Out of the Shadows: A Public Face for Acquisitions in Academic Libraries

摘要

After seven years working as an Ac- quisitions Librarian, I have come to the disturbing realization that I am, in fact, in the wrong department. Nothing thrills me more than hunting down obscure materials and putting them into the hands of patrons, figuratively speaking. Acquisitions is all about the patrons - getting them what they need, when they need it, while not neces- sarily interacting with said patrons. With the advent of patron-driven acquisitions (PDA), this has become even more apparent. We've only just dipped our toes into the proverbial PDA pool, often pre-choosing titles based on an approval profile that is based upon a careful consideration of what materials a given library should have. This implies the presumption that patrons cannot really be trusted to choose materials for the library, and it gives the patron only the illusion of choice.