How to Choose and Order your Books.

We are regarded as the Supplier Selection experts, with many years of experience working with Profiles, Budgets, Check-out Stats and Demographics Reports. You can engage us to select your stock (Supplier-Select), or you can select your own stock (Customer-Select). You can even mix and match :-)


Option 1 : Supplier-Select
We select Stock on your behalf

The trend in the UK is for a combination of supplier select, and EDI.
Heads Up! This is the most cost effective option. Almost 80% of our libraries opt for Supplier Select.


You provide a profile and budget for each language. We work closely with each library to ensure that suitable stock is selected for your demographics.

We review requirements regularly, and adjust supplier-select profiles accordingly. If your library uses collectionHQ (SmartSM) or Bertrams Engage, we can also utilise this readership data in our stock selection profiles. We supply the library in accordance to the Profiles and an agreed Schedule.

Our Selections are reviewed quarterly against subsequent issues stats. We provide Management Information (MI) Reports of all stock ordered from Books Asia. Our MI Reports are issued to our customers on a quarterly basis, but they can also be emailed to you anytime, upon request.

We work with the top Publishers and Distributors across 17 countries, to source the best foreign-language books. For each language, we aim to source at least 250 quality titles every year - helping you to build the best collections for your readers.


Option 2 : Customer-Select
You select your own Stock

Some libraries have the benefit of Community Librarians or Local Volunteers.
They know their Communities and have the language expertise to select their own titles.
Heads Up! Some libraries 'Mix and Match' their Supplier Select and Customer Select model.
We'll help you design a procurement model which works for you :-)


You select your own titles using our on-line Booklists. Highlight the Sequence Numbers and how many copies you need, then email the Booklist to us.

We'll review your Selection and confirm availability. We'll let you know when you can expect to receive your stock, and suggest alternatives if any of your selected titles are unavailable.

We supply the stock in the agreed timeframe (we'll send you an EDI Quotes first if you are an EDI customer), followed by your Marc records.

Our booklists are uploaded at least once a week. You can also email us your 'Reader Requests' and any 'Community Events' which might require our support (eg Cookery Day, Diwali etc). We work hard to source any book you may require, from anywhere in the world.