Don’t Stop the Presses! Study of Short-Term Return on Investment on Print Books Purchased under Different Acquisition Modes

How long are we willing to wait for a book to demonstrate value? How many circulations are enough? Today, there is more pressure to show return on investment (ROI) than there used to be thirty, twenty, or even ten years ago. In the era of increasingly electronic, demand-driven, and evidence-based collection development, the once reigning print book is ceding its central place within library collections. While faculty and students are showing renewed interest in print materials, flat or declining library budgets, along with inevitable increases in electronic subscription rates, put downward pressure on print monograph funding. Libraries continue to develop their print book collections, however, we need to develop a data-driven approach to guide selection and acquisition of the most relevant print books. The Claremont Colleges Library conducted a short-term ROI study comparing recent print books acquired under three different acquisition modes: approval autoship, demand-driven purchase, and librarian selection. We looked at short-term ROI averages for each acquisition mode, including how long it takes for a book to circulate for the first time and how many times books circulate within the first year after acquisition. We also reviewed the number of books, overall expenditure per acquisition mode, and disciplinary distribution of print book acquisitions from a historical perspective, exploring how the proportions of expenditure between print approval and firm ordering changed at the advent of demand-driven purchasing and the proliferation of e-books. The audience will learn how this study’s findings are informing our budgeting strategies and future collection development

Don’t close the book on print: Mid-term return on investment of print books purchased under different acquisition modes

Five years ago we conducted a study on short-term return on investment in print books purchased under different acquisition modes. Unsurprisingly, the demand-driven purchases - and course readings in particular - showed the highest level of engagement and return on investment within the first year after purchase. Approximately a third of all titles purchased on approval and as firm orders also saw at least one use in the first year, and the titles that were used experienced an average of 2.5 circulations. These results triggered some follow-up questions which we can now address with five years of additional data. Do demand-driven purchases of print books have enduring value past the first year? Do titles purchased through approval plan, standing order, and firm order see an increase in usage after the first year? Do any of our print titles reach a cost per use comparable to that of journal articles or e-book chapters within five years? Although this new data includes the 18 months when the library building was closed due to the Pandemic, it presents useful insights for the value of print books, and informs future collection development, space planning, and budgeting decisions at our library

High Rate of Recurrent De Novo Mutations in Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathies

Developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE) is a group of conditions characterized by the co-occurrence of epilepsy and intellectual disability (ID), typically with developmental plateauing or regression associated with frequent epileptiform activity. The cause of DEE remains unknown in the majority of cases. We performed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in 197 individuals with unexplained DEE and pharmaco-resistant seizures and in their unaffected parents. We focused our attention on de novo mutations (DNMs) and identified candidate genes containing such variants. We sought to identify additional subjects with DNMs in these genes by performing targeted sequencing in another series of individuals with DEE and by mining various sequencing datasets. We also performed meta-analyses to document enrichment of DNMs in candidate genes by leveraging our WGS dataset with those of several DEE and ID series. By combining these strategies, we were able to provide a causal link between DEE and the following genes: NTRK2, GABRB2, CLTC, DHDDS, NUS1, RAB11A, GABBR2, and SNAP25. Overall, we established a molecular diagnosis in 63/197 (32%) individuals in our WGS series. The main cause of DEE in these individuals was de novo point mutations (53/63 solved cases), followed by inherited mutations (6/63 solved cases) and de novo CNVs (4/63 solved cases). De novo missense variants explained a larger proportion of individuals in our series than in other series that were primarily ascertained because of ID. Moreover, these DNMs were more frequently recurrent than those identified in ID series. These observations indicate that the genetic landscape of DEE might be different from that of ID without epilepsy