As Faith’s
introductory post suggests, Patron-Driven Acquisitions (PDA) is not a perfect
model for developing a library’s collection, nor is it universally accepted.
However, PDA is a very promising option for academic and research libraries,
for a number of reasons – several of which I will outline below (and perhaps
our readers will add to this list, as you explore this topic with us!)
At the core of
the promise of PDA lies an essential component – the patron! A library is not a library without the people
who inhabit it. As academic librarian
and library blogger Rick Anderson (2011) reminds us, “the purpose of the
collection isn’t to be a great collection; it’s to connect patrons with exactly
what they need.” A deep and broad
collection, developed with care by subject-expert librarians and faculty who
have the rich past, current landscape and future possibilities of various
disciplines in mind is a great gift to teaching, learning and research, without
a doubt. But from a user perspective,
such "just in case” collections do have their limitations – and PDA opens
up new, 21st century possibilities in a powerful way!
PDA meets patrons’ actual information
and workflow needs.
Imagine that
it is a Thursday, around 1am. You (night
owl that you are) are working on a project for class, and you have found a
number of related materials in the library’s online catalog, but only one that
seems like it would be helpful for your current needs. You could put it on hold online, and head to
the library tomorrow to retrieve the book; plus, once there, you might certainly
find additional items that would be of use on the shelves (there are a good
number of print resources that go decades back, related to this general
topic). However, you’ve also “googled”
your topic and found other academic resources, both ebooks and articles, that
would be even more relevant for your current research – but your library doesn’t
have those as part of its collection.
You could fill out an interlibrary loan request, but who knows exactly
how long that would take…
But now
imagine that you can log into the library's website from home (at 1am on a
Thursday), and search a catalogue that has been expanded to include tens (if
not hundreds!) of thousands of additional titles, both ebooks and journal
articles - because of the library’s recent decision to include PDA in its
acquisition procedures. As you search
the catalogue, you find a number of relevant items (you may even find yourself
surprised by this wealth of information!) – and what’s more, you can download
the full text version right away!
Such are the
differences, for the library patron, between the “just in case” and “just in
time” collection approaches that Faith outlined above. The "just in case" collection
indeed has a wealth of materials – but they may not be as immediately relevant
as the researcher might like them to be.
The "just in time" approach of PDA has far greater potential
to meet each patron's information needs, both in their specificity, and in the
actual moment of need.
Professional
librarians may understandably have concerns about the quality of additions to
the collection, with such a “just in time” approach. However, at least one study has indicated
that librarians need not be concerned about the quality of the items selected
by patrons; though the patron’s aims may be different than the librarian’s
(i.e., satisfying an immediate need, instead of focusing on the long-term
contributions the library collection will make to teaching, learning and
research), patron selected materials appear to be comparably appropriate in
terms of content and recommended use within an academic library environment
(Shen, 2011, p. 216). Further, with such
an approach, perhaps precisely because most patron’s choices will be based upon
what they are doing in the classroom or for current academic research, “not
only are the requesting patrons’ needs satisfied, but also it is highly likely
that those books will interest other patrons in the future” (Nixon, 2010, p.
120).
PDA increases access to – and accessing
of – information.
If you’re like
me (since pretty much all of the readers of this blog are preparing to become
professional librarians!), you may relish the opportunity to wander through a
library’s stacks whenever you have the time; you never know what you might
discover there! The possibilities are
great, and there’s nothing comparable to that familiar sight, smell and feel of
so much knowledge housed in one place (just in case). And, if you’re like me, you probably spend a good
amount of time on the Internet, and you are very comfortable with the
ins-and-outs of searching for relevant materials on the Web – not to mention a
library’s online catalog. PDA provides
the opportunity to combine a library’s print resources with so many more
important learning, teaching and research opportunities, via an expansive electronic
environment. As Rick Lugg (2011) points
out, when libraries incorporate PDA, “a much broader array of titles is
potentially available in a discovery environment with which users are already
familiar” (p. 13). The possibilities for
access to information are that much greater, because so many more (again, perhaps
hundreds of thousands more) titles are “discoverable” than in a traditional
“just in case” model, because the catalogue of titles, both ebooks and academic
journals, expands far beyond the library’s material holdings.
Lugg (2011)
has also noted that access to this familiar, expansive electronic information
environment will likely result in library users not just having the potential
to access, but actually accessing, a
greater amount of information. Lugg
reports that in a recent study of an academic library, his company “encountered
graphic evidence” of the significant use of electronic, downloadable library
resources: “In one year, this library circulated 426,937 items, including
renewals. Even at this seemingly robust
level, circulation had declined 45.9% between 2003 and 2009. In the same year, however, the library
experienced 2,422,024 downloads.” This stunning
6:1 ratio indicates a “preference for remote electronic access over physical
check-out” (p. 9). To this blogger, it
also indicates a great hunger on the behalf of academic library users for access
to the wealth of information that is available across the vast network of
information resources. PDA helps
libraries offer just that!
What is more,
PDA increases access to information in a diversity of settings, across the
nation and the globe. Steiner and Berry
(2011), sharing their experiences with PDA from an international context, offer
this testimony:
“One of the challenges for the [Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy]
library, as with all new libraries was the need to have a viable collection
from day one. Traditionally, building a
viable opening-day collection takes years and for a library of any scale,
millions of dollars. With PDA, literally
overnight, the library’s catalogue could (and did, in fact) go from 10,000
items to over 150,000 items, and at no [immediate] cost” (p. 88).
