Don't Fear the Reader: Librarian versus Interlibrary Loan Patron-Driven Acquisition of Print Books at an Academic Library by Relative Collecting Level and by Library of Congress Classes and Subclasses

David C. Tyler is Reference Librarian and Professor in Libraries, Joyce C. Melvin is Interlibrary Loan Manager, MaryLou Epp is Serials Records Specialist, Technical Services, and Anita M. Kreps is Database Project Specialist, Technical Services, in University Libraries at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. ©2014 David C. Tyler, Joyce C. Melvin, MaryLou Epp, and Anita M. Kreps, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) CC BY-NC Recently, a great deal of literature on patron-driven acquisition (PDA) has been published that addresses the implementation and results of PDA programs at academic libraries. However, despite widespread worries that PDA will lead to unbalanced collections, little attention has been paid to whether patrons’ and librarians’ purchasing differ significantly. This study analyzes librarians’ and PDA patrons’ acquisitions at an academic library by relative collecting level and by subject (that is, Library of Congress class and subclass) to determine whether concern over patrons’ collecting are warranted.