Public Libraries
Abstract
This chapter examines the issues particular to demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) in public libraries. The concept of patrons selecting library materials began in public libraries, but restrictive publisher policies have helped keep catalog-integrated electronic book DDA largely out of public library licenses. This chapter discusses the efforts to help public libraries provide ebook content to users and the potential advantages of patron selection for collection diversity and balance. It discusses the recent past and current landscape of ebook and DDA lending in public library settings. The chapter closes with a case study of Chicago Public Library, which recently began an ambitious catalog-integrated DDA program for physical books and has had success with the program.
Keywords
Demand-driven acquisitions; collection development; selection; public libraries; diversity; publishers; mobile devices; pay-per-view
Though demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) is strongly associated with academic libraries due to the widespread acceptance of catalog-integrated DDA programs offered by academic publishers and vendors, the ideas and philosophy behind this strategy originated in public libraries. Nora Rawlinson’s 1981 article Give Em’ What They Want! is commonly cited as an early example of a formalized demand-driven program, though the concept of customer-driven collection development is foundational to public library service and has existed in some form as long as public libraries have sought to engage and educate their communities (Zielinska, 1980).
Nora Rawlinson, then the Head of Materials Selection at the Baltimore County Public Library, strongly tied the idea of demand-driven purchasing to the public library’s mission to serve the public. Baltimore took this idea to the extreme, engaging in both expansive and reductive demand-driven strategies including aggressive weeding based on circulation numbers and increased acquisitions in subject areas that saw frequent use. They also conducted pilot studies with users to see whether they were able to find the books that they were looking for in the library. These studies were incredibly successful, half of the patrons included found the item that they wanted and 85% of the remaining requests were for items that were included in the library’s collections but were already checked out at the time the requests were made (Rawlinson, 1981). Rawlinson’s successful experience with this strategy was a model that influenced the adoption of demand-driven strategies in public libraries as well as the incorporation of electronic DDA systems in academic libraries when they became available.
The concept behind DDA makes sense for public libraries and initiatives like interlibrary loan-to-purchase programs and book suggestion programs are running smoothly in many public library systems, and in some cases this is the primary strategy of acquisitions. The Thomas Crane Public Library had an interlibrary loan-to-purchase program set up when items were difficult to borrow from other libraries. They studied items that were purchased through this program in fiscal year 2001–02 and found that 84% of the items had subsequent circulations, the numbers for items purchased in the previous two fiscal years were even better, with 95% of items earning subsequent circulations (Allen, Ward, Wray, & Debus-Lopez, 2003).
Brian Kenney of the White Plains Public Library, described the public library perspective on DDA in a 2013 Publishers Weekly article, as a way to build collections of “books that will offer a good return on investment, and keep our customers happy and coming back.” Many of the public libraries Kenney interviewed for the article had moved towards a demand-driven approach, especially for lower circulation areas like nonfiction and reference to focus their efforts on acquiring high-demand front-list fiction. Public libraries are increasingly moving towards data-driven collection development efforts, including a successful 2011 effort through the Brooklyn Public Library that increased circulation by 2.3 million transactions.
White Plains Public Library used a “you ask, we buy” program that generated unexpected, but successful results like an increase in young adult publications from self-published authors which would have been left out of traditional approval plans (Kenney, 2013). Informal DDA programs like this are common in public libraries, but data from subsequent circulations of these titles and formalized programs like interlibrary loan-to-purchase and catalog-integrated DDA have gained traction in public library settings over the past several years. These programs and the data obtained from them have helped many public library systems give patrons more of what they want.
9.1 The Careful Balance of Patron Selection
Carol Hole’s article in American Libraries called attention to one potentially problematic aspect of DDA for public libraries, demand might not match the use groups the library needs to serve (Hole, 1990). The American Library Association’s guidelines for diversity in collection development, states that, “library collections must represent the diversity of people and ideas in our society” (American Library Association, 1982). This is true of all types of libraries, though it is most pressing in publicly funded collections that are meant to serve a diverse and broad range of users.
