De bibliotheekgebruiker centraal: Patron Driven Acquisition

The Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA) project provides timely access to needed materials that have not been purchased by the library. UBL worked with ebook aggregator EBL to select bibliographic records, which where added to the catalogue. Patrons searching the catalogue would encounter these records and after pushing the "View online" button would be redirected to the EBL platform. The patron could then browse the selected e-book for five minutes. After this time a pop-up would appear asking the patron to make a request for purchase, which send an email to the responsible subject librarian. If he/she approved the patron was send an email with a direct link to the requested ebook.

Subject areas involved in this pilot where ethics and political philosophy, classical studies and information sciences. The pilot involved a small number of titles, with 1372 books published between the years 2012-2015, of which 43 have been bought via PDA, particularly by Bachelor 3 and Master students. Of particular notice was the interdisciplinarity of requests. Books on political philosophy, for instance, where requested by patrons from Law, Social Sciences, LUC and Humanities. In the next years the UBL will expand PDA as a method for acquisition to other subject areas.

Pro's:

Patrons determine if a book is bought. Purchases are guaranteed usage.
In general, an ebook is readily available: after a subject librarian has approved the request the user receives instantaneous access to the e-book through a send link.
PDA provides insight into the information needs of patrons

Cons:

The range of available e-books for PDA is currently limited to English language publications
Not all publishers make their books available through ebook aggregators
Ebooks are generally more expensive than printed books

Duration: September 2013- December 2015