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Beguiled by Bananas: A Retrospective Study of the Usage and Breadth of Patron vs. Librarian Acquired eBook Collections
Library Staff Publications and Research
  • Jason S Price, Claremont University Consortium
  • John D McDonald, Claremont University Consortium
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
11-5-2009
Abstract

Library acquisitions lore contains a cautionary tale of a patron in a demand-driven environment who spent a huge chunk of the library budget on ebooks about bananas. This story and others like it have been used to perpetuate the argument that demand-driven acquisition will result in collections that don't appeal to a broad audience or are otherwise unbalanced. We apply post-acquisition usage data from multiple libraries to test the hypothesis that patron-acquired versus librarian-acquired collections have different usage profiles. In addition, we analyze their subject profiles to evaluate collection breadth and balance. Our results will help libraries to anticipate the effect of adding a demand-driven component to their ebook acquisition strategy.

Comments

XXIX Annual Charleston Conference November 4-7, 2009, 29th Annual Preconferences and Conference Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition.

Previously linked to as https://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/u?/lea,175 and https://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/u?/lea,177

Rights Information
© 2009 Jason S. Price and John D. McDonald
Citation Information
Jason S Price and John D McDonald. "Beguiled by Bananas: A Retrospective Study of the Usage and Breadth of Patron vs. Librarian Acquired eBook Collections" (2009)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jason-s-price/9/