Patron-Driven Acquisitions
In recent years, YBP has working with numerous libraries to implement various patron-initiated purchasing services. We have found that every library defines patron-driven acquisitions differently and consequently tends to implement it in a unique way. Therefore, our service is customized for the particular library and the manner in which they would like to proffer titles to their users and then work with the resulting selections and orders. When a library expresses an interest in implementing a patron-driven service, we arrange an initial meeting with the staff to better understand what needs and expectations they are attempting to meet. Then we design a service in partnership with the library to best deliver the results they intend. The discussion typically covers the following issues:
- Scope: will the patron driven service cover print books, eBooks, or both?
- Will the service be mediated by the library staff or non-mediated? Some libraries choose a mediated approach, where patron requests go to collection development or acquisitions staff to make the final decision about the order, including whether a title gets ordered, using what funding, and in what format. Others prefer a non-mediated approach where the patron request initiates an ordering/fulfillment process directly with YBP or one of our eBook partners.
- What mechanisms will be in place to maintain control of the budget for patron requests? Will library staff be monitoring expended funds, or will these purchases be funded via a deposit account?
- Is patron-driven purchasing replacing selector-driven purchasing, or will patron-initiated and standard collection development processes happen in coordination with each other?
- How will the library determine what kinds of titles are loaded to the library's catalog or discovery layer as selection candidates? Will YBP be maintaining a profile to help determine those candidates, and if so will it mirror the library's existing approval/notification profile, or will it be different? Will the titles need to be deduplicated against the library's YBP existing purchasing history?
- What sort of records are required? MARC or some other type? With brief or fuller bibliographic data and/or approval profiling descriptors?
- How long will records stay in the library's catalog or discovery layer? How frequently will the titles be refreshed? How are records loaded and removed?
- For print books, will patron-driven purchases all be sent as rush titles, or might some requests fall under normal fulfillment processes?
- When the titles are fulfilled, will they require cataloging records and/or physical processing? How about electronic invoicing?
- Reports: How will the success of the program be measured? How will the library know who is buying what, how much, and in what subject areas? Will the purchases be tracked via a separate fund code, purchase order, YBP subaccount, or some other means?
We enjoy working on these patron-driven purchasing projects with our customers and look forward to discussing such a project with you. Together, we can create a group of academic-oriented, non-duplicating candidate titles, from which your library's users can select works for inclusion in the library's collection. For more information, please contact your YBP Sales Representative or Customer Service Bibliographer.