If you are live on Kanopy's Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) program, you can seamlessly turn off (and on) the PDA program for your library at any time.
For example, let's say you have set a particular budget for your PDA program for the year, but you hit that budget 1 month before the year end, and wish to turn off the PDA program for the last month so as not to incur additional triggered titles. Kanopy can seamlessly turn off your PDA program, which will immediately ensure that no user can automatically trigger any additional films and that you will not exceed the budget you have set. One month later, you might decide to reactivate the program, which will start the program again and reactive all films for access.
Key Considerations
There are some important things to consider about turning on and off the PDA program, and Kanopy has designed a number of special features to ensure the process is seamless.
1) How will I know the status of my budget?
You can monitor the status of your PDA budget live from your Kanopy administrative dashboard. At any time, you can get live information on what films have triggered, usage statistics, and the status of your budget. In addition to your monitoring of your budget, Kanopy keeps track of your budget as well, and we will provide regular "check ins" to alert you if you hit key milestones on your budget (e.g. 70%, 80%, etc.).
When you hit your budget cap, you can decide whether to (1) top up the budget to maintain the PDA program or (2) keep the budget capped and switch off the PDA program.
2) How will the program be turned off?
If you decide to turn off your PDA program and not top up your budget, Kanopy will turn off the PDA program for you. This will deactivate all unlicensed films from your website, leaving only those films that have triggered from usage to date. Kanopy will also provide you with a curated file of MARC records related to the items that will be remaining live on your website.
3) What will happen to the user experience?
The user experience when turning off PDA is also well-managed.
First, it is important to note that films that have triggered are typically the most important to your library (they triggered due to high use and popularity), and you will continue to maintain access to those films until their licenses expire. So, after turning off PDA, your website will still be a very relevant destination for accessing the films that are most relevant to your community.
Second, films that are untriggered do not "vanish." We will simply switch these films to be in "request mode," which means that users can still discover the films via searches, and the links to those films will still work (in case someone was using the link). However, instead of having the ability to watch the film, the user will be instructed to submit a request for access.
The library will be notified of requests via email and can librarians handle requests as they wish (purchasing a license to the requested film if they wish). You can see more on how the request feature works here. If you prefer, you can adjust this request feature such that users cannot find the deactivated films on your website.
So, after turning off PDA, (1) you will still have a selection of licensed films on your website extending into the future and (2) users can place requests for films for which access has been turned off.
4) How do I handle the MARC records?
As mentioned, Kanopy will provide you with a curated MARC file related to the films that you are maintaining as live on your website. You will have two options regarding the MARC records. You can either:
- Leave all MARCs for all films, including those for films that were not triggered, and are hence deactivated. If someone clicks on a film that was triggered and is still live, they will be able to watch it; if someone clicks on a film that was deactivated, they will simply be informed the film is currently not available and can submit a form to request access.
Leaving all MARCs is a popular option, particularly if you are only deactivating the PDA program for a short period or during a holiday period. This option (1) provides faculty and students with the ability discover and access films that have been deactivated, and request them from the library, and (2) is a similar experience to many discovery services which reference resources that are "requestable" from the library. - Leave only MARCs for triggered films. As an alternative, you can remove all Kanopy records from your catalog and import the file of records related to those films that you will maintain access to.
If you have decided to turn off PDA
In sum, the process of turning on and off the PDA program is simple. There are two key decisions for your library to make:
- Do you wish to leave all MARCs in your catalog, or only those for the films that were triggered at the time of PDA shutdown?
- Do you wish to remove the facility to discover untriggered films on your website and be able to request them from the library?
Once you are ready to make this change, please reach out to your account manager; they can implement an approach for you.