Evidence-Based Acquisition: A Real Life Account of Managing the Program Within The Orbis Cascade Alliance

In 2015 the Orbis Cascade Alliance investigated a consortium wide evidence-based acquisition (EBA) model to incorporate into its established eBook program, and began a pilot of Wiley’s Usage Based Collection Management Model. EBA is an acquisition model that grants library patrons access to a title list over an agreed-upon time period for a pre-negotiated amount of money, and titles from that list are then selected for purchase based on the evidence of usage from the initial access period. This article shares the consortium’s experiences evaluating usage, managing titles and records, controlling duplication, predicting costs, and the inclusion of MARC records to enhance discoverability.