H-Acq-ing the Approval Plan: Piloting a Purchase on Demand Program

Abstract Limited budgets and the desire to address patrons’ immediate resource needs require libraries to consider an agile approach to collection building. To identify where typical purchases could be avoided in English subject areas, Texas A&M University Libraries piloted a purchase on demand (POD) solution for print and e-books. By providing patrons with options to make catalog selections and analyzing those decisions, a clearer understanding of subject resources needed was achieved. Findings were used to better align the approval plan’s automated purchases with patrons’ curricular and research needs, while realizing significant cost savings. The study fills a literature gap, and the approach can serve as a model for any discipline.