Judith M. Nixon

Patron-Driven Acquisitions: An Introduction and Literature Review

Libraries exist for their users, so librarians take user needs into consideration when building collections. In the past, this consideration took many forms. Past use suggested that more books of a similar nature would receive future use. The librarians’ knowledge about a particular user community’s interest in certain topics drove other choices; a public library collection in a rural area would include books on some topics unlikely to interest urban dwellers, for example. Academic libraries would emphasize subjects taught or researched at the institution. A small liberal arts college’s collection would focus on some different subject areas than a polytechnic institution. A museum library might buy few titles outside the field of the fine and decorative arts. Traditionally, librarians relied on book reviews, publisher reputation, and professional intuition to guide them in the selection of books for their patrons. While most librarians seriously considered users’ requests for specific titles if they met the library’s collection development policies, in general librarians selected the vast majority of titles. To borrow a term from industry, librarians historically built collections on the “just in case” inventory model. Starting in the late 1970s, the results of several studies showed that users in major academic library collections checked out an astonishingly low percentage of these largely librarian-selected books (Kent 1979). One frequently cited study revealed that 20% of the collection receives 80% of the use (Trueswell 1969). These studies suggested that the traditional model of librarian-selected titles does not serve users, at least not at academic institutions, as well as librarians expected. At the same time, skyrocketing interlibrary loan (ILL) figures from the Association of Research Libraries member libraries also indicated that local collections do not meet needs adequately (Libraries 2009, 9). Certainly some of the ILL traffic is for unusual, obscure,

Liberal Arts Books on Demand: A Decade of Patron-Driven Collection Development, Part 1

The Purdue University Libraries was an early implementer of purchasing rather than borrowing books requested through interlibrary loan. This pioneering user-initiated acquisitions program, started in January 2000 and called Books on Demand, is managed by the interlibrary loan unit. Now that the program has reached its tenth year, the authors revisit their initial 2002 study to analyze books purchased in the six top subject areas across the whole decade. In their review of the liberal arts titles selected, subject librarians found that the books were appropriate additions and that these titles expanded the cross-disciplinary nature of the collection. The Books on Demand service offers a seamless method for all users, especially graduate students, to provide input into the collection building process.

A Study of Circulation Statistics of Books on Demand: A Decade of Patron-Driven Collection Development, Part 3

The Purdue University Libraries was an early implementer of purchasing books requested through interlibrary loan rather than borrowing the requested books. The service, called Books on Demand, began in January 2000. An analysis of the requests at the end of the first two years of service indicated that these patron-selected books were more likely to have repeat circulations than the books acquired through normal collection development processes. When the program reached its tenth year, the authors analyzed and compared the books purchased through Books on Demand with all other purchased books during the same period. Findings indicate that books acquired through this user-initiated program have higher circulation rates than books acquired through the normal selection channels. The difference is quite large, a mean of 4.1 compared to a mean of 2.4, when the first interlibrary loan use is included as a circulation. Therefore, the authors recommend that libraries investigate a service of purchasing books requested via interlibrary loan as a complement to other collection development efforts.

Growing Your Own Leaders: Succession Planning in Libraries

ABSTRACT Succession planning, a strategy for developing leaders from within the company or organization, is a technique that could be useful to libraries. Libraries will soon be faced with more open positions because of retirements than we can fill. The dilemma is complicated by a shortage of younger, midcareer librarians and a shortage of new recruits into the profession. These openings will be primarily in leadership positions. This problem will affect libraries of all kinds including business libraries. One solution is to “grow your own” leaders by using succession planning techniques to identify staff with the interest and potential for upper-level positions, to determine the gaps in knowledge, and to set up training and mentoring programs so that they are ready to assume leadership positions in the near future.

The Right Book on the Right Shelf: Missing and Misshelved Books—How Bar Code Scanning Inventories Can Solve the Patrons’ Dilemma

After more than 30 years of failing to conduct a comprehensive inventory of the book collection at a large liberal arts library, our patrons complained that they could not find one in five books. A study of the problem indicated that in fact 20% of our books were either missing or misshelved. This article discusses the investigation of the problem and the impact after five years of conducting an annual inventory by using handheld devices to gather bar codes and interface these with our catalog records to find the missing and misshelved books. The missing book rate dropped from 5.6% to less than one half percent. The misshelved book rate dropped steadily every year from 11.6% to 3.1%. The number of books reported as missing by our patrons dropped 90%.

A Reprise, Or Round Three: Using a Database Management Program as a Decision-Support System for the Cancellation of Serials

Annual journal inflation rates of eight percent or higher have compelled libraries to cancel journals. Since 1992 Purdue Libraries have had three major cancellation projects. This article reviews how the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library approached this task in 2009 and developed a database management program to identify titles based on two criteria: low use and the availability of the title in full text in one of three aggregator databases. The education and humanities departments reached the cancellation goal, but several social science departments had to transfer funds from the book budget to accommodate their journal subscription costs. This indicates the importance of the journal to research in these areas.

On‐line searching and the hospitality industry: An evaluation of databases

Abstract This study compares seven databases which contain bibliographic references in the business and leisure fields: ABI/IN‐FORM, CAB ABSTRACTS, MANAGEMENT CONTENTS, PTS F&S INDEX, PTS MARKETING & ADVERTISING REFERENCE SERVICE, PTS PROMT, and TRADE & INDUSTRY INDEXTM. First a comparison of databases based on coverage of industry specific journals was made. CAB ABSTRACTS and TRADE & INDUSTRY INDEXTM have the most thorough coverage. Then four research questions were searched, and the results were compared to identify the most productive database and to determine the degree of overlap among the databases. Results for the four questions researched indicate that PTS PROMT is the most productive database for hospitality questions. However, if used alone, over 50% of the citations available will not be retrieved. A combination of databases is recommended. The questions used in this study indicate that TRADE & INDUSTRY INDEXTM is the best companion database for PTS PROMT.

Review of CAB International's CD-ROM Database AgECONCD.

ABSTRACT Researchers in the field of agricultural economics who search the agriculture and economics databases, will find this review of the subject specific CD-ROM database AgECONCD particularly helpful. Searching mechanisms, controlled vocabulary, record format, comparison to other databases, hit rates and pricing are all discussed. This is an excellent review of a new and unique resource for the field of agricultural economics.