1. Demand Driven Acquisitions and Alma
Daricus Larry 
Metadata Quality Manager
Georgia Southern
Debra Skinner
Cataloging and Metadata Librarian

2. At time of ALMA implementation, Georgia Southern was committed to “on demand” acquisitions for print and electronic books
In May 2015, Library announced shift from Approval Plan to Demand Driven Acquisitions
No more “just in case” Approval Plan
Intention is to ensure that we purchase titles that will be used by faculty, staff & students
Provide review sources (Choice) and encourage library liaisons and faculty to develop collections
Background

3. Why Continue Demand Driven Acquisitions
Too many books purchased that were never used
Static budget = decline in purchasing power
No longer feasible to fully develop collections & purchase as many books as in past
Why Continue Demand Driven Acquisitions

4. How Does it Work
Load records for newly published books into catalog (print and electronic)
Vendors provide records
Titles appear in both GIL-Find Catalog and EDS
“ON DEMAND” appears in Call Number field
“Available by Request” appears in Location field
Faculty and students make direct requests
Requires user to login
Result: purchase books directly requested by patrons

5. Advantages & Disadvantages
Buying what our users want/need
Great buy in from users after initial faculty concerns
Not less work for staff
Intensive purchasing process compared to traditional Approval Plan model
Advantages & Disadvantages

6. ALMA and DDA ALMA acquisitions capabilities well-suited to DDA model
Purchase Request Options
ON-DEMAND titles much more visible to users in GIL-Find (Primo) than in previous Voyager system
Additional bonus: users can make purchase request for ANY title in the consortium not owned by GS and not just DDA titles
130,089 unique EDDA titles
49,249 unique PDDA titles.

7. GIL-CAT DDA Purchase Requests

8. GIL-CAT Non-DDA Purchase Request

9. Options in ALMA to Create or Manage

10. Purchase Requests Appear in ALMA

11. Advantages of Purchase Requests
Correspondence through ALMA is Automatic
Query to patron asking for information
Rejection notice
Notice to patron that request has been approved
Notice to patron that material has arrived/on hold
Record of Purchases
Export to Excel – fiscal year report

12. First Workflow Find a record in the NZ
If a record wasn’t available bring one in from OCLC
Click Order underneath the record in the NZ once the record had been brought in
Fill out the appropriate purchase order instructions
Create holdings and items.
First Workflow

13. Ordering a Title

14. Purchase Order Line Information

15. Advantages & Disadvantages
Facilitated an easy way of dealing with the backlog of items purchased during the technical services freeze
Allowed catalogers to still have control over the MARC record that was chosen
Did not make use of purchase requests
Vulnerable to change in Alma
Advantages & Disadvantages

16. Second Workflow A purchase request is created
Sent from “Ask Library to Purchase” link in Primo.
Manually entered into Alma
The purchase request will be either attached to a DDA record or a brief record that was created by the purchase request.
Purchase Request is then assigned to a cataloger.
Cataloger selects the best MARC record and notes that the piece is DDA.
Second Workflow

17. The cataloger then assigns the Purchase Request to the Acquisitions Manager, who will click order on the purchase request.
As titles arrive they are checked against the chosen MARC record to make sure the metadata matches the piece. If not, the correct record will be found in the NZ or OCLC and exported.
The cataloger then ensures that the PDDA record is no longer in the IZ.
Second Workflow

18. Purchase Request MARC record Selection

19. Purchase Request MARC record Selection

20. Advantages & Disadvantages
Incorporated Purchase Requests into the workflow
Catalogers no longer have to create Purchase Orders to link titles to the network zone
Reduced number of steps needed to catalog materials
High potential for creation of duplicate records in the IZ
Vulnerable to change in Alma
Advantages & Disadvantages

21. Current Workflow A purchase request is created
Sent from “Ask Library to Purchase” link in Primo.
Manually entered into Alma.
The purchase request will be either attached to a DDA record or a brief record that itself created.
The Purchase Request is reviewed and then assigned to the Acquisitions Assistant, who clicks order on the purchase request and orders the materials from the vendor.
Once the piece has arrived a cataloger searches the NZ for the best MARC record. If one is not found it will be brought in from OCLC.
Once the record has been found, the cataloger will t add the 035  to the brief record or the DDA record in order for the NZ record to overlay.
Current Workflow

22. Advantages & Disadvantages
Simplifies the workflow and allows catalogers to wait for the piece to arrive before picking a record
Reduces the relinking of Purchase Orders and potential of creating duplicate records
Allows separation of Acquisitions and Cataloging workflows
Vulnerable to change in Alma
Advantages & Disadvantages

23. Electronic DDA titles are available to patrons the second they are loaded into the catalog.
Patrons are unaware that they are purchasing EDDA titles by just simply using them.
Alma makes managing and cataloging electronic resources easier than ever before.
Problems in Alma that we ran into with PDDA titles were nonexistent with EDDA titles.
What about electronic?

24. No workflow is set in stone. Instructions can easily become obsolete.
The process is labor intensive since titles are bought one at a time.
The blurring of the lines between cataloging and acquisitions complicates workflows.
Small deviances from the workflow can cause unintended results.
Alma’s built in communications functions have enabled more responsive customer service.
Documentation is essential, but must be flexible.
Patience.Patience.Patience.
Lessons Learned