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While demand-driven acquisition (DDA) or patron-driven acquisition (PDA) focuses on providing library materials at a user's point of need, approval plans attempt to help the library collect everything that might be desired in the future. DDA is the standard method of just-in-time library collecting, while approval plans are a prime example of just-in-case collecting. Therefore, these two methods are often perceived as oppositional library acquisitions practices. Yet, for the start of the 2013-14 fiscal year, California State University, Fullertons Poliak Library implemented a hybrid approach of DDA and the approval plan, which came to be known as the DDA-preferred approval plan. This study analyzes the cost and number of books acquired before and after the implementation. Findings demonstrate that the library was able to provide access to a significantly higher number of books in the 2013-14 academic year than in the prior year, and spent much less, suggesting that DDA and the approval plan can work together harmoniously for cost-effective collection building.
Approval plans and demand-driven-acquisition (DDA), also known as patrondriven acquisition (PDA), have come to be known as opposing methods of library collection building. With a focus on setting parameters so that books will be acquired soon after publication, but before a user expresses an actual need, approval plans are rooted in a just-in-case model. By contrast, libraries using DDA methods only acquire materials when users directly access or request them, and so, DDA epitomizes a just-in-time approach. However, a hybrid approach, essentially a demand-driven-preferred approval plan, can enable libraries to provide access to more content at a lower overall cost. While approval plans enable libraries to purchase monographs which they then own, DDA plans allow libraries to tailor a grouping of unowned items that library users may access, with the library only expending funds when an item is used. As Alison Scott noted, "The technical innovations that have enabled DDA to flourish have allowed for a harmony to develop between these seemingly conflicting collection development philosophies (just-in-case versus just-in-time)."
Poliak Library at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) has taken advantage of those technical innovations and developed a DDA-preferred approval plan. It is common for an approval plan to be print preferred, paperback preferred, or e-book preferred, meaning that when a book is...