Abstract

The University of South Florida (USF) Library maintains multiple DDA and EBA e-book programs as the basis for its collection management strategy in an effort to provide the scope of monographic material required by a large metropolitan research university in the most cost-effective manner. A patron-driven acquisitions program replaced the traditional print approval plan. Leveraging this usage data, several evidence-based acquisition programs were established with providers such as Wiley, Project Muse, and Elsevier. The process began with profiling the DDA and was developed combining factors that satisfied our programmatic requirements. Successful implementation at this scale requires collaborative effort from a community of librarians and staff with diverse skill sets.

The Orbis Cascade Alliance piloted an Evidenced-Based Acquisition Approach with Wiley in 2016–2017. Upon completion of the pilot, the alliance’s Ebook Working Group made content selection decisions to benefit almost 40 distinct institutions using a three-pronged approach focusing on individual institution usage, broadly used, and overall highly used titles. The alliance’s e-book strategies for 2017–2018 include setting up a second EBA pilot, while continuing the first; integrating with GOBI Library Solutions to benefit alliance members; and other plans for cooperative e-book management for the group of member institutions; all while keeping in mind goals for a broad range of content, stable costs, and making titles accessible both to patrons as well as from a technical services perspective.

These two viewpoints provide a comprehensive perspective of managing multiple e-book acquisition models in both consortium and individual institutions.

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EBA in Practice: Facilitating Evidence-Driven E-Book Programs in Both Consortium and Individual Library Settings

The University of South Florida (USF) Library maintains multiple DDA and EBA e-book programs as the basis for its collection management strategy in an effort to provide the scope of monographic material required by a large metropolitan research university in the most cost-effective manner. A patron-driven acquisitions program replaced the traditional print approval plan. Leveraging this usage data, several evidence-based acquisition programs were established with providers such as Wiley, Project Muse, and Elsevier. The process began with profiling the DDA and was developed combining factors that satisfied our programmatic requirements. Successful implementation at this scale requires collaborative effort from a community of librarians and staff with diverse skill sets.

The Orbis Cascade Alliance piloted an Evidenced-Based Acquisition Approach with Wiley in 2016–2017. Upon completion of the pilot, the alliance’s Ebook Working Group made content selection decisions to benefit almost 40 distinct institutions using a three-pronged approach focusing on individual institution usage, broadly used, and overall highly used titles. The alliance’s e-book strategies for 2017–2018 include setting up a second EBA pilot, while continuing the first; integrating with GOBI Library Solutions to benefit alliance members; and other plans for cooperative e-book management for the group of member institutions; all while keeping in mind goals for a broad range of content, stable costs, and making titles accessible both to patrons as well as from a technical services perspective.

These two viewpoints provide a comprehensive perspective of managing multiple e-book acquisition models in both consortium and individual institutions.