Evaluating Demand-Driven Acquisitions

Evaluating Demand-Driven Acquisitions

Laura Costello

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

Biography

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Introduction to Demand-Driven Assessment

Chapter 1. A Climate of Demand

Abstract

1.1 The Emergence of Demand-Driven Acquisitions

1.2 Libraries and Publishers

1.3 Going Forward

Chapter 2. Demand-Driven Acquisitions: All the Basic Options

Abstract

2.1 How Does DDA Stack Up to Other Strategies?

2.2 Figuring Out the Program

Part II: Discussion of the Research

Chapter 3. Assessing for Cost

Abstract

3.1 Cap Prices, Short-Term Loans, and Triggers

3.2 Cost Per Use and Expenditure Per Volume

3.3 Questions for Assessing Collections Based on Cost

Chapter 4. Assessing for Collection Diversity

Abstract

4.1 Supporting a Diverse Learning Environment

4.2 Supporting Diverse Content

4.3 Questions for Assessing Collections Based on Diversity

Chapter 5. Assessing for Collection Standards

Abstract

5.1 Measures of Collection Quality

5.2 Factors Influencing Collection Quality

5.3 Questions for Assessing Collections Based on Quality

Chapter 6. Assessing for Usage

Abstract

6.1 Questions for Assessing Collections Based on Usage

Chapter 7. Assessing for Workflow and Preservation

Abstract

7.1 Questions for Assessing Workflow and Preservation

Part III: Special Considerations for Different Types of Libraries

Chapter 8. Academic Libraries

Abstract

8.1 Are Ebooks Appropriate for Scholarly Use?

8.2 Shifting Paradigms in Selection

8.3 Extending DDA Programs in Academic Libraries

8.4 Case Study: Teachers College, Columbia University

Chapter 9. Public Libraries

Abstract

9.1 The Careful Balance of Patron Selection

9.2 Ebooks in the Public Library

9.3 Case Study: Chicago Public Library

Chapter 10. Other Types of Libraries

Abstract

10.1 Specialized Libraries

10.2 Consortia

10.3 School Libraries

Part IV: Conclusion

Part IV. Conclusion

References

Index

Copyright

Chandos Publishing is an imprint of Elsevier

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Biography

Laura Costello is a librarian with a passion for applying new technologies and data analysis to library materials and service. As Head of Library Materials & Acquisitions at Teachers College, Columbia University, she managed a fully demand-driven, digital-first acquisitions environment that leveraged digital resources toward on-demand service. Laura currently serves as the Head of Research & Emerging Technologies at Stony Brook University where she works to apply new technologies to existing library and education practice. Her research interests include data and demand-driven strategies for acquisitions and other library management decisions, emerging technologies in libraries, education technology, and designing digital and physical library learning spaces.

Preface

Demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) describes any acquisitions process that is driven by the desires of patrons or their usage of materials rather than predictive processes like package purchases and librarian selection. DDA is commonly used to refer to the catalog-integrated ebook programs that emerged with major vendors clustered around 2010–11, but the idea of DDA can be applied to many workflows that examine usage to inform purchasing across all formats including digital and physical monographs, serials, media materials, and other resources. For clarity, this book will use the abbreviation DDA to refer to all of these processes, though patron-driven acquisitions (PDA), purchase on demand, patron-initiated purchasing, and customer-based collection development are also commonly used in the research on this topic.

This volume will begin with a short history of DDA programs in libraries and their place in the landscape of acquisitions today. We will go on to discuss options for beginning and adjusting DDA programs with an eye towards the evaluation of these programs. This volume is intended to assist librarians and library professionals in assessing existing DDA programs, expanding their DDA with new processes, and setting up DDA programs for the first time. We will accomplish this through an examination of the research organized around several assessment criteria and then discuss the implications of DDA for different types of libraries. There are many ways to assess acquisitions strategies including cost, the immediate use of resources, the permanent value of the collection, and factors that impact processing workflows. DDA research has examined each of these factors in depth and across a variety of different library types and user groups.

When the librarians at the University of Arizona were developing metrics for assessing their own DDA program, they used five categories to contextualize the data they withdrew from the DDA records: financial metrics, resource metrics, performance metrics, patron metrics, and usage metrics. This zoning helped them establish goals for their program and then assess the progress toward those goals.

