2014 Charleston Library Conference

This session will explore how the Library worked with book vendors, a bibliographic utility, and their ILS to acquire monographs in print and electronic formats. Applying in-house expertise to various monographic acquisitions models has resulted in the library providing desired content in the preferred format efficiently and at reasonable cost.

The discussion will center on our use of a primary vendor, YBP, to drive purchases via multiple acquisitions models, each handled through a unique workflow that is specifically designed to provide access to the content in an efficient and cost effective manner. YBP supplies both traditional print resources as well as ebooks on a variety of platforms. The library has established subject-based profiles that result in electronic book notifications for firm orders, print approval deliveries, e-preferred approvals, and patron driven ebooks. These workflows allow for the lion's share, but not all, of the purchases to go through the primary vendor. Staff are empowered to shift order requests between acquisitions models (e.g. from e-preferred to patron-driven) or to a secondary vendor when specific criteria are met. For the most part such changes are seamless to subject liaisons and the patrons.

Bibliographic records are downloaded from a variety of vendor sources. Sources include, OCLC WorldCat Partners, Serials Solutions, YBP, Baker & Taylor. Each vendor offers a set of technical specifications for generating data files for output. Records are uploaded to the ILS through customized load tables that further refine or modify the imported record. A load table is constructed to support multiple vendor profiles and multiple campus accounting units. The intent is to minimize the need for individual record editing after uploading a data file. Additionally, RDA conversion is included as part of the record load for Serials Solutions records, and is outsourced for OCLC WorldCat Partners downloads.