Technical Services: Top Trends in a Ever-Changing Library World
1/22/13
Lynda Aldana from University of Maryland, Baltimore County's Kuhn Library
This was a very interesting presentation on technical
services from an academic library perspective. Not surprisingly, the challenges facing
academic libraries are the same ones public libraries are facing, including
budget issues, changing user expectations, and staffing levels, and while the
actual materials may vary from those in the public library (dissertation and
thesis materials, serials, etc) the approach to
these challenges are similar to those being taken by public libraries in
Maryland.
The discussion of the Demand
Driven Acquisition (DDA) model caught my attention. I had first heard about
this at the ALA conference last year, again in an academic environment. DDA
allows users access to ebooks for a fee for the first few times the resource is
needed. At some per-determined point (after so many accesses), the ebook is
purchased (permanently). This makes so much sense to me, and I think there
should be a way of applying it in the public library. Depending on whether our publishers would agree to this and the library being
willing to “purchase” ebooks, it seems it could be applied to non-fiction and
reference materials pretty easily. Of course, the
other part of the equation in making this successful would be re-training users
to the ebook world for their resources. I know this has started, but it is a
very slow process. Especially in rural communities like Hancock. But I think it
is an idea that needs to be considered and revisited often.
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