1. Patron-Driven Acquisition of
Monographs: Results and
Implications
Charleston Conference
November 4, 2010
Becky Clark – Johns Hopkins University Press
Michael Levine-Clark – University of Denver
Matt Nauman – YBP Library Services
David Swords – EBL - Ebook Library

2. David Swords, EBL
The Charleston Conference
November 2010

4. Libraries
Students and Faculty
Publishers

5. University of Denver – EBL Data
• May-October, 2010
– 42,000-48,000 titles available
– 66 titles purchased
– 1,423 STLs (short-term loans)
• 113 titles with 3 STLs (339 loans)
• 137 titles with 2 STLs (274 loans)
• 810 titles with 1 STL (810 loans)
– 3,267 browses (under 5 min = free)
• 2,125 titles

6. University of Denver – EBL Costs
Actual List
• 66 titles purchased $5,076 $5,076
• 994 titles with STL* $13,475 $76,438**
• 2,125 titles with browse $0 $163,413**
• Total (3,185 titles) $18,551 $244,927
• Savings $226,376
*Doesn’t include purchased titles with STL
**Average of $76.90/title based on 66 titles purchased
(average across EBL closer to $100)

7. Redefining the Collection
• Broader pool of titles for potential purchase
– The collection is not just what you own or lease
– More books per user
– Purchase based on need
• Collection management = risk management
– Maintain largest pool possible
– Removing/adding titles
• Multiple rules

8. Challenges
• Budgeting
– Unknowns
• How many sales?
• How many leases?
• Uneven year-to-year?
• Long-term stewardship
– Core collection (of unpurchased material)
maintained longer? Differently?
– Uneven collections?

9. Rethinking ILL
• ILL/Acquisitions blur
– Borrow or buy
– STL for ebooks
– Purchase some ILL requests
• STL replaces ILL
– Logical for libraries
– Income for publishers

10. Alternate Pricing/Alternate Strategies
• PDA difficult for:
– Community colleges, others with high FTE, small
budgets
– Intense users of narrowly-focused collections
• Differential pricing?

11. Uh-oh!: UPs on PDA
Becky Brasington Clark
Johns Hopkins University
November 4, 2010

12. Survey of University Presses
 To gauge perceptions of impact of patron-
driven acquisition
 Online survey to member presses of AAUP
 AAUP: 130 members, of which about 100 are
affiliated with U.S. research institutions
 Requested one response per institution
 Gathered 42 responses

13. Five Areas of Concern
 PDA and Host Institution's Library
 Perceived Impact of PDA
 Scholarly Monograph Publication Strategy
 Perceived Impact on Scholarly Monograph's
Use In Tenure And Promotion
 Ebook Publication Strategy

14. Great degree of familiarity
 93% of respondents already familiar with PDA
 64% from conferences/seminars
 47% from colleagues
 39% from e-book vendors
 14% from wholesalers

15. How often have you spoken to your
host institution’s library about PDA?
 50%: Never
 50%: Occasionally
 0%: Frequently

16. Is your library participating in PDA?
 46%: Don’t know
 33%: Yes
 21%: No

17. Potential Impact of PDA on Sales
 54%: Negative
 19.5%: Positive
 19.5%: No idea
 7%: No impact

18. What Percentage of Your Sales Come
from Scholarly Monographs?
 Scholarly monographs generate more than
40% of revenue for 60% of respondents

19. How would PDA impact your output
of scholarly monographs?
 56%: We would publish the same number
 31%: We would publish fewer
 13%: No opinion/no idea

20. How would PDA impact your ability
to forecast sales?
 68%: It will be more difficult to forecast
 12%: No impact
 10%: It will be easier to forecast
 10%: No opinion/no idea

21. Percentage of monographs that are
associated with tenure/promotion
 For 39% of respondents, more than 40% of
monographs they publish are associated with
tenure/promotion

22. PDA’s impact on the role of
monograph in tenure and promotion
 Do you think the widespread adoption of
patron-driven acquisition could have a
negative impact on the role of the scholarly
monograph in supporting tenure or
promotion?
 58%: Yes
 24%: No
 18%: No idea/no opinion

23. E-book strategy
 How does your press publish its e-books in
relation to its print books?
 62.5%: Simultaneously
 19%: 60-180 days after print
 15.5%: 30-60 days after print
 3%: Prior to print

24. E-book strategy
 If you don’t publish simultaneously, what is
your rationale?
 63%: Strategic decision to embargo
 56%: Would like to publish simultaneously
but haven’t perfected workflow

25. E-book strategy
 Has your press opted into patron-driven
acquisition options offered by various e-book
vendors?
 57%: No
 43%: Yes

26. E-book strategy
 If no, why not?
 77%: Taking wait-and-see attitude
 18%: Intend to, but haven’t yet
 5%: Don’t intend to

27. The Impact of PDA on Traditional Book
Vendors
•Three Challenges for a Successful Patron
Driven Acquisitions Program
•Develop a new value and service proposition
•Provide the infrastructure for PDA
•Replace lost revenue

28. YBP’s Experience with Patron Driven Acquisitions
• Successful print experiments with several customers
• Working with aggregator partners to facilitate their ebook PDA
offers
• Working with aggregators to develop an integrated E & P offer
• Experiments and development have demonstrated how this new
approach will work
• Now we turn to the serious business of meeting the PDA
challenges

29. Developing a New Value & Service Proposition
• PDA is a different business
• Currently we deliver new titles upon publication
• With PDA we will present a large universe of content that is discoverable and attainable by
patrons – in different ways
• Vendor provides the service background that makes this new model possible
• Creation and maintenance of the database – the “consideration pool”
• Business rules to support PDA
• Developing tools that will make it easier for customers to manage PDA
• Currently we are adapting existing systems
• The Approval Plan and profiling methodology provide a basis for PDA
• But as the system develops we will bring out PDA-specific tools

30. Providing the Infrastructure for Patron Driven
Acquisitions
• Development of the integrated E & P “Consideration Pool” of content
• Moving from delivery of books to content discovery and support for new workflows
• Support for new business functions including:
• Browse and Short Term Loan
• POD options
• No dead ends – a direct to consumer option
• But we still require speed of delivery for print purchases
• We are developing a base product – these are the early stages of PDA
• There are many different ideas about PDA
• E-books are not a fully developed product yet
• We have to remain flexible while offering a sophisticated solution
• This is a continuing project – probably a transition to new business models

31. Replacing Lost – or Deferred - Revenue
• We are all seeing the decline in print book sales
• It is doubtful that current margins can be maintained as print declines
• Electronic content carries lower margins
• In a best-case scenario the sale of content will be deferred in this model
• Sales of E & P will take longer
• Early experiments show use through browse & short term loan but lower sales
• It is time to consider a new business model to go with Patron Driven
Acquisitions
• Annual subscriptions fees for development and maintenance of the database
• Perhaps transaction fees
• In this scenario the vendor is paid for its actual value to customers
• Something to think about as development continues