More electronic resources will be available from the Memorial University Libraries’ online catalogue (www.library.mun.ca), but the libraries won’t be paying for those resources until someone uses them. Demand Driven Acquisition (DDA) is an innovative new program that provides seamless access to an expanded selection of electronic books, or ebooks, for students, faculty and researchers.

“Librarians have continually strived to anticipate the needs of our user community,” said Louise White, associate university librarian (marine, music and education) and chair of the DDA committee. “We are aware that our research community has diverse and evolving information needs. This program will allow us to expand the content we make available immediately, while also being progressively more targeted with our purchasing budget."

When a title receives high use, the library purchases a copy. Only DDA titles which meet the selection criteria of librarian subject-matter experts are added to the catalogue.

Academic libraries are creating non-traditional collection practices to allow more scholarly research material to be discovered and achieve the best possible value for our expenditure.

DDA works quite simply. Once a user spends a certain amount of time looking at an ebook, views enough pages, prints or copies a page or downloads from the ebook, a fee, which is only a small portion of the purchase price of the ebook, is automatically triggered by the program.

When a title receives high use, the library purchases a copy. Only DDA titles which meet the selection criteria of librarian subject-matter experts are added to the catalogue. For University Librarian Lorraine Busby, the new program is building on the existing strength of the services Memorial’s libraries already provide.

“We are the gateway to information at the university and because of that our role is to offer the highest levels of access to scholarly information needed by students and faculty in the research process,” she said. “The DDA program provides us with an opportunity to be more current, agile and responsive to the diverse research needs of the university. We are excited to offer this groundbreaking technology that will allow us to better serve our user community in the research process.”

Dr. Richard Marceau, vice-president (research), welcomes the new streamlined program.

“We have been steadfast in our efforts to support Memorial’s tradition of research excellence. DDA marks a step forward in this process and strategically aligns with the broader goals of the Research Strategy Framework. By improving Memorial’s infrastructure and customer services, we will continue to attract the best and brightest minds the world has to offer.”