In June, Roger Schonfeld will present on “Library Acquisition Patterns: How Do Libraries Buy from University Presses?” at the Association of University Publishing Meeting in Detroit, Michigan. He will be joined on the panel by Jon T. Elwell (EBSCO) and Terry Ehling (MIT Press). The conference will run from June 11-13, 2019, and more information will be forthcoming on the AUP website.

About the panel

Ithaka S+R’s Library Acquisition Patterns (LAP) project is a national study that examines how academic libraries have been acquiring books from 2013 to 2018 at nearly 150 participating US universities. With over three million acquisition records, this study affords an in-depth view into how these libraries are making purchases, which materials and formats they are prioritizing, and how these elements have changed over time across different types of institutions, vendors, and publishers. Building off the findings of this report, published in January 2019, this session will present concrete evidence and experts’ perspectives to provide a more accurate picture of how university presses and their publications fit into a shifting academic library landscape.

This session will address the question of how academic libraries are acquiring information materials and the greater implications their acquisition habits have on university press publishing. We will discuss such issues as which vendors and acquisition methods shepherd a book to its final library destination; how certain disciplines are performing amid purported declines in their book sales; to what extent a university’s profile affects its library’s book-buying habits; and what share of library acquisitions AUPress publications have historically had at U.S. universities and a forecast for their share going forward.