The financial metrics explored both cost per use and other cost factors like the processing cost to the institution, and cost per Library of Congress subject area. Patron metrics focused on both patron satisfaction and patron actions in the data. Performance metrics examined how vendors met their own set standards for service. Usage metrics measured circulation and use. Resource metrics examined how well the collection met collection development standards and how likely it was to be a healthy and well-used collection into the future (Dewland & See, 2015). This represents a comprehensive basic framework for creating an assessment program for DDA and existing DDA research can provide a context for beginning evaluation frameworks in each of these areas.

The examination of the research in this volume will loosely follow the University of Arizona model by thoroughly investigating the research on the financial aspects of DDA, collection standards and diversity issues, usage, and library issues like preservation and workflow. These sections should provide an analysis of the research in each of these areas and serve as a foundation for the evaluation of individual DDA programs. Though there is not enough research to make conclusive judgments about how DDA programs should be set up and proceed, the case studies in this section will be useful for comparison in evaluating existing DDA programs and as models for new programs.

Assessment is often not considered until DDA programs are already well underway, but goal setting and evaluation can be useful at any stage of the process, especially during planning. This volume will provide a good foundation for DDA assessment as well as for establishing new DDA programs using existing data and positioning them for later assessment.

Acknowledgments

A big thank you to the people at Chandos, especially George Knott, for guiding me through the first book process.

I would not have been able to publish without the support and mentorship of my colleagues at the Stony Brook University Libraries, especially Associate Dean Janet Clarke and Dean Constantia Constantinou. I am very grateful to Gary Natriello and Hui Soo Chae, at the Gottesman Libraries at Teachers College, Columbia University, for giving me the opportunity to manage collections at such a forward-thinking library and for our continuing collaborations. I would also like to thank Andrew Medlar at the Chicago Public Libraries for his time and insight in contributing an interview about the progressive demand-driven programs at his library to this work.

Thank you to the incredible librarians whose work and research provided the form and meaning in this volume. In my research for this title I was always in awe of the progressiveness, experimentation, and curiosity of library researchers in the face of an uncertain digital future. It’s this spirit that makes librarianship such a rewarding profession and I am so honored to be a part of it.

A hearty thanks to my professional clique, Meredith Powers, Dana Haugh, and Alexandra Lederman, for their friendship and fellowship in work and life. Thanks to my family for their love and understanding through this process. Finally, and especially, thanks to Mason Hooten for believing in me so absolutely.

Introduction

Abstract

Catalog-integrated ebook demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) has been one of the most significant changes to the acquisitions process of the past decade. DDA is disruptive because it represents a fundamental change to the nature library collection development. This chapter introduces the concept of DDA and outlines the structure of the book. This book is aimed at preparing librarians and library professionals to assess their existing DDA programs using examples from other libraries in the form of research discussions and case studies. This book will also be appropriate for readers that are interested in beginning DDA programs and want to ensure that they build programs with strong assessment strategies and clear goals.

Keywords

Demand-driven acquisitions; research; ebooks; collection development; selection; assessment

Demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) is a strategy that puts the purchasing power in the hands of the patrons either through seamless ebook discovery records integrated into the catalog or through staff- and librarian-mediated programs that collect and interpret patron desires. Since the rise of catalog integration and instantaneous ebook access, DDA has been defined as a distinct acquisitions process, but listening to patrons when making collections decisions has been a part of library practice for as long as librarians have worked to serve our communities. This volume will touch on the historical practice of DDA, but will focus on assessing and evaluating the types of DDA collections and practices found in libraries today.

The purpose of this volume is not to argue for or against DDA as a strategy, since it is already a fact in many libraries, but rather to create a lens from our existing studies of DDA through which we can view existing programs and contextualize new ones. This book is meant to guide a thought process of considering the important aspects of DDA and benchmarking them with data from the research. Methods are mixed and the literature is diverse in this area, but this volume will work hard to wring practical meaning from the DDA research. Each research-focused chapter in the book will end with a summary of questions so readers can immediately apply the research to the context of their own existing or emerging DDA programs.

Libraries are looking to data to inform our purchasing decisions and this is especially important as monograph budgets become a smaller percentage of our total spending. According to the Association of Research Libraries Statistics (2012), between 1986 and 2012 library materials expenditures increased by 322% and much of that was due to the rising prices of serials. DDA is one of the adaptations libraries have used to make this price increase sustainable, along with purchasing at the article or journal level rather than in large packages, embracing open access and institutional repositories, and working to aggregate and promote the quality information freely available online (Lewis, 2015). The materials our patrons require are faster than ever to obtain and DDA and other seamless acquisitions strategies help shape the way we obtain them.

