1. PATRON-DRIVEN
ACQUISITION
Turning Theory into Practice (Part 2)
Ben Hunter
Head of Cataloging and Collections
University of Idaho Library

2. Overview

Last week:
 What
is PDA? Why do it?
 PDA models – print and electronic
 Different vendor models

Today:
 Review
and unanswered questions
 Budgeting considerations
 PDA in practice: starting an eBook PDA program
 Circulation/usage of PDA materials
 PDA controversies

3. What is PDA?


Adding a specific resource to a library’s
collection based on a patron’s immediate
need.
Hard to separate completely from pay per view
Review

4. Why or why not?

Why?
 Better
service to users?
 Save time?
 Save money?
 A more effective way to build a collection?
 More content available to our users!

Why not?
 More
soon!
Review

5. Types of PDA: Print

Print PDA
 Request
forms
 ILL-based
 Print on Demand

Considerations:
 Marketing
 Budgeting
 Policies
and procedures
Review

6. Types of PDA: eBooks

Ebook providers
 eBooks
on EBSCOhost
 ebrary
 EBL
 Overdrive
 YBP

(coordinates multiple providers)
Considerations:
 Mediated
vs. unmediated
 Budgeting
 MARC record loads? Attach in WC?
Review

7. Pilot Projects



Gauge demand
Assists in budget planning
Is this meeting your goals? (why are you doing
it?)
 User
satisfaction
 Use of the service
 Saving money?
 Saving time?
Review

8. Budgeting

Poll: If there was enough demand in your
library to spend 100% of your budget on
PDA, how much would you feel comfortable
allocating?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
100%
90%
75%
50%
25%
10%
0%

9. Budgeting for Print (Request
forms)

Things you control:



Things you don’t control:



Size of your user population
Actual interest from users
Pilot projects:




Purchasing policies and guidelines (though don’t change
too frequently)
Marketing and prominence of form(s)
Communicate clearly to users
Track purchases and usage – do they line up with goals?
Conduct for an appropriate length of time
How much to budget?

Depends on all of the above – 5%-10%

10. Budgeting for Print (ILL-based)

Things you control:
 Pretty
much everything
 Purchasing policies and guidelines


Can retroactively apply criteria instead of pilot
How much to budget?
 It’s
all up to you.

11. Budgeting for Electronic
(eBooks)

Things you control:
 Marketing
 Short
term loans vs. purchases
 Mediated or unmediated
 The amount of content available
 The type of content available

How much to budget:
 Harder
to estimate, but a pilot project will help
gauge demand

12. Budgeting for Other Models

Print on Demand
 Upfront
investment
 Similar considerations to eBook PDA

Data Driven Acquisitions
 Often

set up with a built in price tag
Pay per view (articles)
 Tokens
have built in controls
 Unmediated or partially mediated
 Similar
considerations to eBook PDA

13. Beginning a PDA program
1.
2.
3.
4.
Pilot Project
Evaluation
Implementation
Maintenance

14. 1. Pilot
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Establish goals
Determine budget
Choose vendor
Determine triggers, loan vs. purchase, etc.
Determine catalog size and content
Establish timeline
Design workflow for discovery
Create extraction/deletion plan
Training
Marketing
Implementation

15. 2. Evaluation of pilot

Usage data





Perceptions and satisfaction




Effectiveness of training
Effectiveness of processing
Expenditures



Users
Librarians (e.g., suitability of purchases for collection)
Success of procedures


Short term loans and purchases
Accesses
Duplication with print holdings (accessed titles)
Use by subject
Total spent
Cost per use
Did it meet your goals?

16. 3. Implementation

If pilot is successful, then should have good
data to inform:
 Number
of titles to load
 Subject matter to load
 Amount to budget

Will also:
 Have
an exit strategy
 Have a solid process in place to load titles
 Have trained personnel

17. 4. Maintenance


Continue to monitor use and budget carefully
What’s your plan if you might go over budget?
 Fewer
titles available?
 Reduce
by year? Subject? Publisher?
 Resources
to divert to PDA?
 Adjust mediation, short term loans, etc.?

What if it’s not being used?
 More
marketing?
 Expand offerings?
 Cease program altogether?

18. PDA – Print Usage

Numerous studies show significantly higher usage
for print PDA titles

Nixon, J. M., & Saunders, E. S. (2010). A study of circulation statistics of books on demand: A
decade of patron-driven collection development, part 3. Collection Management, 35, 151–161.
10 year study at Purdue showed average circulations of 4.1
to 2.4 for PDA vs. non-PDA
 Past year of acquisitions at UI




Approximately 10% of print obtained through PDA
Average 1.692 circulations for PDA, 0.643 average for all
But…
Guaranteed initial circulation
 What about same patron returning and checking out
again?
 Subject area bias?


19. PDA – eBook Usage


For ebook packages, usage tends to follow a
long-tail distribution
This works well for PDA, but what’s the price
per use compared to packages?

20. PDA Controversies (i.e., why
not?)





eBook PDA largely driven by for-profit sector
Too many titles in OPAC?
Touted by many as a solution to the decline in
circulation, but is the rhetoric of “buy the
materials and hope someone will use them”
accurate?
What does this mean to publishers who rely on
a certain number of guaranteed library sales?
The big question: What does this mean for
our collections?

21. Effect on collections?






Are usage statistics the best metric?
By favoring current needs, are we selling out
future needs?
What about disappearing content?
What is the role of a librarian in guiding and
recommending through selection?
Will users choose the best available source, or the
best marketed source?
Is PDA just the tip of the iceberg? (complete ondemand availability of all content)

22. Review






PDA: What and why?
Different kinds of PDA (print and electronic)
Budgeting
Best practices
Usage of PDA
Controversial aspects of PDA

23. Q&A


Thanks!
Please feel free to contact me with any other
questions or comments you may have:
bhunter@uidaho.edu