Getting Started with Demand-Driven Acquisitions for E-Books

July 1, 2015

Demand-driven acquisitions (DDA), also known as patron-driven acquisitions (PDA), turn the entire process of book selection and purchasing on its head by putting library users in charge. And it's not only this upside-down selection method that needs examination but also the new workflow processes that are involved. Book vendors and publishers haven't made things any easier for librarians and readers by providing/requiring technological and legal roadblocks to the process. For those librarians who have not jumped on the demand-driven access bandwagon, and even for those who have, this work by Arndt (associate director, library resources & administration, Dickinson Coll.) organizes the considerations that should be addressed. Deliberating relevant questions and backing up the answers with research, this title provides a framework for thinking through the concept and workflow of DDA. While comparable to David Swords' Patron-Driven Acquisitions and Judith M. Nixon's Patron-Driven Acquisitions, this work stands alone as a recent review of the thought and literature. VERDICT Essential reading for academic and public librarians.--Margaret Sylvia, St. Mary's Univ. Lib., San Antonio

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