students to use the title that you’ve suggested for addition to the circulating collection. Then, a librarian could discuss with you how this worked out – to close the loop (for accreditation documentation purposes) on the supplemental research collection additions.

The Fullerton College librarians select titles to supplement course content for their collection subject areas by consulting a number of sources/using knowledge gained from: 1) Faculty and student surveys and requests; 2) Library conference presenters’ recommendations and selection lists; 3) Reference desk questions; 4) Library periodicals, such as Library Journal; 5) Professional library review resource Choice online and in print; 6) Community user library card-holder requests; 7) Book award lists; 8) Course descriptions in Curricunet; 9) Library instruction session and one-on-one research consultation interactions with students/faculty; and 9) Staff recommendations – to maintain and develop the library collection within budgetary, vendor, and ordering calendar limitations. Please note that reviews are available to students, faculty, staff/community users via the periodical collection.

Thank you for reaching out to the Fullerton College Library.