Undergrads as Selectors: Assessing Patron-Driven Acquisition at a Liberal Arts College

Abstract

This article evaluates the effectiveness of a small college library's patron-driven acquisition (PDA) program for its print monograph collection, which is unusual in that undergraduate students contribute all PDA selections. To make the analysis comprehensive, this study assesses the program's performance over nine years across four dimensions: circulation, appropriateness of selections, turnaround time, and cost. These four approaches yield varying conclusions about the efficacy of the program, thereby demonstrating the value of a multi-pronged assessment. The circulation advantages of patron-suggested books are less pronounced than in previous studies, which indicates that undergraduates may not consistently select appropriate titles for the local collection.

KEYWORDS:

• collaboration
• demand-driven acquisition
• interlibrary loan departments
• purchase on demand

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Sue Gagnon and John Dillon for their help in gathering the data and information used in this study.

© Jeffrey H. Waller