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

Abstract

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.

KEYWORDS:

• patron-driven acquisitions
• collection development
• acquisitions
• interlibrary loan
• user-initiated acquisitions
• patron-initiated collection development
• Books on Demand

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge Amy Winks for extracting the raw data from the Clio and ILLiad databases and E. Stewart Saunders for compiling the master Microsoft Access database.

Notes

1. Clio from Clio Software (www.cliosoftware.com) and ILLiad from OCLC/Atlas Systems (www.oclc.org/illiad).

2. The data for the study were gathered in mid 2009, so although this article often mentions a decade, the actual data examined cover nine years and seven months.

3. In 2009, the Purdue Libraries changed from Dewey Decimal classification to Library of Congress classification, so there were 98 books with Library of Congress call numbers. These were added to the subject call number lists for each bibliographer and are included in the statistics.

4. Religious Studies was part of the Philosophy department during most of the time covered by this study.