Submitted by morrill on
In a recent post, we told you about the patron and library surveys done earlier this year.
These surveys provided important information for the Digital Collections Work Group to use in developing the 2016 buying pool recommendations, which have been discussed, modified, and approved by the Digital Library Steering Committee.
The approved recommendations are:
1. Encourage Advantage collections to purchase copies of popular materials and purchase unique materials at the state level.
Systems with Advantage collections will be encouraged to focus funds on purchasing copies of popular materials and to make recommendations for the statewide collection for unique materials, rather than purchasing them for their own system-level collections. Because Advantage collections have a limited audience, purchasing unique materials at the system level naturally limits the audience and will result in less use than if an item were added to the statewide collection. Because there are often high numbers of holds from all systems on popular items, adding copies of these items will provide the most use of the invested dollars as the copies are likely to have high circulation, even with a more limited audience.
2. Increase the holds ratio for best sellers; ask the Selection Committee to consider a two-tiered system of holds ratios.
The survey results suggested that many patrons could tolerate a higher holds ratio for popular materials. Increasing the holds ratio (currently 5-to-1) for all items or creating two tiers with a higher ratio for most titles would decrease the amount spent on added copies and allow WPLC to invest in some other areas and more unique content. The Selection Committee will consider this.
3. Purchase patron requests only when a certain number of requests are received for a title.
WPLC consistently receives significantly more requests to purchase items than the budget allocated for patron requests. While the library survey results point to a desire to fulfill patron requests, it also suggested that requests should be vetted to make sure the requested title is high quality and adds value to the collection. In order to meet both of these needs, patron requests will be purchased only when a certain number of requests are received for a title. The number of requests to trigger a purchase will be determined by the Selection Committee.
4. Add a pilot Spanish language collection, focused on translated bestsellers and children’s materials.
Adding a small Spanish language collection would be appropriate, so $5,000 will be used to purchase a pilot collection in 2016. The usage statistics would be monitored and the collection evaluated prior to the 2017 allocation of the buying pool. The group felt that the most use of Spanish language materials in print collections are of translated bestsellers and children’s materials, and are therefore recommending the same formulation for the pilot digital collection.
5. Stop purchasing music and remove the existing music collection.
Very little of the digital collection budget has been invested in music, and there was little evidence in the library and patron surveys to suggest value in investing the significant funds that would be needed to make a viable music collection. WPLC will stop purchasing music and remove the existing music collection from the OverDrive interface, as the collection is small and not very popular.
6. Stop purchasing video, remove video that is only downloadable, keep the streaming video, and re-evaluate this format in a year.
While the streaming video format in OverDrive has had some use, there are some factors that make this collection less desirable for patrons:
- Titles are not available for unlimited simultaneous use, and patrons do not like the model of having to wait for streaming video.
- New, popular titles are not available.
WPLC will stop purchasing OverDrive video at this time and evaluate video as a format in one year as the 2017 buying pool allocation is prepared. Current videos that are not streaming (only downloadable) will be removed from the collection.
7. Allocate more funds toward audiobooks.
The survey results and usage statistics point to a need to increase the amount of funds spent each year for audiobooks. In the past, funds for audiobooks were shifted to ebooks in order to meet the significant demand for that format. Funds will now be directed back toward audiobook purchase.
We'll share more results and outcomes from the survey soon!