GobiWorks

The University of Vermont

Bailey Howe Library in Burlington, Vermont

About the Library

The Bailey Howe Library, the main library at the University of Vermont, is located in Burlington, Vermont.
Total Number of Students = 12,400
Undergraduate Students = 10,461
Graduate Students = 1,490
Medical Students = 452
Number of Degree Programs = 103
Book Budget = $800,000
ILS: Voyager
Library Contacts: Peter Spitzform (peter.spitzform@uvm.edu) and Albert Joy (albert.joy@uvm.edu)
YBP Contact: Stephen Hyndman (shyndman@ybp.com)

Methods of Collection Development

The traditional, just in case method, supported by:

  • Approval plans with automatic book shipments
  • Selection from electronic slips
  • Selection from publisher catalogs
  • Requests from faculty and students


The library also uses a just in time method:

  • Demand-Driven Acquisitions for print and ebook titles



History

Before the inception of YBP's current ebook Demand-Driven Acquisitions service, the University of Vermont Library employed a patron-driven collection development method with print books. This original program was implemented in 2007 with the help of YBP. Working together, the University of Vermont Library and YBP created a Patron-Driven Acquisitions program for print titles from three publishers: Oxford, Palgrave Macmillan and Wiley. An approval profile covering print output from the three selected publishers was written and implemented for UVM. Based on this approval profile, each week YBP provides UVM with OCLC cataloging records for every title that fits the profile. The library loads these records into their OPAC where they are available for patrons to retrieve and request that a title be purchased. The library aims to have patron requested titles ordered, delivered to the library and made available to the patron within three days.


Statistics Since the Start of Print Patron-Driven Acquisitions

  • DDA print books ordered = 1,536
  • Dollars expended on DDA print books = $96,797


New Demand-Driven Acquisitions Project

In January of 2011, the University of Vermont implemented a Demand-Driven Acquisitions program for ebooks. This project is a partnership between the University of Vermont, YBP, and the electronic book vendor, EBL. The partnership functions as follows: YBP profiles titles, supplies cataloging records, or "discovery" records for the University of Vermont's library catalog and manages all of the invoicing. EBL provides the ebook titles, hosts (stores) the content on a portion of the EBL platform ("channel") that is specifically assigned to the University of Vermont and provides usage statistics.

Through collaboration with its partner vendors, YBP offers a highly customizable Demand-Driven Acquisitions service. Various options are available for a DDA set-up, allowing for Short-Term Loans or automatic purchases to be triggered when a patron accesses an ebook title. This set-up is completely invisible to the library user, who is able to access any ebook title residing in the library’s catalog whether the library already owns the title or not. For their DDA set-up with EBL, the University of Vermont library has the following set-up: a free five minute browse period (allows the patron to view all content in the selected ebook), if the browsing period extends beyond five minutes, a Short -Term Loan is then activated. The Short-Term Loan period is 24 hours. After three Short-Term Loan periods, a purchase is triggered whereupon the ebook becomes owned by the library.

New records are added to the library's discovery pool every week. The discovery pool is the collection of DDA discovery catalog records that YBP provides to UVM to load into their OPAC for discovery by their library patrons. To generate these catalog records, YBP created an approval profile mirroring the subject coverage provided in UVM's print DDA profile. The only exception to this approval profile is that it only covers the ebook output aggregated by EBL from the three preferred publishers. Each week a batch of EBL ebook records (discovery records) that fit the DDA approval profile, are sent to EBL for activation on the library’s EBL channel and YBP posts discovery catalog records on our FTP site for the library to load into their OPAC.


How the Print and ebook DDA Plans Work Together

Discovery Print Record in UVM's Catalog
Discovery Print Record
in UVM's Catalog

The print and ebook Demand-Driven Acquisitions programs are designed to compliment one another. The goal is to place a record for a new title as quickly as possible into the OPAC to be made discoverable to patrons. The OPAC is initially populated by records for print editions of a title as print versions are typically available prior to e-editions.

If a print edition is not discovered by the time an ebook edition becomes available, YBP will run a duplication check to be sure that UVM has not already purchased a print copy of the title. If the library has purchased a print copy of the title then YBP will not send a discovery record for the ebook edition and EBL will not activate the ebook title on the library channel.

The images below show how a record for a print title looks in the OPAC at the point of discovery and how a purchase request is initiated by a patron.

Request to PurchaseRequest to Purchase

If the print record is not discovered and no print copy has been purchased, UVM runs a second slightly different duplication check which looks for a corresponding print discovery record in UVM’s catalog. The data in the 776 field of the MARC record is used as the match-point for this duplication control. If matches are found, UVM deletes print records from the catalog and replaces them with the corresponding ebook records.

However, before ebook records can be loaded into UVM's catalog, EBL must verify that these ebook titles have been published with DDA rights and are in fact eligible for DDA. Once EBL has confirmed that the titles are available for DDA, YBP constructs the ebook discovery records, which include the library’s URL in the 856 field. These records are then loaded onto UVM's catalog.

Discovery eBook Record in UVM's CatalogDiscovery eBook Record
in UVM's Catalog

When a patron clicks on the discovery record title they are allowed, per EBL's rules, a free five minute browse period. If the patron exceeds the five minute browse period, a twenty-four hour Short-Term Loan is then triggered. Once an item has reached three Short-Term Loans, a purchase is activated the fourth time a patron accesses the title.

DDA Title in GOBIDDA Title in GOBI

When a title has been added to UVM's catalog as a discovery record, the Library History link in GOBI will say EBL DDA Record Sent. Collection development staff can thereby easily identify if a record has already been made available to patrons via the library catalog. A title that has been made available for discovery can still be ordered in GOBI and acquired as a traditional library purchase.


Invoicing

YBP invoices the University of Vermont for Short-Term Loans and purchases on a weekly basis. Short-Term Loans and purchases are invoiced on separate invoices, but both are invoiced on the same YBP subaccount.

YBP has played a critical role in the University of Vermont Library’s development of a user-driven collection. Through the years, UVM has been able to offer records for many more books than they could have purchased traditionally, providing their patrons with much more content to choose from. YBP’s highly customizable ebook Demand-Driven Acquisitions service has allowed UVM to continue to expand a patron-centered collection.