Preprint paper. BOBCATSS 2014, Barcelona (http://bobcatsss2014.hb.se/) [1] Patron-Driven Acquisitions (PDA) of e-books: New life for the library catalog? 1 Authors: Dr. Cristóbal Urbano (Departament de Biblioteconomia i Documentació, Universitat de Barcelona. Melcior de Palau, 140, 08014 Barcelona, Spain [urbano@ub.edu]) Dr. Yin Zhang (School of Library and Information Science, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44240, USA [yzhang4@kent.edu]) Abstract: This paper highlights an overview of the conceptual approach to e-resource discoverability in academic libraries with a focus on research on the assessment of library catalog performance in the Patron- Driven Acquisitions (PDA) model for e-book collection development. Although the published literature stresses the key role of the library catalog in the PDA model for e-book acquisitions, the findings in this paper show that, until now, there has been a lack of research on users’ e-resources searching behavior and PDA. As a conclusion, the authors think that in such a large universe of digital information on the Web, a new branded local catalog could be the way to visualize a more “tangible” experience between users and e-book collections. Keywords: Patron-Driven Acquisitions (PDA), e-books, library catalogs Introduction Patron- (or Demand-) Driven Acquisitions (PDA/DDA) is a widely adopted model for automated purchases of e-books based on patron usage in academic libraries. Through this model, a library provides access to a predetermined set of e-books to authorized users by making these books’ bibliographic records available in the library catalog. Patrons discover and use e-books via the library catalog, unaware as to whether a particular title is a PDA e- book available for purchase or an item that has already been acquired. Once cumulative patron usage of an e-book exceeds a certain threshold level, the library automatically buys it. Previous research has shown that library catalogs play an important role in the success of PDA for e-books, and that catalogs require improvement to be better integrated with new discovery tools based on metadata aggregation. Based on a systematic analysis of literature, this paper aims to explore how library catalogs may be reengineered to face the challenging and quickly evolving landscape of the Googlization of information resources. Methods After our involvement in a series of studies of PDA for e-books at Kent State University Libraries (Downey, Zhang, Urbano, & Klingler, 2013, 2014a, 2014b; Urbano, Zhang, Downey, & Klingler, 2013), it has become evident that a more systematic approach is needed to understand how library catalogs could enhance their key role in PDA implementation. The literature to be examined in this paper covers library catalogs and other discovery tools for finding e-books. A search in the Library and Information Abstracts (LISA) returned 62 records on PDA e-book acquisition method at the beginning of December 2013, all published between 2010 and 2013, showing a great interest and concern on this issue, mainly in academic libraries. Only one (McLure & Hoseth, 2012) of the 62 works retrieved from LISA focused on the evaluation of local catalog use as a method to assess PDA systems. We also 1 Preprint. To be published in BOBCATSSS 2014 Proceedings (http://proceedings.bobcatsss2014.hb.se/)