Something New!
First Year of Demand Driven Acquisitions a Success
By Western Libraries
Over the last few tough budgetary years the Western Libraries has held the line remarkably well to protect funding for purchases and access to the library resources faculty and students need for their work. The cuts to acquisitions money have been carefully considered and informed by the use data that we regularly gather. In particular library staff carefully analyzes use from all areas of our collections to make sure we are getting the university the best value we can with our limited budget.
In FY 2012 we began purchasing books, videos, and other single item purchases using a model called Demand Driven Acquisitions (DDA). This means that rather than rely on the informed speculation of librarian liaisons and their consultations with faculty we began to focus almost exclusively on purchase requests submitted by users (primarily faculty) through ILLiad. ILLiad is a well-known tool that nearly all faculty engaged in research are comfortable with.
Faculty now can place a purchase request using the GIST "Purchase Request" form which appears as a new selection on your ILLiad main menu.  The form allows faculty to provide input directly to the ILL and Acquisitions staff about the importance of the item, whether it is needed for course reserves or some other use, and how important it is to purchase rather than borrow the item. Special routing rules move requests for purchases to Acquisitions for action. Should the item be out of print or otherwise unsuited for purchase it is immediately routed for fulfillment through interlibrary loan.
The outcome has been that in FY 2012 the number of items added to the Western Libraries collections that were not used during the first year of purchase dropped from 56% (as seen the previous year under the traditional model) to roughly 10% of items acquired.
On the surface it may sound like DDA would be fraught with challenges such as the potential to skew library collections with some disciplines gobbling up all the funds leaving others without a piece of the pie. But in reality, an analysis of purchase request patterns for the year shows that additions that were made to Library of Congress call number ranges have been in proportions consistent with historical patterns.
During the coming year Western Libraries will continue to focus on the demand driven acquisitions model while also exploring other ways of providing needed materials to campus researchers. And, we’ll seek even greater involvement from campus faculty in helping us to purchase those materials most essential for their research and the work of their students.
For more information contact: Jeff.Purdue@wwu.edu
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This Issue's Great Tip
Use of E-Reserves Can Save Your Students Money
By Frank Haulgren, Collection Services Mgr.
We all know that the high cost of textbooks and course supplies are an increasing burden on students. While electronic textbooks may remain just over the horizon the electronic course-pack is here, now, cost effective and doable. Read on!
Over the last year the University has shifted responsibility for most aspects of copyright compliance to the Western Libraries. The Libraries’ Associate Dean for Public Services, Michael Lorenzen, will be heading up an effort to raise awareness about a wide range of copyright issues across the Western community over the next year. But, there is also an aspect to this change in oversight that can immediately impact both faculty and their students.
The Western Libraries has put in place procedures to assure that instructors who use supplemental readings in their courses are leveraging the libraries’ extensive electronic and print collections to reduce costs for both their departments and students.
Our membership in the Orbis-Cascade Alliance, and the buying power that comes with it, has significantly expanded access to electronic content for all disciplines over the last few years. Now, it’s worth investigating how that can change the way you prepare and present course pack readings to your students.
During summer quarter Clarissa Mansfield and Joanna Bailey worked with a number of faculty to review print course-packs in use. They determined that in each case the costs for printing and obtaining permissions could be dramatically reduced - if not eliminated - through better utilization of existing access to electronic content. Additionally, electronic access provides the kind of 24/7 access students have grown to expect!
While we tend to think primarily about electronic access to journal content it’s important to note that as our e-book collection has also grown so has our ability to use them in support of course reserves. Unlike their print counterparts e-books can provide access to specific content for multiple users simultaneously.
For you, the best part is that we’ll do all the leg work for you. We’ll find the electronic content that duplicates your dog eared photocopies. We’ll determine how to achieve copyright compliance.
We’ll put the content up through our e-reserves gateway which in turn reduces your culpability for posting to Blackboard or your personal web pages that may exceed fair use.
You win; your students win!
Contact us at: Lib.CircReserves@wwu.edu
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