NISO Launches New Initiative to Develop Recommended Practices for Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) of Monographs

Interested participants from all library types, publishers, and service agencies are encouraged to contact NISO

June 20, 2012 - Baltimore, MD - The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) voting members have approved a new project to develop recommended practices for the Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) of Monographs. Many libraries have embraced DDA (also referred to as patron-driven acquisition) to present many more titles to their patrons for potential use and purchase than would ever be feasible under the traditional purchase model. If implemented correctly, DDA can make it possible to purchase only what is needed, allowing libraries to spend the same amount of money as they previously spent on monographs, but with a higher rate of use. However, this model requires libraries to develop and implement new procedures for adding titles to a "consideration pool", for keeping unowned titles available for purchase for some future period, often years after publication, for providing discovery methods of titles in the pool, establishing rules on when a title gets purchased or only temporarily leased, and how potential titles are discovered, and for handling of multiple formats of a title.
"DDA is a significant disruption in the existing supply chain for monographs," explains Michael Levine-Clark, Collections Librarian and Professor at Penrose Library, University of Denver, "not only for libraries but also for publishers, sales agents, aggregators, and end users. New roles and practices need to be shaped in a way that allows the scholarly communication supply chain to continue to function effectively."

"Most DDA to date has focused on e-books," states Kathleen Folger, Electronic Resources Officer at the University of Michigan and the outgoing chair of the NISO Business Information Topic Committee. "However, some programs already encompass print books and there is increased interest in libraries in using DDA across formats. The new NISO initiative will explore recommendations, hopefully with a single set of practices, that will cover both electronic and print formats."

"Most libraries that have experimented with DDA have been in the academic sector," states Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. "NISO intends to involve the public library community with this project and develop recommendations that can work for all library types."

Individuals interested in participating in this working group should contact Nettie Lagace, Associate Director for Programs (nlagace@niso.org). An interest group list for this project will be available for those who would like to receive updates on the Working Group's progress and provide feedback to the group on its work. To subscribe, send an e-mail to dda-info-subscribe@list.niso.org.

About NISO
NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire lifecycle of an information standard. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). More information about NISO is available on its website: www.niso.org. For more information please contact NISO at (301) 654-2512 or via e-mail at nisohq@niso.org.