This document summarizes a patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) ebook pilot project conducted by the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) consortium. The pilot involved loading records for 40,000 ebooks into the catalogs of 16 participating universities. When books were viewed enough times, they would be automatically purchased. Over one year, 558 books were purchased for $150,000. The pilot provided libraries with ebooks at lower costs while also building local collections. It helped integrate ebooks into discovery systems but raised challenges around coordinating records and user perceptions of disappearing content.

1. A Leap of Faith:
A Consortial PDA Pilot Project
Catherine Davidson, York University
Tony Horava, University of Ottawa
Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge
May 16, 2011

2. Overview
2
• Ontario Council of University Libraries & Scholars
Portal
• PDA Chronology
• Vendor-consortium collaboration
• Pilot preparation & launch
• Results: What did our patrons buy?
• Value, benefits, challenges and calibration
• The PDA Leap of Faith
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

3. Ontario Universities
3
Institutions FTE
Algoma 870
Brock 14,557
Carleton 20,743
Guelph 21,452
Lakehead 7,583
Laurentian 7,630
McMaster 24,944
Nipissing 5,535
OCAD 3,010
UOIT 5,147
Ottawa 32,230
Queen's 20,751
RMC 1,792
Ryerson 26,841
Toronto 68,334
Trent 7,030
Waterloo 27,674
Western 33,119
Wilfrid Laurier 14,054
Windsor 14,419
York 45,235
Total 402,950
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

4. Ontario Council of University Libraries
4
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

5. OCUL – Information Resources Committee
5
• Negotiate licenses for consortium : Abstracts, indexes,
ejournals, ebooks
• Develop model licenses: ebooks, ejournals, data, local
load
• Evaluate and assess usage and overlap of content e.g.
MINES and in-house tools (SCOT and SPUD)
• Strike special project working groups: Scholars Portal
Collection Policy, Local load toolkit, Print journal
preservation plan, OCUL-IR strategic plan
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

6. Scholars Portal
6
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

7. PDA Chronology (1)
7
Fall 2009
• Vendor – consortium collaboration: defining a consortial
PDA
• Issue call for interest
• Filtering process: 100,000 titles down to 40,000
• Tiered costing model: small, medium, large
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

8. Vendor-consortium collaboration
8
Defining a consortial Patron-driven Acquisition pilot.
•What triggers a purchase in a consortial setting?
•What is considered a “unique view”?
•How many “copies” in consortial setting?
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

9. Call for interest
9
• 16 of 21 said YES!
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

10. Filtering Criteria
10
• Price ceiling: $200
• Language: English and French
• Imprint date: 2000 – 2010
• Exclude previously purchased ebook bundles via CRKN &
OCUL e.g. T&F, CUP, OUP, Duke, Springer etc
• Exclude non-academic content
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

11. Tiered Costing Model
11
School Size Contribution # Participants
Small 0 – 10,000 FTE $5,000 5
Medium 10 – 30,000 FTE $10,000 8
Large 30,000 + FTE $15,000 3
For a grand total of …..$150,000
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

12. Preparation for launch
12
•OCUL cataloguing listserv an essential communication tool
for exchange of information, posting of questions etc.
•MARC records resided on Scholars Portal wiki, then:
•downloaded
•editedto reflect local requirements
•loaded into each school’s ILS (shadowed) until….
• ….the launch date!
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

13. Sample MARC record coordination - York
13
• Retrieve MARC records from ftp site
• Run through MARC Report ($200) analysis tool
• Run through MARCEdit (free) to batch edit, add
local info: 506, 710, 949
• Load into Sirsi ILS
• At end of pilot, all 40,000 pulled out based on 710
• 467 purchased titles run through ERM to assign
resolver URLs
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

14. PDA Chronology (2)
14
Fall 2010 (one year later)
• Sept. 13–17: Test Week
• Sept. 20: Official launch
• Sept. 28: $150,000 spent,
467 titles purchased for 16 schools
•Jan. 2011 91 additional titles purchased by 8
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

15. Results: Titles by Publisher
15
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

16. Results: Titles by Subject
16
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

17. Results: Titles by Publication Year
17
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

18. Results: Purchases Triggered by School
18
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

19. Value/Benefits Derived: Cost per Book
19
School List price Relation to Cost per book
amount spent
Small $37,500 750% $10.70
Medium $37,500 375% $21.41
Large $37,500 250% $32.12
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

20. Value/Benefits - continued
20
• Local load and purchase model allows integration
into Scholars Portal Books platform
• ebrary successfully secured local load rights for 557
titles purchased
• Long-term preservation
• Integration into web-scale discovery systems
• Integration into course pages and virtual
environments
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

21. Some Challenges
21
• Coordination of MARC record loading posed
different levels of difficulty for different schools
• Technical “glitches” regarding purchased titles
• User perception – disappearing content
• Analysing results in timely way
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

22. Post-pilot analysis by School - York
22
• Phase I: 131 of 467 purchased titles triggered by York users
• 89 of 131 (67%) were duplicated in print
• 18 of 131 (16%) were duplicated in electronic
• Phase II: 8 schools chose to purchase an additional 91 titles
• Phase III: York purchased additional 98 titles with year-
end funds
• Usage post-pilot: 127,155 pages viewed, 20,014 pages
printed
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

23. Analysis of a title
23
Use triggers theaebook
And so does sent.
TwoGobiand purchase.
Print“E” slipone “P”.
No circulates LOT
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

24. Post-pilot analysis by School - Ottawa
24
• Phase I: 91 of 467 purchased titles triggered by Ottawa
users
• Phase II: 8 schools purchased additional 91 titles. Of the
558 titles, Ottawa had:
• 458 in print
• 25 in electronic
• 44 in both formats
• Usage post-pilot: 74 of 91 titles used, 705 user sessions,
4,871 pages printed
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

25. Calibrating for the Future
25
How would we do things differently if we were to do it
again?
•Was the trigger definition satisfactory?
•How would we re-define a “unique view”?
•What additional metrics would assist in assessment?
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

26. The PDA Leap of Faith
26
•How to balance patron-driven demand with
traditional collection development strategies, e.g.
approval plans
•How does the volatility around the future of the book
influence this conversation? And who should our
partners be?
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011

27. Thank you
27
Questions?
• Catherine Davidson cdavids@yorku.ca
• Tony Horava thorava@uottawa.ca
Acquisitions Institute, May 2011