Freedom of
information can be at stake here, too; in certain international settings,
students, faculty and researchers can now have access – via PDA – to information
that might be considered controversial or sensitive. In this electronic environment, such
materials are available but not on the shelf, with a greatly decreased risk of
being stumbled upon by someone who might seek to censor them; and because such materials
are not actually “owned” by the library, if they do ultimately need to be
removed the library may do so, at no cost to the institution (Steiner and
Berry, 2011, p. 87).
PDA meets people where they’re at –
literally!
All of the
bloggers on this site – and many of those who will join us in conversation –
are distance learners, with Wayne State University’s School of Library and
Information Science. PDA offers distance
students like us the opportunity to access a vast wealth of library resources
from miles away. PDA can also be an
important library offering for students, teachers and researchers who may not
be exclusively working in an online environment, but whose life circumstances
and workflow habits are such that access to information when they need it,
wherever they are, may be a tremendous gift.
From our 1am researcher above, to a single parent of three with a
full-time job, to a faculty member who frequently travels abroad – PDA offers
possibilities for “just in time” teaching, learning and research resources in a
way that may not otherwise be possible.
PDA also meets
the current generation of traditional college students “where they’re at,” simply
because it mirrors the world they know.
Circulation of print books appears to be decreasing significantly among
younger library users, who are born into a Web 2.0 world, and for whom “just in
time” information almost appears to be a birthright! Citing a 2010 study by the Cornell University
Task Force on Print Collection Usage, Lugg (2011) shares a statistic indicating
that “only 10.5% of books checked out from Cornell’s libraries were in the
hands of undergraduates” (p. 10). For
academic libraries to keep up with young undergraduates – and therefore the graduate
student and faculty populations that will grow from within those ranks – PDA indeed
appears to have tremendous promise!
PDA creates space for the patrons!
Rick Lugg
(2011) offers us the important and inspiring reminder that even as fewer and
fewer young library users may be accessing the print collecti0n, they continue
to gather regularly at the library:
“library gate counts are rising, as students congregate in the library
to study, work together, visit the writing center and drink coffee. On most campuses, the library remains an important
hub, irrespective of collection use.
Information commons, teaching and learning centers, group study space,
information fluency, and other programs are in high demand" (p. 8). Librarians have an opportunity to foster
teaching and learning in new and important ways, as we seek to carefully
balance our collection development procedures between print resources and the myriad
offerings available through PDA. Simply
put, space that is not taken up by books, journals and other print materials
can – and likely will – be occupied
by students, teachers and researchers, actively engaging each other (and
librarians, too!) in learning community.
PDA has the potential to save libraries
time and money.
Steiner and
Berry (2011) encourage us that “adopting the PDA model is a great help in
building a new library quickly and with vast financial and time savings”
(p. 80). Indeed, there are significant
costs (in both money and time) associated with the building and management of a
print collection; for instance, there is the cost of purchasing, shipping, customs
clearance (in some cases), processing, shelving and stacks maintenance,
preservation, and more – and, of course, the staffing needs for all of these
important tasks. PDA, on the other hand,
offers a great deal of flexibility, along with the opportunity to build a
collection with far more breadth and depth than a library’s print collection
might provide, “and it can be done at little financial risk,” and in far less
time (Steiner and Berry, 2011, p. 93).
There is, of
course, no guarantee that PDA will ultimately cost less than a traditional
“just in case” collection development model; patron-selected materials may vary
significantly in terms of cost-per-item, and individual libraries may indeed
have to filter their PDA offerings in order to stretch their dollars toward the
best possible outcomes (Shen, 2011, p. 214).
However – as Rick Anderson (2011)
reminds us – even if the actual collection-building costs of PDA are comparable
to more traditional methods, PDA will nonetheless help to ensure that the money
we spend will go directly to information that our patrons actually need. What is more, releasing some of the funds
that would otherwise go towards a more traditional collection development model
allows a library to allocate its funds in more creative ways, to meet the needs
and interests of patrons in a 21st century teaching and learning
environment!
PDA may be a key player in the
transformation of libraries!
There will be
more on this in another post – but it’s important to touch upon here, as a
final shout out to the promise of PDA.
Again, patron-driven acquisitions is not a panacea for all of a
library’s challenges, nor is it the ultimate path to meeting a library’s hopes
and dreams for the future. But, with all
of the potential benefits that PDA offers – from meeting patrons’ actual
information needs and meeting them “where they’re at;” to creating space in the
budget and in the building itself for new programs, places and possibilities;
to fostering access to and the freedom of information – PDA is indeed a promising
way forward. For PDA can help to ensure
that rather than simply being a “warehouse for unused books,” our academic and
research libraries will instead remain a “vital part of teaching, learning and
research outcomes” (Lugg, 2011, p. 9).
References
Lugg, R.
(2011). Collecting for the Moment:
Patron-Driven Acquisitions as a Disruptive Technology. In David A. Swords (Ed.), Patron-Driven Acquisitions: History and Best
Practices (pp. 7-22). Berlin,
Germany: De Gruyter Saur.
Nixon, J.,
Freeman, R. and Ward, S. (2010). Patron-Driven Acquisitions: An Introduction
and Literature Review. Collection
Management (35:3-4), pp. 119-124.
Shen, L.,
Cassidy, E., Elmore, E., Griffin, G., Manolovitz, T., Martinez, M., &
Turney, L. (2011). Head first into the patron-driven acquisition pool: A
comparison of librarian selections versus patron purchases. Journal Of
Electronic Resources Librarianship, 23(3), 203-218.
Steiner, R.
and R. Berry (2011). Building New
Libraries on the International Stage: The Near and Middle East. In David A. Swords (Ed.), Patron-Driven Acquisitions: History and Best
Practices (pp. 79-93). Berlin,
Germany: De Gruyter Saur.
