When they want everything yesterday, how do you deliver? Learn about purchase on demand services and other ways to deliver information fast to your patrons. Speakers: Sheryl L. Knab, Executive Director, WNYLRC Cyril Oberlander, SUNY Geneseo

1. How Fast Do They Want It?
November 4, 2010
NYLA, Saratoga Springs
Western New York Library Resources Council
Buffalo, NY

2.  Called the Resource Sharing and Delivery
Task Group (Great Thinkers)
 Created to explore the issues of regional
resource sharing
 Charged to examine delivery, Interlibrary
Loan, and other resource sharing initiatives
 Adhere to the “just in time, not just in case”
position recommended by the Regional
Advisory Committee in 2005 when
developing any new regional initiatives

3.  Fact: No regional delivery system
 Fact: Members use a mix of paid delivery
systems within systems, UPS, Fed Ex, USPS
 Fact: Breakdown in “service” happens
between system types and academics
Conclusion:
Too large of an issue for WNYLRC and too little dollars
to support it effectively at a regional level.

4.  ILL Rebate Program
◦ Intent: Provide incentives for net-lenders to
continue to lend in region
 Fact: Too little dollars do little to support
lending costs for net-lenders
 Fact: Mistaken identities – we assumed
members were net-lenders when in fact they
were not
 Fact: Subsidy supported net-borrowers as well
as net-lenders
Conclusion:
Program wasn’t supporting net-lending,
had little impact on regional resource sharing

5.  Acknowledged the need to broaden the regional
collection
 Attempt to limit the need for net-lenders to borrow
outside the region
◦ On average, the cost of an ILL borrowing transaction is
anywhere between $16 - $19
◦ Reduce net-lenders reliance on ILL
◦ Allow net-lenders to build their collections
 Realized that there were successful case studies of PODs
in the literature for single institutions but not
collaboratives – new ground

6. Pilot premise
 Test the feasibility of the purchase-on-
demand model using Amazon.com in a
consortial setting
 Measure the impact on regional resource
sharing by gathering statistics on items
purchased and their usage history if available
 Determine the scalability of the program to
include other funding sources
 Identify its usefulness as a coordinated
collection development tool

7. Proposed outcomes
 Puts materials in the hands of the patrons
quicker and in some cases cheaper
 Empowers patrons to participate in the
development of a library’s collection
 Allows items purchased be lent to the
patrons under purchasing library’s policies
rather than on a lending library’s policies
through ILL

8. Proposed Outcomes
 Allows large and small academic as well as public
libraries to participate equally
 Ensures a first copy of a title be purchased and
available for lending in the region
 Allows libraries to participate without adhering to
stringent bureaucratic layers
 Emphasis on “ownership” of titles, not “rental” of
title
 Increased odds that title will be circulated again

9. The POD Plan
 WNYLRC put $20,000 on a credit line at
Amazon.com
 Account managed by WNYLRC staff
 Seven libraries participated
◦ Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
◦ Buffalo State College
◦ Canisius College
◦ Erie Community College
◦ Niagara University
◦ Daemen College
◦ University at Buffalo

10. Purchasing Criteria
 Purchases were made through Amazon.com
using WNYLRC’s Corporate account
 No purchases of textbooks, electronic
resources, or journals.
 Purchase of foreign language materials is at
the discretion of the purchasing library.
 Items must be made available for loan to
other WNYLRC members and available to
InfoPass users
 There is a $50 limit per item before delivery
charges (changed to $100 in January)

11. Purchasing Criteria
 Each library limited to five items per week
 Participants will primarily use standard
shipping (many used the Amazon Prime
service)
 Libraries must search for an item within the
region and determine its availability.
 Books purchased through the program
become the property of the ordering library
 Books purchased through the program are
delivered by Amazon either directly to the
requesting library or directly to the patron
depending upon a library’s policies,
procedures, and preferences.

12. Additional patron services were tested:
 Allowing reference librarians to purchase
materials for patrons (Canisius College,
Niagara University) at point of contact
 Direct delivery to patron from vendor (Buffalo
State College)

13. Evaluation methods
 Run statistics on circulation rates (items
purchased are tagged in Marc record)
 Evaluate loss rates (if any)
 Review impact on regional resource sharing
 Review delivery services
 Explore scalability to CCDA
 Evaluate ordering process and local policy
issues
 Write article

14. Results
 Project Timeframe: October 5, 2009 to May 15,
2010
 $17,415 spent
 455 (426) titles purchased
 Shipping expenses amounted to $742 (over $25 is
free shipping)
 Average cost per title: $40.17 (under $50 imposed
limit the average cost was $26)
 Subject areas: all over – large amount of political
science, small amount of fiction, some art. No
identifiable trends.

