Contents lists available at ScienceDirect The Journal of Academic Librarianship journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jacalib Case studies Rethinking collection development: improving access and increasing efficiency through demand driven acquisition Michael A. Arthur a, ⁎ , Sarah Rose Fitzgerald b a University Libraries, The University of Alabama, Gorgas 400G, Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, United States of America b The University of Alabama, 309D Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, United States of America Demand Driven Acquisition (DDA) began at The University of Alabama early in 2016, following a thorough review of the GOBI ap- proval plan. While the original intention of the profile review was to create a more robust traditional approval plan, the success of demand driven acquisitions combined with other new initiatives resulted in a shift away from traditional collection development. Based on nearly three years of experience working with DDA at The University of Alabama, this article explores the migration from traditional book collection development to what could be described as a collection strategy. The new strategy aims to provide seamless access and delivery to e-books covering a wide range of the disciplines supported at the university. The goal is to provide access to as much content as possible while supporting purchasing based on demonstrated need. This change is a result of the new strategy to allocate shrinking funds toward re- sources that are needed now rather than purchasing materials estimated to be needed in the future. With library budgets tightening, it is critical to show return on investment and DDA allows the library to offer a broad range of content, but only purchase items which show usage. Initiation of the DDA program DDA began as a pilot project designed to work in tandem with a traditional print/e-preferred approval plan. The library was still using a traditional collection development model for books with the approval plan and librarian selection accounting for the majority of purchases. The library was not using demand driven acquisition, though librarians had some experience with similar models, including a recently initiated evidence-based plan with Wiley and a small selection of titles pur- chased through R2 Digital Library. With the bulk of purchasing still based on traditional models, a decision was made in the fall of 2015 to work with GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO (GOBI) and librarian liaisons on a complete review and update of the approval plan profile. The existing traditional approval plan was managed by GOBI and most books were received via the plan or firm ordering through GOBI. The main goal of the review was to expand the profile so that more relevant monographs would be received automatically, thus reducing the number of firm order selections. The plan was to make the process more efficient, though the intent was to keep the traditional model. The emphasis was on librarian expertise for review of the approval plan with less time required for title by title selection. During the profile review, DDA was not being discussed broadly within the library. However, the impact of an approval plan profile overhaul and how it would serve to drive DDA was being considered among select man- agers, as there was not a clear directive in place to pursue DDA. There had been discussion among key managers beginning in the fall of 2015 regarding a move toward DDA, though no plans were set in motion. A new Dean of Libraries arrived in January of 2016 and he supported exploration of DDA. Planning started in full force with a charge to in- itiate a DDA plan at the earliest possible date. A new strategy Key goals were established for DDA implementation, including ef- ficiency, broad subject coverage, and alignment to the existing tradi- tional collection development model and its reliance on the approval plan and librarian selection. Monograph selection and purchasing at The University of Alabama relied heavily on GOBI. The new DDA plan aims at efficiency, allowing the process to move from title selection to discovery to purchase with as little staff intervention as possible. Title selection is managed by GOBI, based on the comprehensive approval plan profile. DDA eligible titles on the EBSCO eBooks platform are then made available to the university community through automatic weekly updates to EBSCO Discovery. Additional efficiencies were realized in August 2017 when the library migrated from Serials Solutions to Full Text Finder. Previous to this migration, staff time was required to ac- tivate purchased titles in Serials Solutions. The move to Full Text Finder made that an unnecessary step as EBSCO automatically activates pur- chased titles in Full Text Finder. A deposit account funds DDA. This made the process more efficient. Transactions that would previously have resulted in order, receipt and payment of individual titles are now handled with one record for DDA deposit account payments, processed on an as needed basis, combined with regular purchasing and accounting reports from EBSCO. As of the date of this article, over 11,000 titles have been purchased in three https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.03.005 Received 15 March 2019; Accepted 18 March 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: maarthur@ua.edu (M.A. Arthur), srfitzgerald1@ua.edu (S.R. Fitzgerald). The Journal of Academic Librarianship xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0099-1333/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Michael A. Arthur and Sarah Rose Fitzgerald, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.03.005