Evolving Trends in Collection Development Part 2: New Models for Journal Article Access

Introduction

Implementing a Demand Driven Acquisitions Pilot

The Orbis Cascade Alliance initiated a Demand Driven Acquisitions Pilot in July 2011 with partners EBL and YBP in order to provide access to a common set of ebooks accessible by all 37 member libraries. The pilot was meant to address the issue of sharing ebooks across the consortium and to spend collection dollars on titles with demonstrated use. The pilot was deemed a success and is now a regular program for Alliance libraries.

An Overview of the growth of Ebook PDA/DDA

Is PDA/DDA a trend or is it here to stay? Barbara Kawecki, Senior Digital Content Sales Manager, YBP will give an overview of the growth of Ebook PDA/DDA over the last 2 years, as well as thoughts and insights on what it is and why libraries are embracing what appears to be new tool for collection development.

Planning, implementation, and evaluation of a demand driven acquisition service

Academic libraries continue to face the challenge of providing access to more information while facing decreasing budgets. Over the last couple of years, academic libraries have begun piloting or implementing demand-driven acquisition services to provide access to monographs. During the presentation the speaker will present an overview of the key elements for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a demand driven acquisition service.

Event Q&A With Our Speakers

Q: ­Why did you select only YBP and EBL vendors?  Did you initially look at any others?­

Doyle: YBP is the preferred jobber for Alliance libraries.  We wanted to involve them as much as possible.  I briefly mentioned the task force sent out RFIs to publishers and aggregators.  We had responses from EBSCO, eBRARY and EBSCO.  We invited all three to talk about what we wanted and what they could do for us.  EBSCO had just bought NetLibrary and couldn't do anything we wanted.  eBRARY was given serious consideration, but the Team wanted to go with some sort of Demand Driven.  eBRARY had a DDA in beta mode, but it was not expected to live until some time after we needed to recommend to our Council.  We were unwilling to recommend them with eBRARY in beta, so that left EBL.  But even if eBRARY did have something in place, we would have still recommended EBL.  Their Non Linear Lending Model is very attractive and they had a lot of experience with individual libraries.  In November 2012, the Team invited EBSCO and eBrary to discuss how their services had changed.  While both made great strides since we first talked to them, we didn't feel compelled to change partners at this time.

Tucker: At the time of implementation, there were really only two vendors doing DDA and that was EBL and ebrary. We did look at both vendors and UNLV felt that EBL had a more flexible model. 

Q: ­Has the 325 uses per 365 days worked out so far with the shared e-books?­

Doyle: We actually have 1625 uses (325 times 5 uses with our multiplier).  We have not exceeded that many uses on any titles to date.

Tucker: Yes, we have not had any issues with this.

Q: ­How many titles had STL but were never purchased?­

Doyle: This is a little tricky to determine because we removed titles during the period July 2012-February 2013.  Using a median number of titles of 17,566, there were 7,328 titles that did not have an STL.   

Tucker: At UNLV, 483 titles were stl and not purchased (out of 7,013).

Q: ­What percentage of your budget was spent on STL vs. Purchase?­

Doyle: For the period July 1, 2012 - February 28, 2013: 18,197 STL at a cost of $260,598; 474 titles purchased at a cost of $254,550.

Tucker: At UNLV, about 50% of the budget was purchases.

Q: ­How many total titles were touched by STL?­

Doyle: This is a little tricky to determine because we removed titles during the period July 2012-February 2013.  Using a median number of titles of 17,566, there were 10,690 titles without an STL during the period.

Tucker: Out of 7,013 ebooks, 483 titles were STLs.
 

Q: ­For owned ebooks - what is the loan period? How many of the 43,730 cumulative uses are "renewals"?­

Doyle: We give users the option to download for 1 or 7 days. Our stats don't distinguish between type of use of an owned titled.
 

Q: ­How do you treat browsed items but not purchased in your other CD decisions?­

Tucker: At UNLV, we compiled a separate list of browsed titles, but they did not factor into the CD decisions.
 

Q: ­Did any of your titles run up against EBL's non-linear lending of 325? ­

Doyle: Not a single one for Alliance titles.
 

