New Competencies for the Academic Librarian: A case study of patron-driven acquisition at University College Dublin

Eoin McCarney & Mark Tynan

UCD Library

7th UNICA Scholarly Communication Seminar: Visibility, Visibility, Visibility. Sapienza University of Rome, 27th November 2014

What we will cover

• What is PDA?

• How PDA worked in UCD • Staff & workflow changes with PDA • PDA statistics

• The pros and the cons of PDA

University College Dublin

• What is PDA?

• How PDA worked in UCD • Which subjects spent the most money?

• Print PDA versus electronic PDA

• The pros and the cons of PDA

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How did it work? – Timeframe

• National Tender & Framework agreement (October 2012) • Proceeded with Ingram Coutts as supplier (April 2013) • Subject profiling – April 2013 • 1st PDA Project (May - October 2013)

• 2nd PDA Project (March – September 2014)

Staff Questions

• Will we not be selecting books anymore? • What if the books ordered are irrelevant?

• What will happen to the collection? • What will the academics think?

• Won’t all the money get spent really quickly?

PDA requires Change of Mindset

Technical Skills Required

• Intermediate JAVA skills

• Ability to customise supplier APIs

• Web skills

What next?

Users search the catalogue and click on the item

E-PDA item in the catalogue – 1st click

e-Books

They see this screen

Passing here is one view which last 24 hours

Passing here a second time triggers a seamless purchase

3 concurrent users

Perpetual access

E-PDA item in the catalogue – 2nd click

Print PDA items in the catalogue

Disruptive Workflow

Select

Order

Receipt Invoice

Traditional Workflow

Profile

Order

Receipt Invoice

PDA Workflow

Orders are triggered automatically without library knowledge or intervention

PDA in UCD - Stats

• Total Spend: €320,000

• Total Orders: 3,283

• E–PDA Orders placed – 1,720

• Print PDA Orders placed – 1,563

• Average price of e-PDA book: €149.84

• Average price of print-PDA book: €45.51

Business 14%

Politics 9%

Philosophy 7%

English, Drama & Film 7%

Medicine 7%

Psychology 6%

History & Archives 5%

Law 5%

Education 5%

GPEP 4%

Business

Politics

Philosophy

English, Drama & Film

Medicine & Medical Science

Psychology

History & Archives

Law

Education

GPEP

E-PDA Orders by School (Top Ten Only)

Print-PDA Orders by School (Top Ten Only)

English, Drama & Film 10%

Politics 7%

History & Archives 7%

Business 6%

Medicine 6%

Law 6%

Sociology 6%

Art History 5%

Architecture 5%

Psychology 4%

English, Drama & Film

Politics

History & Archives

Business

Medicine & Medical Science

Law

Sociology

Art History & Cultural Policy

Architecture

Psychology

Challenges of PDA in UCD

• Volume & timing • Disruption to departmental workflow

• Print orders not collected

• Poor quality of print MARC records

• Change in mind set

• Technical work & skills required

What worked well?

• Subject profiling – Little, if any, inferior material ordered

• The money got spent very quickly

• Hugely popular with students and staff

• Broad subject appeal • Staff buy in

Next steps

• It has become part of our new workflow • Plan for third PDA project in 2015 • Re-run PDA tender process • Ongoing analysis of data & usage patterns

• Complete second research paper

Grazie Mille!

Eoin.McCarney@ucd.ie + 353 1 7167575 @eoinmc73

Mark.Tynan@ucd.ie + 353 1 7167165 @MarkTynan1