Don’t Fear the Reader: Librarian Versus Interlibrary Loan Patron-Driven Acquisition of Print Books at an Academic Library by Relative Collecting Level and by Library of Congress Classification and Subclasses

Tyler, C. D., Melvin, C. J., Epp, M., & Kreps, A. (2014). Don’t fear the reader: Librarian versus

            interlibrary loan patron-driven acquisition of print books at an academic library by

            relative collecting level and by library of congress classification and subclasses. College

            & Research Libraries, 75(5), 684-704. DOI 10.5850/crl.75.5.684

patron-driven acquisitions or PDA is a helpful tool for academic libraries, though it has its problems. This form of acquisition improves circulation statistics and usage rates, as patrons are able to select the items that are most relevant to them. This is most easily done with e-books, though it has been done with print. One problem with this form of acquisition is the lack of relevance that many of the PDA items have to course offerings. ILL is often used as an indicator for PDA acquisitions. However, some flaws cause this to be occasionally inaccurate. Materials being popular, or non-academic and items that have been mistakenly requested since they are already part of the collection are some hinderances to the accuracy of ILL PDA acquisitions. There are some fears about how relevant PDA acquisitions will be as compared to the traditional methods. The materials added to the collection through PDA tend to circulate much more frequently. The study conducted in this research shows that the difference between the two is so inconsequential that the fear is not founded. A benefit, in fact is the time freed up from acquisitions amongst librarians who can focus their time more on other tasks.