Research Paper on "Financial Impact of Patron Driven Acquisitions on Academic Libraries and Faculty"

Research Paper 7 pages (2018 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Patron Divine Acquisitions

Financial impact of Patron Driven Acquisitions on Academic Libraries and Faculty

Budgetary constraints that promote PDA model

Mechanism of PDA

Relying on reader's choice

step format of setting up PDAs

Modeling new service criteria

Advantages of patron driven access (PDA)

Guaranteed use of titles

Automated acquisitions

Instant and improved access

Disadvantages of PDA model

Relatively smaller number of titles

Change in collection development practices

Financial impact of Patron Driven Acquisitions on Academic Libraries and Faculty

Patron driven acquisition (PDA) is a contemporary model of accessing books that libraries use. Rather than digitally/non-digitally collecting vast collections of books, journals, and literature, libraries having PDA gain access to vast numbers of literature and are only entitled to pay once these sources are used. Only the books, journals, and other literature that will be used by the readers will be billed to the library (Reiners, et al., 2012). Without actually owning a perpetual archive, the libraries provide access to vast body of knowledge through PDA operating model.

Due to increased cost of operations faced by the public libraries as well as owing to budget stress, public libraries are fast shifting their operating model to PDA. Further, the change in demand patterns of users also requires the libraries to upgrade their collection of books, journals, magazines, and other literature. To keep up with fluctuation in demand patterns and to provide access to a collection that libraries do not afford to offer otherwise, PDA has gained much success recently.

An important challenge for librarians and library managers is to collect what is most in demand by the patrons. Rather than stacking up books that will never be used by the reader's costs a lot for a library. On the other hand, those books that are in demand have to be weighted for long by the readers. Since libraries have continuous budgetary constraints and budget cuts are being enforced on all public libraries through 2014, the libraries have opted for this cost effective method of PDA.

Budgetary constraints that promote PDA model

The total budget that large universities such as University of Texas allocates for their libraries is somewhere between million and a half dollars annually. The number of students as well as faculty members that use library service is also huge. On average, the UTs budget for library per student goes down to $30. This limits the ability of administrators to collect all the books in demand and still maintain adequate number of copies. To mitigate this factor of tight budgets and growing demand of books and other educational resources online, the libraries adopt PDA model.

Mechanism of PDA

PDA works is a very 'subtle' manner, mostly unknown to the patron using the electronic format of the book (e-book) through library. When an e-book is accessed using PDA model, after a few minutes of use, a popped up window asks the patron if they intend to continue reading the book. If so, the patron is allowed to continue reading but with the library is charged for this one time use. For initial 10 days, the book is available under same initial 'fee' charged to the library. Successive uses (varies from two to four) by readers automatically purchases the book for library and adds it into their collection.

The main benefit of this model is that without having to purchase a large collection of books on varying topics, the libraries are provided access to already stack electronic versions of books and their readers can access the books through their respective library. Google books also works on the same model but without providing the option of continuing to read. Thus, PDA offers much flexibility to both the library administrators and the readers. While administrators do not have to worry collecting large number of books and those too on the 'in-demand' books, the users are never short of any of every title that they can think of reading.

Relying on reader's choice

If readers are assumed as 'consumers' and libraries as service providers, PDA model best serves the consumers by letting them decide what they want to read and without being at the mercy of library that whether or not the book will be made available timely. Since the administrators are removed from decision making process of collecting relevant books, the reader is transferred this decision but without any financial responsibility to be assumed by the library. Only once the reader is actually reading the book is when the library is charged.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) was one of the first institutions to have demanded a library model that was based on pay-per-view model rather than traditional book collection model. The top physicists that worked at CERN had to access variety of multidisciplinary books and journals as well as technical reports. This was made possible through allowing the CERN scholars to access educational and professionals' resources based on pay-per-view model. PDA is also based on the same model.

PDA is essentially a demand-driven model and several large publishers directly provide their resources (books) in electronic format so that it can be loaded into available records of service providers. These service providers in turn offer these records to be access by the libraries and their customers. Some more recent developments in the PDA model are making the customer totally unknown about any purchase events. The readers are not even intimated once in his/her study regarding continuing reading. The data analytics systems self-read the customers online activity to convey whether or not the reader is continuing reading.

3 step format of setting up PDAs

Patron Driven Access (PDA) has become simple and time efficient for the librarians to set up in their respective libraries. The most essential element is to build a list of collection that the library will prefer having on its records. The mentioning of collection is decided with respect to name of publisher, title of books, subject area, author, and other narrowing down criteria. Once a library administrator conveys the 'collection' priorities to the service provider, the list of titles available to the patron is populated by the service provider. Once the reader looks for particular titles, they are taken to the main records being developed according to the given preferences. Once the reader uses the books for reading, only then is the library charged for it.

Modeling new service criteria

PDA is amongst the several models of service that libraries have come across as a means to increase satisfaction of users and mitigate their tightening budgets. Some other models are interlibrary loans for the users, collection development modeling for libraries and synchronization with acquisition departments of libraries.

Information systems have been important in making these recent changes in service modeling of the libraries. From interlibrary loans to patron driven acquisitions, there has been enormous shift in the method that IS may be applied to library services. The use of various models also increases the reach of books to sections of society and their ability of each reader to have equally god experience without having to return incomplete books. Different models of service including PDA is based on the principals of pay-per-use, making greater use of shared resources, sharing resources, and increasing the satisfaction of end users, the readers.

Advantages of patron driven access (PDA)

There are numerous advantages of PDA that libraries have increasingly realized now days. To benefit from such advantages, increased number of public libraries and those of large public universities are engaged in switching to PDA model of service delivery in their libraries.

Guaranteed use of titles

The books, articles, and titles access under the PDA are guaranteed to be used by the readers (Polanka, 2011). In fact only then is the library charged when these resources are in actual and repeated use of the patrons. Business Wire reported that leading electronic resources provider; ebrary has launched the PDA model of servicing the libraries. This will allow guaranteed use of books accessed by the patrons and still making more information available to the users. This is in stark contrast to the traditional model where each variety in collection of books meant additional dollars (Alto, 2010). Thus, libraries now have their life-long issue being resolved, that there will be no books lying idle in their collections that the library has incurred a cost upon.

Automated acquisitions

The PDA allows the patrons to gain immediate access of books without having to physically generate any request for accessing the books. This model is based on 'automated acquisition' whereby the patron remains unaware that a certain title is not part of library's own collection of titles. In fact the moment book is read after 5 or more minutes, only a message appears asking for continue to reading. Thus, while the reader's cursors on the title, it is automatically acquired by the library and fee is charged to the library account. Rather than physically paying or arranging for the acquisition, the service provider automates the process for the library (Polanka, 2011).

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