Monograph Collection Development in an Age of Uncertainty: The University of Haifa Library Experience Cecilia Harel Head of Collection Development, Gifts & Exchange 5 th Shanghai (Hangzhou) International Library Forum August 24-27, 2010

University of Haifa:  Established in 1963  18,000 students, 1,200 lecturers  6 Faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, Law, Social Welfare & Health, Science & Science Education  63 Research centers: Jewish-Arab Center, Tourism & Recreation, Brain & Behavior Research, Law & Technology, Multiculturalism & Educational Research, Information Processing & Decision-making, Health, Law & Ethics, Institute of Evolution…

University of Haifa Library:  Established in 1968   Collections: 1,000,000 books, 32,000 journal titles, E-resources, Databases, Media, Rare books, Archives, Psychological Tests, Children’s Lit, Digital Media Center   65 librarians + technical staff  400 computer workstations

Presentation:  Collection development at U. of Haifa Library  Monograph collection development strategies  Patron Driven Acquisitions Trial  Objectives  Method  Data  Conclusions

Collection Development at University of Haifa Collection Development at University of Haifa  Collection development policy: support for research, teaching and study programs  Faculty involvement in selection  Library liaisons to departments  Centralized acquisitions budget

U. Of Haifa Monograph Collection Development Strategies Good years (until 2005):  Standing orders  Approval plans  Course required reading  Budget allocation: journals 60%, monographs 40%  Just in case acquisitions for research in all subjects Lean years (2005+):  Cancellation of most standing orders, except law  Approval plans only for Hebrew & Arabic books  Course required reading  Budget allocation: 85% journals & databases, 15% monographs  Just in time acquisitions for specific research

Electronic (ebook) Acquisitions Title by title vs. collections:

Patron Driven Acquisitions (PDA)  Acquisitions based on users’ actions/needs  Originated in 1990’s with collection development based on interlibrary loan requests  Budget allocated for users’ requests  Model implemented for ebook acquisitions

2005: YBP/Cambridge U.P. Conference – Univ. of Alberta reported on PDA project with NetLibrary 2008: 28 th Annual Charleston Conference – “Tossing Traditional Collection Development Practices for Patron Initiated Purchasing” 2009/03: ACRL Conference – “Patron Initiated Purchasing at ACRL” 2009/07: ALA Annual Conference – Meeting on “Patron Initiated Collection Development in Academic Libraries: Sharing Experiences and Implications for Change” 2009/08: 75 th IFLA Conference – “When Customers Select: Customer- Initiated Acquisition of E-Books in an Academic Library” 2010: More than Bookends Blog – “Patron Driven Acquisitions is Here!” PDA and Ebooks

University of Haifa: PDA Trial Objectives University of Haifa: PDA Trial Objectives  Expose users to ebooks  Effective use of shrinking monograph budget  Decrease delivery time of needed books  Enable user input in selection and acquisition  Learn about and measure use of ebooks

PDA Trial Method Ebrary’s offer:  Access to about 60,000 ebooks for one year  Elimination of irrelevant subjects: engineering, technology, agriculture, medicine  Provision of MaRC records & links to full text  Automatic purchase trigger based on use formula  Usage reports for books purchased & viewed

PDA Trial Method - continued University of Haifa’s procedure:  Budget allocation of $25,000  Check Ebrary’s record file against holdings in Aleph catalog to remove duplicate records  Load Ebrary records in Aleph catalog  At end of trial, delete records of books not purchased

Purchase trigger formula: unique pages viewed + prints + copies >= PERSONS VIEW PAGE 1 EACH DAY NO PRINTS, NO COPIES NOBUY 1 USER VIEWS PAGES 1,2,3 PAGE 3 COPIED & PAGE 3 PRINTED BUY 5 DIFFERENT USERS VIEW PAGES 1,2,3 NO PAGES COPIED OR PRINTED NOBUY

PDA Trial Results  During trial, all 60,000 ebooks were immediately accessible to users  Budget allocation was finished within 2 months (10-11/2009)  270 ebook purchases were triggered  300 additional ebooks were viewed but not purchased (no budget)

PDA Trial: Ebrary User Statistics

PDA Trial: Purchases Triggered by Subject

PDA Trial: Purchases Triggered by Publisher No. of TitlesPublisher 52Routledge 27Guilford 21Cambridge U.K. 13Wiley 9Brill 9Sage Publications 8Ashgate 8Butterworth-Heinemann 8Oxford University Press 7McGraw-Hill 6Springer 6University of Minnesota Press 5Academic Press 5Psychology Press

PDA Trial: Usage data during and after trial No. of ebooks purchased by no. of interactions

Accessibility of ebooks in OPAC

PDA Trial: Conclusions Problems:  Delayed trigger reports  Confusion about purchase trigger formula  Difficulty identifying items already in holdings  Print limitations: increased to 20 pages x 2  Refine criteria for titles to include  Lack of data on users and their feedback

PDA Trial: Conclusions Advantages:  Immediate exposure to critical mass of ebooks  Quick and easy acquisition process  Purchase based on real-time use  User input for selection and purchase  Reference staff reports: user satisfaction with full text access to books

Recommendations  Library can adapt PDA model to its needs and criteria: budget, subjects, publishers, dates  PDA model can be a continuous process: U. of Dallas Library - receive new ebooks each month and delete titles not purchase after 1 year  Requires negotiation with supplier: criteria and trigger formula  Selection and purchase model that helps build collection based on users’ needs

Changing strategies…

Thank You Cecilia Harel University of Haifa Library