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ABSTRACT
This article examines data from five years of titles ordered as part of an academic research library's purchase on demand program (POD-ILL) for print titles originally requested through interlibrary loan. The study evaluates a variety of factors: patron departments, campus location, and status; the subject areas of the books acquired; cost; and publishers. Assessment of POD-ILL data may assist a collection management librarian to determine the value of having patrons contribute to collection development decisions. In addition, subject librarians can use the data to evaluate approval and demand-driven acquisition profiles.
Notes
1. While ideally, patrons would always pick up titles requested via POD-ILL, the reality is that patrons sometimes order materials on interlibrary loan and forget to come to the library and pick them up. When comparing the data for regular returnable interlibrary loan books for the same period, patrons picked up 90% of the requests.
2. The 2010 Purdue study does not average costs for liberal arts titles and science titles by subdiscipline, limiting the ability to compare the later data.
3. At USU the only humanities-oriented doctoral program is Technical Writing, offered in the English department. Of course at Purdue there are many more doctoral degrees offered throughout the humanities and, thus, the composition of their graduate student body has a much higher percentage of degree seekers in more book-oriented disciplines.
4. Often, academic departments at USU comprised more than one discipline. For example, Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies is a single department, as is Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology.