Disruptive collection acquisition: awareness, readiness and adoption among Malaysian Academic libraries

Abstract

The adoption and application of information technology has triggered momentous evolution in virtually every facet of the economy. Information technology in tandem with the internet has in reality transformed several activities by disrupting the ways these activities are usually performed. Technological gadgets such as smart phones and others devices are getting smarter almost daily and its application has redesigned the way several activities and tasks are implemented. The speedy innovations brought about by globalization have created remarkable opportunities and choices in the marketplace for individual, organisations, businesses and their customers. Shopping has become an online activity and payments are driven virtually. Other activities such as automated airport check-in, online taxi booking, smart contract, transactions and crypto currency, online human resources and marketing are services remodelled to challenge status quo. Massive transformation have also been observed in the activities of major and leading electronic book vendors such as Amazon, eBay, kindle due to adoption of innovation. The aforementioned impact and prospects in the application of the emerging and evolving technological innovation have created a great deal and ground breaking excitements in all sectors. Therefore, libraries cannot be left behind in these on-going disruptive developments. This study aims to investigate the current awareness and adoption of user driven (Demand driven) collection acquisition (DDA) among Malaysian academic libraries. Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) is a disruptive technology for library collection acquisition. DDA is a patron-focused model of acquisitions that allows library patrons to decide on what their libraries purchase without librarian mediation. The model also permits libraries to have unrestricted access to the usage of unlimited pools of resources. This study on library disruptive collection acquisition is motivated considering the recent economic recess which has a noticeable effect on the budget allocation to universities and academic libraries in Malaysia and beyond. The study is also essentially important to understand the effect of disruptive technology on library bookshelves in the nearest future. The study integrates the Diffusion of Innovation model to understand the present state of Malaysian academic libraries as regards awareness, readiness and intention to adopt or not to adopt DDA model. The study employs the use of online questionnaires to gather responses from chief librarians, acquisition librarians and liaison librarians from each of the libraries in the sample. This study finds out that DDA adoption in Malaysian academic libraries is still at its infancy despite the effect of budget cut on libraries. The results from several studies have highlighted the impact and return on Investment (ROI) of DDA though no massive adoption in Malaysian academic libraries yet, although, respondents reported their libraries plans to embrace the model in earnest.