Patron-Driven Acquisitions at UC Libraries

Traditional collection development in libraries has involved librarians, knowledgeable in subject areas, building collections by purchasing as many print and other materials as the budget would allow, then storing them for use in the stacks for users to locate when researching a certain topic.

Over time, and with innovations in technology, much of our information is now available in digital form. Ebooks and ejournals offer convenient access to timely information. Electronic access to information has allowed for new purchasing models. Libraries can now offer access to large catalogs of electronic materials, purchasing only titles that are used. This shift allows us to purchase titles at the time of need, eliminating some of the guess work of collection development. We can now build some of our collection in a way that ensures usage of the materials we purchase and minimize our investment, while at the same time maximizing variety and choice of ebook titles.

Patron Driven Acquisitions (PDA) is a new approach to acquisitions and collection development that was recently piloted at the University of Cincinnati Libraries. UC Libraries works with vendors to build collections of ebook titles as potential purchases. Libraries agree on a funding cap for the program and the titles are made available to users. The ebooks are then purchased when UC students, faculty or staff use them.

Librarians work with vendors to build subject-specific collections of ebooks, configuring plans to add titles automatically over time. As new titles are released, they are added to the collections based on strict subject profiles developed with the vendors. The library adds catalog records for each title, making them available to users at UC. The PDA ebooks are indistinguishable from ebooks that we already own and the user has no way of knowing whether a title is owned by the Libraries or are part of the PDA program.

Wahib Nasrallah, business and economics librarian, closely curates his collection of PDA discovery titles. The PDA program has allowed him to build a collection without directly purchasing ebook titles. He is able to add titles to his discovery pool where they are available to use, but only purchased when they are accessed. This has allowed Wahib to focus investment on other resources for the business and economics programs, including databases and journals.

Cheryl Ghosh, head of the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) Library, collects materials in support of programs with distance learners. Ebooks are much more convenient for a student who is attending classes remotely and may not have physical access to a research library. PDA helps Cheryl to cost effectively build a large collection of ebooks for her programs, buying only titles that are used.

UC Libraries will be expanding the PDA program to other subject areas in the coming months. Holly Prochaska, head of the Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library, is in the process of configuring a PDA collection for users of that library.

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