Just getting back to work after a week and a half vacation -- well needed rest on the Texas Gulf Coast.
I read a timely post by Steven Harris on his Collections 2.0 blog about on-demand purchasing and collection development in academic libraries. Steven brings up a lot of good points about the major issues facing just-in-time acquisitions:
Opposition from faculty regarding "their" allocations being spent on this type of purchasing mechanism
- Workflow issues -- how do we implement such a service and integrate it into our existing workflows?
- How does on-demand purchasing fit into our collection development philosophy and existing criteria for purchasing materials?
- Will we feel pressured to buy materials which are out-of-scope?
Although I am just starting out in the collection development "world", I've already been involved in discussing these same issues at my library. My A.D. is advocating for a purchase on-demand program, and admittedly, I was reserved at first. How does this fit into an academic library's mission to have a well-rounded, balanced collection meeting several different audiences' needs?
We are hiring a new ILL librarian in the next month and I am charged to develop such a program with this person. I've encountered the same questions in my discussions with my A.D. and in the reading I've done, which Steven asked in his blog post,mentioned above. One in particular that struck me was his reluctance to start a program due to the workflow issues.
At my library, we've decided to create an entirely new relationship between ILL (which here we call IDS for Information Delivery Services) and Acquisitions (which currently have very little to do with each other), developing a workflow which is transparent to the user, but integrates a purchase on-demand request into the IDS workflow. The biggest challenge or obstacle which I foresee is budgeting -- how do you budget or allocate for something new like this? How much money do we think this program is going to cost us? Who should be in charge of the budget? Will it be Acquisitions (who will actually purchase the materials and eventually process them) or IDS (who will make the recommendations for purchase according to a criteria set up in advance)? Do the Acquisitions folks have a stake in what is purchased or does IDS have the last say? What about the librarian liaisons to departments?
While overwhelmed and intimidated by such an idea at first, I think the program has potential, for the very same reasons Steven mentioned in his post. The number one reason being, of course, that we must be more aware of what our actual user needs are as opposed to what we think they are. A purchase on-demand program can respond very well to this need, especially if worked into the ILL workflow, with input from both ILL, Acquisitions, and Collection Development librarians and staff.
