Immediacy vs. Foresight: A study of patron selected and librarian purchased eBooks at the University of Mississippi Libraries

ABSTRACT

As information becomes readily available at an instant, library users today have a high expectation of how quickly books are available for use. Therefore, librarians must evaluate purchasing models and how they meet the needs of today's patrons. A study was done at the University of Mississippi Libraries comparing usage statistics between patron selected and librarian purchased titles. This study included 3,716 titles purchased through the demand-driven acquisitions (DDAs) program and 2,076 librarian purchased titles. Usage statistics showed that user-selected titles were accessed on average .86 times more than subject librarian selected titles; thus, the average cost per title of librarian selected were less than DDA triggered; thus DDA selected titles had a lower cost per use.

KEYWORDS:

• DDA
• eBook
• usage
• subject librarian