We are entering an age of increasing importance for patron usage data. These data may have an incredible impact on the shape of our collections as we move in to the future. Even though format types and vendors are expanding exponentially, libraries are more committed to delivering materials to patrons at the point of need (Anderson, 2011a). This volume aims to survey what we know about DDA in order to help institutions and researchers assess their own existing programs, know what to look for in new programs, and help evaluate whether DDA is a good move for individual libraries and what impact it may have on libraries in general.

In their history of DDA, Edward Goedeken and Karen Lawson build the case for ebooks as a disruptive technology, one that changes the nature of content delivery in libraries rather than just improving the process. Certainly this is true for the evolution of DDA in libraries, as soon as catalog-integrated ebook DDA became available and obtainable for libraries around 2009–10, the saturation of this technology has only increased (Goedeken & Lawson, 2015). Joseph Esposito described DDA as …in one sense something that is very new and in another sense not new at all. While it may seem like a radical departure from established practice, librarians have thoughtfully integrated it into their existing operations. It is a refinement, not a repudiation of the library’s gatekeeping function (Esposito, Walker, & Ehling, 2013). DDA represents a tweak to our existing ideas and workflows that aligns with the digital environment that encompasses many of our acquisitions processes today.

There was a time when print books and journals were very difficult to acquire after their initial entry into the publishing market. In the print publishing market, it made sense for libraries to obtain newly published materials just in case because they were most readily available directly after publication. As soon as a book went out of print or the next issue of a journal was released, it became much more difficult to acquire those items via normal channels. There was an advantage to acquiring that information and preserving it for the future that helped balance the cost of purchasing materials even if they had no guarantee of circulation or even indication of specific use.

The rise of digital monographs and serials has made it possible to acquire our most important formats for patrons within days if not hours. The ability to purchase materials at the point of need and only in the quantity desired by patrons is transforming the way that librarians think about their collection development strategies. Monograph purchasing for both digital and physical materials has become the fastest way to obtain these materials. There have long been physical book-loaning programs between libraries and these programs still have a strong place in library practice, but interlibrary loan and sharing programs are costly to maintain and the wear and tear of travel depreciate the value of physical materials. The combination of speed, lowered costs, and circulation advantages means that purchasing requested materials has become competitive with loaning programs in some libraries (Zopfi-Jordan, 2008).

The process of purchasing other types of resources has also changed through digitization. It is now quick and cost-effective to obtain single journal title digital subscriptions and even single article copies and temporary, pay-per-view access to single articles for patrons. DDA has extended beyond traditional monograph and serial purchases to encompass a wide variety of digital objects including video, audio, and media.

The availability of digital materials minimizes the risks of not buying material when it is first published. These changes have accompanied a change in the way patrons and librarians find information online. The development of alternative search engines means researchers may begin their research outside the library and use their results to search library catalogs rather than approaching information-seeking based on the materials the library already has in stock. DDA is a fruitful strategy for supporting these researchers because discovery catalogs facilitate access to a wider range of resources. By diversifying channels for obtaining information, libraries can satisfy both the patrons using the catalog for research and those looking elsewhere for materials to bring back to library resources. Information is continually expanding beyond what libraries can provide for patrons and instead of aspiring to create complete collections, librarians should work to build well-balanced, focused, patron-centered, and adaptive collections that will be able to flex to accommodate further changes in practice.

Michael Levine-Clark describes this vision in his article Access to Everything: Building the Future Academic Library Collection. The library collection, in Levine-Clark’s understanding, instead of being material that is either owned or leased by the library, the collection will be anything that the library can reasonably expect to deliver to students or faculty (Levine-Clark, 2014). Ebooks have transformed our ideas about how collections should be built and maintained and DDA is one tool in this arsenal.

In Sonia Bodi and Katie Maier-O’Shea’s investigation into postmodern collection assessment strategies, they call attention to the fact that traditional acquisitions strategies rely on expectation, linearity, and control to function and letting go of some of that rigidity is necessary for libraries to adapt to the blurred lines of the resources that patrons now require (Bodi & Maier-O’Shea, 2005). Research is increasingly interdisciplinary, interformat, collaborative, inclusive, and adaptive, and collection management should mirror these trends. DDA and collection assessment can both help us meet these goals by providing an understanding of what patrons require and a means to narrow down our ideas into purchases through