Achieving acquisitions efficiency with Talis Aspire

When looking at the reviews process within Talis Aspire we looked at what library teams need in order to complete their acquisitions process successfully.

We are often told that the library teams need a lot of information for the acquisition process such as the number of students on the course, when the course runs, what stock is in the library, if new editions exist, if the item is available as an eBook or if there is a specific amount of items required.

All of this information can be pulled straight from Talis Aspire, reducing the need for requests by email or on scraps of paper. You can also pull out other key details to inform the acquisitions process, such as if the item is used across many modules and when these run.

At Talis Insight Europe 2016 we heard from Dr Rachel Schulkins, Principal Library Assistant at the University of Liverpool and Mia O’Hara who at the time of filming was Acquisitions Services Officer, King’s College London.

Rachel explains that before a lot of the information was hidden, relying on contacting the academic directly to fulfil their requests. Since using Reviews 2.0, Rachel feels that the information is accessible and easy to gather, cutting down time by helping the library staff make decisions without “too much clicking about”.

Another key feature that Rachel found helpful was the ability to see where other items were being used, for example, if one book was on the reading lists for two other modules, as this affects the number of items required.

Mia asked “has anyone ever gone to the library, and not been able to find any of the books they were looking for?”, this was a frequent experience for Mia and after the library team looked at NSS scores and general feedback, this was what motivated them to get Talis Aspire Reading Lists.

Mia praised the system for giving a “holistic picture of student needs”, now they can see a breakdown, they can take into account where any particular item is needed, by how many students and at what point during the year, ensuring more effective purchasing decisions.

You can watch their presentation in full here:

All university libraries have a different way of working and varying staff structures and teams, so it’s clear that a one-size-fits all method wouldn’t be successful. However, there are many different features within Talis Aspire Reading Lists which allow your own workflows, whilst keeping this process as streamlined and as successful as possible.