Monograph Collection Development

Monograph Collection Development in an Age of Uncertainty:

The University of Haifa Library Experience

Cecilia HarelHead of Collection Development, Gifts & Exchange

5th Shanghai (Hangzhou) International Library Forum

August 24-27, 2010

University of Haifa:

Established in 1963 18,000 students, 1,200 lecturers 6 Faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences,

Education, Law, Social Welfare & Health, Science & Science Education

63 Research centers: Jewish-Arab Center, Tourism & Recreation, Brain & Behavior Research, Law & Technology, Multiculturalism & Educational Research, Information Processing & Decision-making, Health, Law & Ethics, Institute of Evolution…

University of Haifa Library:

Established in 1968

Collections: 1,000,000 books, 32,000 journal titles, E-resources, Databases, Media, Rare books, Archives, Psychological Tests, Children’s Lit, Digital Media Center

65 librarians + technical staff

400 computer workstations

Presentation:

Collection development at U. of Haifa Library

Monograph collection development strategies

Patron Driven Acquisitions Trial Objectives

Method

Data

Conclusions

Collection Development at University of Haifa

Collection development policy: support for research, teaching and study programs

Faculty involvement in selection

Library liaisons to departments

Centralized acquisitions budget

U. Of Haifa Monograph Collection Development Strategies

Good years (until 2005):

Standing orders

Approval plans

Course required reading

Budget allocation: journals 60%, monographs 40%

Just in case acquisitions for research in all subjects

Lean years (2005+):

Cancellation of most standing orders, except law

Approval plans only for Hebrew & Arabic books

Course required reading

Budget allocation: 85% journals & databases, 15% monographs

Just in time acquisitions for specific research

Electronic (ebook) Acquisitions

Title by title vs. collections:

Patron Driven Acquisitions(PDA)

Acquisitions based on users’ actions/needs

Originated in 1990’s with collection development based on interlibrary loan requests

Budget allocated for users’ requests

Model implemented for ebook acquisitions

2005:

YBP/Cambridge U.P. Conference – Univ. of Alberta reported on PDA project with NetLibrary

2008:

28th Annual Charleston Conference – “Tossing Traditional Collection Development Practices for Patron Initiated Purchasing”

2009/03:

ACRL Conference –“Patron Initiated Purchasing at ACRL”

2009/07:

ALA Annual Conference –Meeting on “Patron Initiated Collection Development in Academic Libraries: Sharing Experiences and Implications for Change”

2009/08:

75th IFLA Conference –“When Customers Select: Customer-Initiated Acquisition of E-Books in an Academic Library”

2010:

More than Bookends Blog – “Patron Driven Acquisitions is Here!”

PDA and Ebooks

University of Haifa:PDA Trial Objectives - 2009

Expose users to ebooks

Effective use of shrinking monograph budget

Decrease delivery time of needed books

Enable user input in selection and acquisition

Learn about and measure use of ebooks

PDA Trial Method

Ebrary’s offer:

Access to about 60,000 ebooks for one year

Elimination of irrelevant subjects: engineering, technology, agriculture, medicine

Provision of MaRC records & links to full text

Automatic purchase trigger based on use formula

Usage reports for books purchased & viewed

PDA Trial Method -continued

University of Haifa’s procedure:

Budget allocation of $25,000

Check Ebrary’s record file against holdings in Aleph catalog to remove duplicate records

Load Ebrary records in Aleph catalog

At end of trial, delete records of books not purchased

Purchase trigger formula:unique pages viewed + prints + copies >= 5

1000 PERSONS

VIEW PAGE 1 EACH DAY

NO PRINTS, NO COPIES

NO

BUY

1 USER VIEWS

PAGES 1,2,3

PAGE 3 COPIED &

PAGE 3 PRINTED

BUY

5 DIFFERENT

USERS VIEW PAGES 1,2,3

NO PAGES COPIED OR

PRINTED

NOBUY

PDA Trial Results

During trial, all 60,000 ebooks were immediately accessible to users

Budget allocation was finished within 2 months

(10-11/2009)

270 ebook purchases were triggered

300 additional ebooks were viewed but not purchased (no budget)

PDA Trial:Ebrary User Statistics

7683Total trigger actions

8574Total pages viewed

5785Total unique pages viewed

190Total pages copied

1708Total pages printed

PDA Trial:Purchases Triggered by Subject

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

No. Titles

PDA Trial:Purchases Triggered by Publisher

No. of TitlesPublisher

52Routledge

27Guilford

21Cambridge U.K.

13Wiley

9Brill

9Sage Publications

8Ashgate

8Butterworth-Heinemann

8Oxford University Press

7McGraw-Hill

6Springer

6University of Minnesota Press

5Academic Press

5Psychology Press

PDA Trial:Usage data during and after trial

No. of ebooks purchased by no. of interactions

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Interactionsover 125100-12475-9950-7425-49less than 24

Trial

After trial

Accessibility of ebooks in OPAC

PDA Trial: Conclusions

Problems:

Delayed trigger reports

Confusion about purchase trigger formula

Difficulty identifying items already in holdings

Print limitations: increased to 20 pages x 2

Refine criteria for titles to include

Lack of data on users and their feedback

PDA Trial: Conclusions

Advantages:

Immediate exposure to critical mass of ebooks

Quick and easy acquisition process

Purchase based on real-time use

User input for selection and purchase

Reference staff reports: user satisfaction with full text access to books

Recommendations

Library can adapt PDA model to its needs and criteria: budget, subjects, publishers, dates

PDA model can be a continuous process: U. of Dallas Library - receive new ebooks each month and delete titles not purchase after 1 year

Requires negotiation with supplier: criteria and trigger formula

Selection and purchase model that helps build collection based on users’ needs

Changing strategies…

Thank You

Cecilia Harel

University of Haifa Library

[email protected]