15.  High repeat circulation rates of many
items
 No loss of items mailed directly to
patron
 Difficult to determine impact on
regional resource sharing since
statistics on ILLs to other members for
these titles is hard to determine
 Amazon’s statistics do not match
participating libraries

16.  Too little information to know if direct
delivery to patron is a good model
 Similar model for e-books being explored
now for academic libraries receiving CCDA
(16 in our region)
 Amazon policies towards tax-exempt
entities archaic, questionable statistics at
times, line of credit worked well but hard to
negotiate
 Still hoping to write that article

17. Subjects Totals
Museums & Collections--A 1
Phil., Psychology & Rel.--B 61
History, Archeology, Biog--C 8
World History--D 22
U.S. History--E 8
History of Americas--F 10
Fiction 16
Geography, Anthro, Recreation--G 31
Social Sciences, Econ, Finance--H 98
Political Science--J 15
Law--K 2
Education--L 16
Music--M 8
Fine Arts--N 22
Language & Literature--P 51
Science--Q 24
Medicine--R 28
Agriculture--S 3
Tech,Hand Crafts, Home Econ--T 34
Military Science--U 2
Bibliography, Library Science--Z 2
Total 462

18. Total Items Purchased
Library
# Titles Purchased
According to Amazon # Circs Overall Single Title With Highest Circulation # of Circulations
# Titles Circulating More
Than Once
% Titles Circulated More
than Once to # purchased
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library 145 624
Sanctified and Chicken Fried the Portable
Lansdale, Joe Lansdale 20 117 80.00%
Buffalo State College 9 10
American Dreaming, Global Realities:
Rethinking U.S. Immigration History. 2 1 11.00%
Canisus College 133 161
Mary, Mother of the Redeemer : a mariology
textbook / Juan Luis Bastero 5 12 9.00%
Daemen College 8 12
Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? By
Michael J. Sandel 3 3 37.50%
Erie Community College 18 13
Bike Lust: Harleys, Women, and American
Society by Barbara Jones 7 39.00%
Niagara University 13 18
Tie: Mothers Who Kill (DVD), The Susan
Smith Story (DVD), The Andrea Yates Story
(DVD) 3 5 38.00%
University at Buffalo 129 404
Third person : authoring and exploring vast
narratives / edited by Pat Harrigan and Noah
Wardrip-Fru 15 100 78.00%
Totals 455 1242 245 54.00%

19.  WNYLRC ILL Services
◦ Intent: Provide ILL services for those without OCLC
Resource Sharing subscriptions
 Fact: WNYLRC has no collection
 Fact: WNYLRC is another layer
 Fact: WNYLRC added days to the process
 Fact: OCLC Resource Sharing subscriptions became
more affordable for small institutions
Conclusion:
Determine alternative for small institutions

20.  University at Buffalo lends six to one
 Has no peer institution to take any of the load
 Questioned its ability to continue to lend for
free
Solution: Allow UB to play a major role in
regional ILL - WNYLRC/UB ILLiad Pilot

21.  Participants are primarily net-borrowers
without unique collections or willingness to
lend
 Participants pay a fee to participate
 UB provides ILLiad logins
 Participants receive priority status

22.  7 libraries participated
◦ MOOG
◦ Unifrax
◦ Praxair Inc.
◦ Orleans/Niagara BOCES
◦ Trocaire College
◦ WNY VA Hospital
 Paid $100 to participate, no referral charge

23.  595 items requested
 435 items filled
 334 of those filled by UB
 75% total filled both by UB and OCLC
 Most of those not filled were cancelled by
requesting library due to lending charges

24.  Five out of seven respondents rated the
program “very successful”
 All seven felt that enough information had
been given to fully participate
 Six found navigating the system “very easy”
 Five wanted to see the program continued
 ALL seven resigned

25. New Member
Sign-up
Request Volume Participation Fee Referral Fee for requests
submitted into
OCLC/Docline
Lending Library Charge
(No charge if filled from UB or
WNYLRC members’
collections)
Initial Fee $200.00 $6.00/request (filled or
unfilled)
Lender’s fee
Renewing
Member
Fees based on previous 12 months ILL requests
0-10 $0.00 $6.00/request (filled or
unfilled)
Lender’s fee
11-50 $50.00 $6.00/request (filled or
unfilled)
Lender’s fee
51-150 $100.00 $6.00/request (filled or
unfilled)
Lender’s fee
151-300 $200.00 $6.00/request (filled or
unfilled)
Lender’s fee
301-450 $300.00 $6.00/request (filled or
unfilled)
Lender’s fee
451+ $400.00 $6.00/request (filled or
unfilled)
Lender’s fee

26. Sheryl Knab
Executive Director
Western New York Library Resources Council
4455 Genesee Street
Buffalo, NY 14225
sknab@wnylrc.org
716-633-0705 ext. 121