By Barbara Coopey, assistant head, Access Services

The PALCI ebrary DDA (demand driven acquisitions) program resumed on February 8. Our users now have access to around 7,000 titles in ebrary, a digital book collection available through ProQuest and discoverable in LionSearch. There are not enough funds to maintain this program during the entire year, so heavy-use times are chosen during Fall and Spring semesters to allow our users access to all of the ebooks (including not owned, potential purchases) when they need them the most.

In this DDA program, an ebook is “triggered” for purchase after it reaches 10 minutes of use, or there is a download or print action. The ebook is collectively purchased and owned by participating PALCI members, and access to purchased ebooks will remain available on LionSearch after the DDA program closes. This “collective collection” of purchased ebrary titles has grown to nearly 1,000 titles since the ebook program began in Spring Semester 2014.

Penn State patrons are heavy users of the PALCI ebrary content. Of the 261 titles purchased during Fall Semester 2015, Penn State patrons used half of them. Many of these titles were used by three or four other universities in addition to Penn State. For example, the ebook “Undoing the Demos” was “triggered” for purchase on November 18, 2015. By the end of January 2016, it was used by Allegheny College, Dickinson College, and The New School, in addition to Penn State. There were 29 user sessions, 337 pages viewed, and 487 pages printed. This title was not “triggered” for purchase by Penn State, but Penn State users took advantage of the online content, especially since both the Penn State print copy, as well as the print copies at seven other E-ZBorrow libraries that own it were checked out.