Digital Commons Network^™

Give 'Em What They Want: Patron-Driven Collection Development, Karen S. Fischer, Hope Barton, Michael Wright, Kit Clatanoff

Hope I Barton

Patron-Driven Acquisitions (PDA) is the hot topic in collection management. It sets traditional notions of collection-building upside down, while also presenting vendors and publishers with very different business models. Collaborating with ebrary and YBP, the University of Iowa Libraries established a PDA pilot program in September 2009 which has proven to be extremely popular with users and seems to be working in the Libraries’ favor. PDA has advantages (you only buy materials that are used) but has some potential pitfalls too, like going broke quickly, or building an ebook collection that doesn’t necessarily fit in the long run. To help …

Give ‘Em What They Want: Patron-Driven Collection Development, Karen S. Fischer, Michael Wright

Karen S Fischer

It’s unorthodox: a small number of libraries nationwide are opening up their acquisitions process for e-books and letting their users make the picks. Known as patron-driven acquisition (PDA), the process involves working with a vendor to develop an e-book subject profile, and then loading MARC records for e-books matching the profile into the library’s catalog. After a certain number of uses, the library owns the e-book and the vendor deducts payment from a deposit account. There is no intervention by subject-specialist librarians or even acquisitions staff.

The University of Iowa Libraries established a PDA pilot in September 2009 which has …