Patron Driven Acquisitions Project: Print Materials

The Patron Driven Acquisitions (PDA) project provides timely access to needed materials in the humanities and social sciences that have not been purchased by any I-Share library. Launched in February 2012, this project builds on a successful pilot project with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010.  

CARLI worked with YBP to identify print titles that were not currently owned by I-Share libraries. In order to be included, materials had to meet the following selection criteria:

• Books published after January 2011
• English language
• Subjects: Humanities and Social Sciences
• Level of Materials: general academic, advanced academic, and professional
• All university press, trade, scholarly and professional publishers
• Priced at $200 or less
• Currently in stock at YBP and available for rush delivery
• Not reference books or textbooks
• Not spiral bound
• Not reprints

In early 2012, CARLI loaded approximately 2,100 bibliographic records into the I-Share union catalog to begin the project. Records for new titles that meet the criteria are added weekly. Records will be removed for items purchased through the PDA project, or by any I-Share library. The records are available for request by any I-Share library user that has Universal Borrowing (UB) privileges. Users searching the catalog will encounter records for these PDA titles that display a location of "Will be purchased upon request" and notes text of "Request this item and CARLI will purchase it for I-Share."

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign library is serving as CARLI's partner in performing the ordering and fulfillment work. Once requested by a patron, the book’s purchase will be expedited, the item will be rush processed at UIUC, and then will be loaned to the patron. Items will be shipped between libraries by standard ILDS overnight delivery. Items purchased under this program will be assigned a four-week loan period and users will be able to renew the item one time.

All materials purchased through this PDA project will be purchased with CARLI funds and will be the property of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois and will display a note in the item holding record  “Purchased with funds from CARLI.” Materials will be housed at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Library and will be available for resource sharing access. CARLI staff will study the ongoing usage of these materials as a part of the assessment of the project. All applicable library records confidentiality policies will be followed throughout this project.

The CARLI Board has approved $70,000 to fund the Patron Driven Acquisitions project. When all funds have been expended, the bibliographic records of the items not purchased will be removed from I-Share. A message about the completion of the project will also be shared with the CARLI community.

Contact the CARLI Office if you have any questions about the PDA project.