Hole’s article suggested that demand interpretation, even the anecdotal interpretation of physical circulations in the library, had led to a feminization of titles in the collection because women represented the predominant adult users of public library materials. It is possible that DDA programs in the library would further exacerbate this tendency and lead to unbalanced collection building. Demand-driven programs are suitable for public libraries, but they must be carefully and frequently assessed and selected or approval plan acquisitions strategies should fill in gaps to make sure that the collections do not stray too far from broadness and balance. Some academic libraries have used discovery records as a proxy for purchase (Dinkins, Kirkland, & Poole Wald, 2014), but attention should still be paid across systems to make sure that purchases are somewhat balanced in case the institution moves away from a DDA model. Ebook DDA is becoming more suitable to diverse programs as smartphone penetration advances nearly equally among different racial and socioeconomic groups (Anderson, 2015). The digital divide that once represented a large barrier for public library purchasing may not be a widespread issue in the future. The rift might fall along mobile and desktop lines with access to nonmobile technologies like word processing and higher-order computing representing the digital divide of the future.
Diversity initiatives and DDA programs like the one at Chicago Public Library (CPL) could even serve as a marketing strategy for libraries wishing to engage patrons that are using the libraries less frequently. Newsletters, circulars, and postings in the library asking specific demographic groups to join the collection-building effort could help foster ownership over library collections and increase use. This strategy has not been studied, but is aligned with similar targeted outreach strategies like non-English language book groups and community-specific events. With this perspective, patron-engaged collection building could become another facet of diversity outreach initiatives in public libraries (American Library Association, 2014).
DDA programs also offer the possibility of expansion in subject and language areas where staff librarians may not be experts. Patrons can and have helped public library systems better serve their demographic areas by working together to build target area collections. This type of collection development can be traced back to the early 1900s in Canada, when immigrants from Germany, France, Russia, Romania, and other nations began requesting books in their native languages from public libraries in Saskatchewan and Ontario. Donations also made up a significant portion of the multilingual collection development in these libraries (Zielinska, 1980). Similar patterns of use can be seen in public library development in the United States around the same time. In cities across the United States, librarians adopted collections, purchased non-English materials, and took a leading role in teaching English to immigrants (Jones, 1999, pp. 9–10). Library collections were shaped and influenced by the communities they served and the collections and services changed along with the communities as languages and cultures shifted, emerged, assimilated, and arrived (Malone, 2000).
Matthew Ciszek and Courtney Young’s 2010 article in Collection Building outlines a framework for assessing collections for diversity. Their research focuses on academic libraries specifically, but the advice is broadly applicable to libraries of all kinds though public libraries may want to go further in providing support for diverse builders of collections by ensuring that their demand-driven development efforts are accessible to all the communities they serve. Ciszek and Young suggest practical assessment strategies like a subject-based peer collection review using OCLC’s Collection Analysis tools, comparing individual items against a standard bibliography in particular areas of interest, and developing diversity codes to include in record metadata so it is easy to identify collections that support diversity. They also recommend focus groups and patron interviews and surveys to ensure collections are meeting the needs of diverse users (Ciszek & Young, 2010).
Maintaining collection diversity is an important function of public libraries and as institutions move into DDA, diversity assessment should be a part of the evaluation of these programs and if internally established benchmarks for diverse inclusions into the collection are not being met, selector librarians should intervene to correct this. Maintaining a balanced collection is a wish of many academic libraries, but it is a requirement for public libraries when it comes to supporting the community through library acquisitions.
9.2 Ebooks in the Public Library
Ebook lending in public libraries has a complex history and extremely diverse presence due to uneven and changing buy-in from publishers. After an initial honeymoon period, several of the “big five” publishers, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster, pulled out of public libraries entirely (Bosman, 2011) and then returned with a variety of more restrictive licensing terms. American Library Association projects like Authors for Library Ebooks (http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/a4le) were established in an attempt to advocate for public library interests with publishers, but the array of license terms and vendors is still dizzying.
