Book excerpt: This book, first published in 1991, examines the actual costs of operating an acquisitions department. Acquisitions and business librarians have written eight highly practical chapters that will allow you to see beyond the obvious materials budget to the hidden but often enormous internal expenditures involved in the daily operation of your acquisitions department. These experts discuss the costs involved in pre-order searching; managing exceptions to the work flow; implementing an integrated online system; automating serials acquisitions; supporting personnel: interviewing and hiring, training, performance, mistakes, absenteeism, staff development; performing public relations / extra services requested by faculty and patrons; organizing payment operations; and processing invoices. Each chapter, in addition to identifying the costs, illustrates what happens to make costs expand and proposes suggestions for controlling the costs.