Page 210 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 42

Extended English abstracts of articles published in the Chinese edition of Journal of Library Science in China 2016 Vol.42 209

Analysis on E-book PDA models and key aspects in the library consortium
environment
HU Zhenning ①a *

Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA)of e-books has been a focus of the foreign library consortia.
Since 2010,through a variety of pilots and relevant studies,library consortia in North America
have gradually developed various PDA models. During 2012-2013,JISC implemented the
E-BASS25 program for PDA. In June 2014,NISO approved Demand Driven Acquisition of
Monographs:A Recommended Practice of the NISO,a guideline for PDA practice in libraries and
library consortia.
The JISC report lists four models of PDA: 1)PDA purchase；2)PDA rental；3)PDA
usage；and 4)Evidence-based selection. These four models differ in bibliographical resource
pools,purchasing processes,funds management and so on. Among them,PDA rental represents
the essence of PDA and is most commonly used in library consortia. For example,as a result of
PDA rental,the Orbis Cascade Alliance has greatly reduced its spending and improved the usage
of e-books.
The paper suggests that five key aspects be considered in a library consortium PDA pilot:
1)PDA model selection. Three questions need to be answered. First,is the format of the library
consortium - “loose” or “tight”? Second,is the goal of acquisition - “to own” or “to access”?
Third,is there any specific fund available for PDA?
2)Duplication control. For PDA purchase,a library consortium may purchase duplicates
with great discount,but duplicates are not shared in the consortium. For PDA rental and PDA
usage,a library consortium purchases duplicates under the framework of e-resource license
agreement,allowing sharing among member libraries. The multiplier model or the limited usage
model has usually been used in PDA license agreement to control duplication.
3)Budget for PDA. Funding for library consortium PDA should be fair and reasonable.
Major factors in consideration of the budget include the number of student FTE in a university
library or active users in a public library,the acquisition budget and resource utilization in
member libraries,among others. A library consortium should evaluate the expenditure of funds
periodically,and make the adjustment if necessary.
4)Resource ownership. The ownership of resources is closely related to the PDA model,funding
management and sales agreement. For PDA purchase,member libraries paying for the resources
hold the ownership. For PDA usage,the focus is on resource usage rather than ownership.
5)Resource management and discovery. A library consortium needs to establish profiles for
its member libraries,to apply new workflows to speed up de-duplication,and to adopt advanced
cataloging methodology to improve the quality of union catalog. In the meantime,the library
consortium should support further development of resource discovery system,and monitor users’
* Correspondence should be addressed to HU Zhenning,Email:huzn@szu.edu.cn,ORCID:0000-0003-0509-9006