Reports like the E-book Business Model Scorecard (http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2013/01/ala-releases-ebook-license-scorecard) the Buyers Guide created by the ReadersFirst Working Group (http://www.readersfirst.org/) are meant to help public librarians sift through the many vendor options for ebooks and choose the right programs for their patrons. Despite the rigors of establishing and maintaining ebook lending programs in public libraries, most institutions are committed to making these resources available to users. The 2014 Library Journal survey of ebooks in public libraries found that 95% of libraries surveyed specified that they offered ebooks for their users and the median collection had 10,000 titles. Circulations have increased and tablets have surpassed e-readers as the most popular method of accessing ebook collections, but many of the public libraries in the survey said that they still struggled to make these collections visible and usable for their patrons. Purchase with perpetual access has been fading out of ebook licensing terms for public libraries, with an increasing number of libraries reporting that the collections they licensed were limited by the number of circulations (School Library Journal, 2014).
David Gray and Andrea Copeland conducted a duplicate study of titles held in both print and ebook formats at a midsized suburban public library to investigate the differences in cost and usage between these two formats. The library had been using OverDrive for the past 15 months and the researchers analyzed usage from this entire period. This was a small study, only 34 duplicate sets were considered, but they found some interesting data including highly similar circulation rates between the ebook copy and the first print copy which could mean that users were indifferent about which format they used when they wanted to read a title or at least that there was a significant group of interested readers for both formats. They also reported that print books were less expensive than ebooks and that some publishers placed restrictive licenses on the circulations of their ebooks which reduced the value of those books for the library. Public library purchasing and usage is still strongly oriented towards print, but further investigation is needed for this field into patron interest in ebooks (Gray & Copeland, 2012).
Catalog-integrated ebook DDA programs are desired in some public libraries (Carrico, Leonard, & Gallagher, 2016) but very few vendors have stepped up to offer this service in public libraries. Instead, several external sites that operate on a pay per use rather than a library ownership model have developed. Freading (http://www.freading.com) is one site that has begun to offer pay per use content in several public library systems including Westchester, New York (http://www.westchesterlibraries.org/listen-read/freading/) and Athens, Ohio (https://www.myacpl.org/freading/). Freading operates on a prepay token system and libraries have control over the number of tokens each patron is allowed to spend per week. Hoopla (https://www.hoopladigital.com) offer many types of content including movies, audiobooks, and music. Both of these options are more restrictive than catalog-integrated DDA because libraries do not have control over the content that is shown to patrons. The patron checks out the material from an external website, which can be a confusing experience for patrons even with robust library branding on the external site. Even though Hoopla provides MARC records for catalog integration, many libraries publicize the service externally, so patrons may find materials through the library catalog or navigate directly to the external provider and browse.
We also know that DDA can help us develop collections for the long tail of patron interest. For public libraries in the current era this might mean a better market grasp on self-published titles. Self-published books made up 22% of the United Kingdom ebook market in 2015 (Campbell, 2016). This market may continue to expand and adding DDA records from self-publishing platforms could be a good way for libraries to stay on top of this trend.
Demand-driven ideas can also make their way into weeding policies for public libraries. Public libraries have constantly changing collection needs, so weeding issues are paramount to public library workflows. Demand-governed weeding efforts, including examining circulation numbers and recent circulations, have been a part of the practices of public libraries since we have had librarians to argue about how we should be doing weeding.(Dilevko & Gottlieb, 2003). Characterizing this process as demand-driven, particularly when coupled with expansive processes like DDA, has the potential to reshape the way we think about public library collections and the way that they accumulate and exist in the public library.