Q: ­Could you give a bit more detail on the funding calculation approved for member libraries?­

Doyle: The formula one we use is common in allocating costs for a database subscription.  The actual percentages for each element can change, but for this project, we felt the 30% even split puts a bigger burden on small institutions which will have a relatively small amount added for their share of FTE and Materials Budget.  Case in point:  Total amount collected $750,000.  Library A has FTE of  1926 and budget of $164,641.  The breakdown for this library is: $6081 (30% equal split) $1871 (35% FTE) $672 budget for a total of $8624.  Library B has an FTE 21,666 and budget of $6,022,000.  Their cost breaks down to: $6,081 (30% even split) $21,052 (35% FTE) $24,603 (35% budget) for a total of $51,736.
 

Q: ­If you can, at end, Greg, what is length of your STL?­

Doyle: Users can use a title online for any length of time, download to a device for 1 or 7 days.  There is a slightly higher charge for downloads of 7 days.
 

Q: ­Can you say something about the EBL merger with Proquest/ebrary relating to DDA programs?

Kawecki: The sale of EBL to Proquest is in the process of being approved by the Australian government. Finalization is expected in the April timeframe. That being said, it is business as usual right now. We still have libraries implementing new EBL DDA programs regularly.

Doyle: Orbis Cascade Alliance is keeping a close eye on this.  We're told we won't see any changes for at least a year.  The plan is to run EBL and eBRARY separately for a few years since it will take time to merge platforms if that's their intention.

Q: ­To Greg and Cory: do you tell your users that they will incur a charge if the use is greater than the 5 minutes?­

Doyle: We do not put up any message to that effect.  We want use and cost to be transparent to the user.

Tucker: At UNLV, we do not tell users there is a charge.

Q: ­Has YBP explored the possibility of offering e-books on the publishers' platforms?­

Kawecki: Our intent with our Multi-vendor option is that we will be able to add additional vendors and publishers as options as soon as publishers have DDA in place. We currently sell individual, perpetual access titles that are hosted on the publisher platforms via firm order and via our eapproval process for publishers like Cambridge, Wiley, Oxford and Gale. 

Q: ­Is anyone purchasing multiple user ebooks as part of a DDA program? For example, if there are numerous STLS in a short period of time is there a provision to move to a MUPO model?­

Kawecki: May DDA programs do offer the MUPO (Multiple User Purchase Option) option. In the case where there is not a MUPO option, we can substitute a SUPO (Single User Purchase Option) option if the library has specified that they will allow this.

Tucker: The EBL titles for UNLV are unlimited users or MUPO.
 

Q: ­What process are presenters using for deselection (weeding) of unused DDA records? What time period do records remain in the catalog without use?­

Doyle: There really is no incentive to weed unused DDA records since there are no costs associated with them.  We feel it's a lot of work to weed these out, so we intend to keep them in.  At some point there might be use.

Tucker: UNLV is keeping records in the catalog and Summon without a weeding time period. However, as we increase our DDA service, I would imagine we would look at keeping them a year or two.

Q: ­Are any of the presenters offering DDA for popular fiction and if so, how are those being used?­

Kawecki: Libraries can choose to include popular fiction titles using any of the DDA Universe options. POP is a content level that YBP can include in LC Class PR and/or PS either through the My Library’s Slips or All YBP Universe options and I believe that this type of content is also available in each of the aggregator catalogs (All titles.)

Tucker: UNLV does not offer DDA for popular fiction.

Q: ­Did patrons opt for the print DDA?­

Kawecki: There are several libraries who are also running print DDA programs alongside their ebook DDA programs. These are a little more challenging since it involves actually delivering a print book and requires some programming on the part of the library in terms of their ILS. Most of the libraries who are doing this are using some type of pop up form that ask the user how quickly they would like the title delivered and then are using YBP’s RUSH service to deliver the title.

Tucker: Our DDA for print is separate for the DDA in ebook. We have different subject areas that are a part of the print DDA program. The disciplines in the print DDA program are disciplines that have a preference for the print format.

Q: ­Usage analysis was mentioned. What about broader collection analysis prior to implementing (i.e. WorldCat Collection Analysis)?­

Kawecki: We provide some collection analysis for libraries prior to implementation. For example, in the consortial environment, YBP usually does an analysis to identify print patterns for the participating libraries to come up with the multiplier. We have also just expanded our reporting options in GOBI to include analysis of a library’s DDA program. These new reports Activity and Expenditure reports will be released in the next several weeks.

Tucker: At UNLV, we looked at three years of circulation data for books and looked at usage for electronic books before implementation. We also reviewed usage data by publisher.