The Boston Library Consortium (BLC) has chosen ebrary, a proQuest business, and YBP Library Services, the academic division of Baker & Taylor, for a patron driven acquisition (PDA) e-book pilot. The aim is to make it easier and more affordable for its member libraries to acquire authoritative e-books from publishers including Princeton University Press, Wiley and Brill. Participating BLC member libraries are now offering seamless access to titles eligible for consortium-wide purchasing automated through YBP. In the patron/demand-driven acquisition model, titles are only purchased based on real usage from the end-user.
PDA is reportedly key to ebrary's strategic approach to e-book acquisition based on three steps: Transition, Diversify and Streamline. It has been stated that the growing number of libraries that are transitioning from print to digital books can achieve the greatest return on investment by diversifying acquisition models and streamlining the ordering process through YBP.
Students and faculty from participating BLC members are now able to select and identify titles for their access, while the Consortium makes the actual purchase. Access to purchased titles is shared among all participating members and those member libraries that already have patron driven acquisition with ebrary can continue to run individual programmes. ebrary's consortia PDA solution eliminates the potential issue of duplicative purchases and their short-term loan model can also be used in conjunction with the programme for added mediation.
The ebrary platform is seen to include many key features and benefits. These include dedicated apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and Android; infoTools, which turns words into portals to additional knowledge online; granular usage statistics; and multiple search and navigation options. The platform also offers chapter ranking of search results; personal bookshelves; highlighting and annotating; text-to-hyperlinks; text-to-speech; automatic citations; and interface in multiple languages.
YBP’s demand-driven acquisitions service includes features such as consideration of pool based on profiling from YBP, or all available content from ebrary; free browse period; short-term loans; and duplication control across all formats (digital and print). Basic and enhanced cataloging records; usage statistics and expenditure reports in GOBI are also available. Also, additional titles can be manually added to the DDA repository on a title-by-title basis.