We know that, particularly with ebook packages, there is significant clutter in the collection that does not contribute to circulation (Proctor, 2013). For public libraries concerned with creating collections that are manageable and appropriate for their communities, hiding titles from these collections could be an effective strategy for discovery. For DDA programs as well as ebook collections, weeding is just as important as it was all those decades ago. There is some expectation that eventually ebook materials might self-correct or be able to version on the same platform, but for now librarians are mostly stuck ensuring that the right version of digital materials is promoted in the right way.
9.3 Case Study: Chicago Public Library
Chicago Public Library is an 80-branch urban public library system serving a diverse community of users. They recorded almost 9.5 million physical visitors in 2015 (Chicago Public Library, 2016) and also provide digital offerings through the Zinio and Hoopla platforms. In 2013, CPL received a $300,000 grant from The Illinois State Library to begin a catalog-integrated DDA program. Their print-based program loaded 2-year backlists from approved publishers as discovery records in the catalog. They chose not to limit these title lists because they wanted to give patrons the freedom to tell the library specifically what they wanted to check out and study how the patron-selected titles circulated after purchase.
I spoke to Andrew Medlar, CPL’s Assistant Chief of Technology, Content, & Innovation by phone to get the scoop on CPL’s DDA program (A. Medlar, personal communication, Jan. 27, 2016). Since their grant program ended, CPL has focused on operationalizing their DDA program into the regular acquisitions of the institution. Part of this has been a formalization of the traditional methods of DDA, asking librarians in person and submitting request forms through the website. The success of their catalog-integrated DDA program has given CPL a new confidence with these requests and now even a single patron request logged with a librarian or submitted through their website is sufficient to trigger a purchase.
Researchers at CPL assessed their DDA program with measures of subsequent circulations of DDA titles and the purchase subject areas. They also looked at the records that were triggered and those that were not to refine their discovery profile. In the first quarter of CPL’s DDA pilot, they found that nonfiction titles like computer science manuals and self-help books performed best and they were surprised to find that not many children’s titles had been triggered (Medlar, Murphy, & Sposato, 2014). Since the first part of the publication, they have been able to hone their discovery records to offer a greater variety of the kinds of materials that patrons are triggering in the system and eliminate some of the subject area discovery records that they were not triggering.
Medlar mentioned that they were trying to expand their foreign language collections using DDA. The initial grant focused on English language materials, but since the grant they have been incorporating Spanish language adult titles into the pool. He mentioned that one of the challenges they face in this area is that there are potential language barriers for speakers of languages other than English in using the catalog and finding books to trigger. Even with these barriers, incorporating other languages into DDA programs in public libraries seems like a phenomenal way to expand service to patrons who speak other languages, especially the languages that library staff selectors do not speak.
One of the other methods they used when building their discovery pool was adding the full catalog from the first 2 years from publishers that the library generally trusted and used. CPL has a small team of central selectors, so this helped selectors allocate their time by freeing them from combing through publisher catalogs that were generally made up of materials that they likely could put on the shelf (Medlar et al., 2014).
To get the program off the ground, they worked very hard to ensure that the catalog records they loaded into the catalog were as seamless as possible. They also worked with front-facing staff to ensure that they knew what was happening with the program, although the only difference they could observe in the catalog record was a different media code for DDA materials. Medlar said that implementation on the public-facing side went smoothly due to the efforts of the technical team to integrate the catalog records and the enthusiasm of the staff, who were happy to be able to facilitate connecting patrons with the right materials.
CPL researchers assessed the program through the circulations of the materials that were chosen, the numbers of materials that were not selected, and the subsequent holds that were generated on the purchased titles through the program. They found evidence that materials that were selected through DDA generated more holds than traditionally selected materials. After the grant money had been spent, CPL moved into allocating funds to the program. The DDA program is still a relatively small percentage of CPL’s selections budget, but they are open to reallocating further funds towards DDA purchasing in the system.
The second part of the article detailing assessment efforts of CPL’s DDA program will be published in ALCTS.