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Using the new equipment store

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The new equipment store is the place for Main libraries to go to find technology items that have been curated for usage within their library. The store is located on the staff.mainlib.org website located under the Tech Support top menu location. The store is designed to work much like any other online store and has it’s items grouped into categories.

The “breadcrumb” shows you where you are in the store structure and allows movement back up to any level in the store.

The store has 2 major components: Self Service purchasing and Main Group Purchasing. Please note that these 2 uses of the store can not be combined and are separate workflows.

Self Service Purchasing

Self Service purchasing allows libraries to go directly to an online store location (typically Amazon.com) to purchase an item to be shipped to their library. This speeds up the process of getting in some types of technology items. To utilize the Self Service options you’ll see items listed with a “Buy Product” link. Clicking this link will send you to the external purchase site to complete your purchase of that item.

After the item is received the library should reach out to Main IT using one of the Statement of Work forms to have the item(s) installed and set up. Convenient links to these forms are on most pages of the store site.

Main Group Purchasing

The Main Group Purchasing option is done by adding items to the new equipment store cart. These items (typically PCs and Laptops) are items that Main can purchase at a discount on the behalf of a library. In this case Main will do the purchase and bill the library after the items are received and installed by Main IT. To utilize this part of the site you’ll add items to your “cart” using the “Add to Cart” buttons under these items.

You may add any number of items to your cart. If you would like to add more than one of an item to your cart you can click on the item link and use the options on the item page to add multiple of that item.

Once items are in your cart you’ll see a cart icon appear on the top menu bar of the site. This icon will allow you to view all of the items in your cart at any time.

Once you’ve finished adding all items to your cart you can then go to the cart page and review the items you’ve selected.

You can adjust the number of any item being requested as well as delete items from the cart. When you are finished with any adjustments you can then click the “Proceed to Order / Quote Finalization” button.

You will then arrive at the Order Submission page. At the top you will enter your contact information.

After you have finished entering your information you can then submit your request. The default option is “Order items”.

This option means that the order you are placing should be ordered immediately. If instead you want to generate a quote (typically in cases where you need to submit your order to someone for approval before doing the actual order) you would instead want to select the second option “Generate Quote”.

This will generate an email with the items you’re considering purchasing that you can then forward to the approval person for final approval. If you then receive approval you can contact Main IT to then have the quoted items changed into an actual order.

Just as with the Self Service option, you will need to submit a Statement of Work for any items requested through the Group Purchase option. In addition to the links on the site there are also links to the forms in the email confirmation you receive after submitting your request.

If you run into any errors at any point in using the new equipment store please submit a ticket to Main IT.

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