The University of Warsaw Library has launched a new service called Demand-Driven Acquisition. It gives every patron with a valid library card a possibility to decide which e-book would be acquired into the library’s collection.

Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) is a popular model of buying e-books for libraries throughout the world. Its main purpose is to tailor the collection of e-resources to the needs of the library’s patrons. A library catalogue is enriched with bibliographic records of e-books available for purchase. The purchase is triggered automatically after meeting certain conditions. Still, it is a library user who decides about the purchase.

At the moment the University of Warsaw Library gives access to 200 000 titles, covering different areas of interest. Library patrons with a valid library card and the account can decide which of these e-books will enrich the library’s collection.

In order to browse the titles, starting from the library’s website, one should choose “E-books” from the menu bar (located above the main search box), and start the query by entering a term that user is interested in (e.g. title, author, key word).

If the user sees the red label “Zakup Decyzją Czytelnika” next to any of the search results, it is a sign that this e-book is not the library’s property, yet. The user can trigger the purchase automatically when one of the following conditions is met:

• a whole e-book is downloaded,
• an e-book is displayed on the user’s device for more than 10 minutes,
• the user opened more than 10 pages of an e-book,
• the user sent a part/a whole e-book via e-mail,
• the user copied and pasted a part of an e-book.

Every month the University of Warsaw Library allocates a particular amount of money for this model of purchase. When the monthly amount expires, the red label “Zakup Decyzją Czytelnika” disappears and a possibility of purchase is moved to the following month.