The empty bridge

It's a bleak time in the Acq. Team's corner. All the trolleys and shelves are empty and the only boxes of stock are those awaiting decision on what to do with them now they've been added to the catalogue. I've never seen a mid-March like it, it's even worse than last summer's drought.

"There's a lot on order,"

says Mary, omitting to mention that most of these are pre-orders of double-cover titles, some of which have prospective publication dates of 2012.

The light at the end of the tunnel is last week's visit to the suppliers to do an on-site stock selection. The problem is, can it arrive before the cut-off date for payment from 2007/8 budgets?

Of course, the other burning question is: will we know what we want to do with it once we've received it?