Beguiled by Bananas: A retrospective study of usage & breadth of patron vs. librarian acquired ebook collections

Beguiled by Bananas :
A retrospective study of usage & breadth of patron vs. librarian acquired ebook collections
Jason Price & John McDonald
Libraries, Claremont University Consortium
November 5, 2009
(with data & discussion from Kari Paulson & Alison Morin of EBL)

Bananas tipped the boat: a cautionary tale
Early patron-driven deal with a major platform
Assignment on economics of banana plantations
UC Boulder ‘bought every book with banana in the title’
Used by librarians & vendors(!) as evidence that user-driven selection is a bad idea

Patron-driven model objections:straight off the boat
Books will be selected based on click-thrus that don’t indicate interest
Users will select ebooks that no one (else) is interested in
User selected collections will be unbalanced turkeys

Definitions
Purchase type
Patron selected = Demand Driven = User-selected
Librarian selected ≈ Library selected ≈ Pre-selected
Ebook usage measured conservatively
Use data gathered post-purchase
Did not count uses that lead to user-selection
1 use ≈ 1 ‘read online’ ≈ 1 ‘download’
read online = >10 min w/click thru OR copy OR print
download = to adobe Digital Editions for multiple days
Transaction level data – each use recorded separately with user anonymously identified

Questions we’ll address
Are user-selected ebooks used less than pre-selected ebooks?
Do user-selected ebooks have a narrower audience?
Are user-selected collections less balanced?
Do we have anything to fear in patron-initiated selection?
(Can we use this to build better acquisition models?)

Overall Scope of the dataset
1 Ebook Vendor – EBL (Ebook Library)
11 Libraries
28,322 ebooks bought from 2006 - 2009
212,887 uses
Purchase Models: User Selected, Pre-Selected, or Mixed

Total Books & Usage

Scope of this study
5 libraries
Books owned more than 6 months

Definitions
Usage
User Selected
Pre-Selected: could be user request, approval profile, librarian ‘firm’ order
Post acquisition usage
Unique Users
Read Online v. Download

Data
1 Ebook Vendor
11 Libraries
Full purchase history
Bibliographic Data
Models: User Selected, Pre-Selected, or Mixed
Transaction level usage data

Analysis Levels
Usage
By selection model
By library profile
By unique users
By time since owned
By publisher
By LC class

Usage & Unique Users

Outline
Does User Driving purchasing result in higher downloads?
Does Librarian Driven purchasing result in usage?
Do Librarians select the right books?
What are the end results of having an open catalog and what are the trigger points to ensure it doesn’t eat up your whole budget?
Limit to Mixed Model Libs, limit to >182 days owned.

Total Usage

Librarian Acquired

ANOVA of uses per year

Unique Users

Subject Area Analysis
Pie charts of each discipline by model (or bar charts
Another thing – is the collection too skewed towards one LC class or subject areas or do demand-driven selection result in a good collection. Do ratios of each discipline as a proportion of total books bought by model.
Is publisher content skewed as well?
What about price/cost?

User-selected collections have similar subject profiles
Proportion of collection
User Pre User Pre User Pre User Pre User Pre
Library

User-selected collections have similar LC profiles

User-selected collections have similar LC profiles
Blue = User selected
Green = Pre selected

User-selected collections have fewer unused titles

ANOVA of unique users per year

Beguiled by Bananas: A retrospective study of usage & breadth of patron vs. librarian acquired ebook collections

by John McDonald on Feb 03, 2011

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