Librarians at three different types of academic libraries will provide perspectives on their patron-driven ebook acquisitions programs. The shared collection development of ebooks at the CTW Consortium (Connecticut College, Trinity College, Wesleyan University) will be discussed as well. In their remarks, panelists will discuss the virtues and shortcomings of patron-driven selection, the vendors/systems offering this acquisitions option, and key issues surrounding ebook acquisitions generally.

1. A Patron Driven Acquisitions Pilot with ebrary
Nancy J. Gibbs
Duke University
nancy.gibbs@duke.edu
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2.  ARL library with 6 million volumes
 Catalog the Duke University Press books
hosted on the ebrary site.
 Cautious entering into the e book market
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3.  The pilot was intriguing
 ebrary’s strategic alliance with our approval
plan vendor, Yankee Book Peddler, was
advantageous
 The time was right to give this a try
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4.  Given title list of 50,000 titles
 Loaded 21,408 titles into online catalog
 Attached holdings in OCLC
 Enabled titles in SFX
 Did not advertise trial
 Provided ubiquitous access across campus
 Owned the titles purchased with archival
access
 Patrons had no idea clicks = purchases
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5.  How did we get from 50,000 to 21,408?
◦ Eliminated Medical, Business, Law titles
◦ Culled by BISAC Subject content
◦ Culled by publisher
◦ Culled by series
◦ Culled by serials
◦ Floor on imprint date
◦ Ceiling on price
◦ Accepted both SUPO and MUPO
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6.  Oct 25titles activated on ebrary
 Oct 26 titles loaded into online catalog
 Oct 26 titles available for staff review
 Oct 26 titles available in SFX
 Oct 27 titles captured in Endecca catalog
 Oct 27 holdings attached to OCLC records
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7.  Nov 1 titles activated for patron access and
action
 Nov 14 spent allotted trial amount
 Nov 14 ebrary agreed to keep trial active
 Dec 2 trial stopped
 Dec 14 titles turned off at ebrary
 Jan 10 titles removed from catalog
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8. In the first two weeks of the pilot :
Patrons clicked on 225 titles, creating purchase
driven acquisitions totaling $25,000.
In the following two weeks:
Patrons clicked on another 122 titles; creating
an additional $24,000 worth of titles!
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9.  179 titles had print equivalents owned in the
Duke University Library system
 Of those 179 print equivalents there were
420 total circs by our patrons
 In e format there were:
◦ 7,058 trigger interactions
◦ 12,401 total views
◦ 6,789 unique pages viewed and
◦ 985 sessions
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10.  168 were not owned in print in the Duke
University Library System
◦ Of those titles not owned
 8,276 trigger interactions with
 15,053 total views
 8,432 unique pages viewed and
 880 sessions
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11.  Our most popular book based on views:
Programming Interviews Exposed : Secrets to
Landing Your Next Job (2nd Edition) (We do not
own)
 Our most popular book based on printing:
Monopoles and Three-Manifolds (We own, has had two
circulations)
 Our most popular book based on unique
views: Values Education and Lifelong Learning
: Principles, Policies, Programmes (We do not own)
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12. 100
90
80
70
60
50 1st phase
40 2nd phase
30
20 TOTAL
10
0
Wiley Springer Taylor & CUP
Francis
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13. 45
40
35
30
25 1st phase
20 2nd phase
15 TOTAL
10
5
0
Computers Bus & Econ Pol Sci Sciences
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14. $3,500.00
$3,000.00
$2,500.00
$2,000.00
$1,500.00
$1,000.00
$500.00
$-
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15.  One of four professional libraries on campus
 Very small clientele, highly knowledgeable of
what patrons need
 All 21 books accessed had corresponding
print equivalents which circulated 159
times, a ratio of 1:7.56;
 21 titles in e format had
◦ 872 trigger interactions; 673 unique pages viewed;
102 total sessions
◦ All but five were bought in the first phase
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16.  Small library on the coast with a constituency
of less than 150 faculty, staff, and students.
◦ Only one e book purchased with an equivalent p
book held in their collection: “Introduction to Ocean
Turbulence”, published by Cambridge University
Press!
◦ Had no print circulation but had 25 views in the e
book equivalent during the trial.
◦ We don’t know if the views were from patrons
associated with this program.
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17.  Library staff wanted a few more fields in the
MARC records
 Effect of records in the catalog after de-
activation: AskTech
 Patron experience - how do we measure except
through the use data?
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18.  Surprise … surprise
◦ Speed
◦ Acceptance
 What would have happened if we advertised
this service?
 Culling title list through the approval plan
profile
 Better review of match routines for title loads
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19.  Discussions with ebrary to rethink circulation
models, get additional use data
 Need further refinement of some BISAC
subjects
 Integration with our other monographic
purchases
 Funding
 Collaboration with our TRLN partners
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