The Problem With PDA.
Patron driven acquisitions are a heavily disputed topic, often because people don't know what that means or just what they accomplish. If you have been paying attention to the blog posts, you should have a good idea of what PDA is. It might not be wise to start reading this blog with a post on the cons of PDA, but if you can if you are a negative sort.
For the academic librarian, making educated guesses about what patrons will need while balancing a budget is not the easiest prospect. Would it not be great if the patron told you what they wanted and then had you order it? It would be like working in a bookstore where you can order what you can't find but you don't have to pay for it because the library picks up the tab. That works very well for the patron, but maybe not for the library and its budget.
Even fans of PDA have had to admit that while this is the model, it is not helping save money (Anderson 2011). It is a terrific system for the cash strapped student, but not the institution.
While the system of PDA that is currently in use has advantages for the academic librarian, there is still a pitfall that affects them as well as it would public libraries. The patron should have access to the book purchasing aspect of the library. Without, a community of some sort to serve, there is no library after all. It would be snobbish to assume that the people are not clever enough to know what is good for them. But as Umberto Eco said "the whole idea of a library is based on a misunderstanding: that the
reader goes into the library to find a book whose title he knows." Its
real purpose, he said, "is to discover books of whose existence the
reader has no idea." (Fister 2010)
What we run the risk of losing, is that great feeling anyone in LIS should know, where you walk to through the shelves looking for the book you wanted and finding other books you didn't know existed. This may sound alarmist, but PDA turns the library into a walk in version of Amazon.com where you are reliant upon the similar books recommendations, should you bother to look at them.
Does PDA also turn the patron into a customer? Not exactly, customers pay for things. But if customer demand is the determining factor for books being purchased, the progressive librarian must take notice. Librarians have had to fight against the money of private interests influencing what books the library holds. With PDA, the librarian has to be concerned with the patrons immediate need deciding what they want instead of supplying the patron with new and interesting things they were unaware of.
The effect upon publishers, the cost, and the other problems that proponents all admit exist make one wonder if the convenience of PDA is worth the trouble and won't cause more problems down the road. Yes, the librarian must give people what they want, but the librarian must also educate people with things they were unaware of. They must supply the patron with what they need as well as what they want.
References
Anderson, Rick. "What Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) Does and Doesn’t Mean: An FAQ." Web log post. The Scholarly Kitchen.
N.p., 31 May 2011. Web. 31 Mar. 2013. http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2011/05/31/what-patron-driven-acquisition-pda-does-and-doesnt-mean-an-faq
Fister, Barbara. "Problematizing Patron-Driven Acquisitions | Peer to Peer Review." Library Journal Archive (2010): n. pag. Problematizing Patron-Driven Acquisitions | Peer to Peer Review.
11 Nov. 2010. Web. 31 Mar. 2013. http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/communityacademiclibraries/887739-419/problematizing_patron-driven_acquisitions__peer.html.csp
I think it is unwise for patrons to drive acquisitions at a library, and to say it's snobbish to assume the patrons don't know what they want would be the same as saying there is no point to the Reference Interview, wouldn't it? Anyone who has ever worked with the public knows that very often they really don't know what they want or need, especially where research is concerned. Add to that what Eco said, that the whole point of going to a library is to find what we didn't know was there, so for the patrons to request what they already know about kind of defeats the library's purpose. That's what Amazon is for (to a degree). Of course, any suggestion for purchase should always be examined, because it may be a book the library's collection could benefit from. But generally speaking, PDA are unwise for the library's budget and its collection.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts, Jessica! You might appreciate this blog post, from Library Babel Fish: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library_babel_fish/puzzled_by_patron_driven_acquisitions.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, Barbara Fister (the blogger) decries the "fast-food binging and purging" method by which some college students use library resources for their work - and which, with PDA, would then mean building the library's collection in a patchwork kind of way. Fister also uses primary sources as an example of how PDA might not be an ideal new alternative to traditional collection development practices.
With the public's attentions often being fickle and fleeting, PDA seems risky in that collections could likewise fall prey to lacking strength, being that they reflect the revolving-door attentions of the patrons who built it. As this entry mentioned, I also think that PDA does stand as a threat to discovering new materials that weren't based upon prior "orders" and recommendations. It'd be scary to think that stumbling across new finds could be limited if PDA came to be the dominant force in collection assemblage.
ReplyDeleteThis post has many good points that makes me see why so many librarians are wary of PDA. A library is a place of discovery which means it must have a collection of new and unheard of books. But I don't think it's wise to take PDA completely out of the equation. As was mentioned in a previous post, the ultimate solution could be to find the perfect balance. I think seeing the type of literature patrons are requesting could be incredibly beneficial to the librarian who is in charge of budget distribution and book selection. Just like advertisements are selected for your browser based on previous searches, librarians can choose new literature based on previous public-driven acquisitions that would be of interest to the reader.
ReplyDeleteExcellent points here in this entry. As Andrea Stated, striking the right balance is key. As far as academic libraries go, there are accreditation issues so going to a PDA “only” model is not feasible. However, I’m seeing firsthand how PDA is affecting the academic library. We’ve embarked on a massive PDA eBook collection and our collections management philosophy is currently going through a paradigm shift. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.
ReplyDeleteThis explains patron driven acquisitions very well, and makes it really clear that there are both pros and cons. I agree with Jeffrey and Andrea in that finding a balance would be best in meeting the patron's needs, guiding the development of the library's collection, and also satisfying the publishers.
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