Talis Awards 2020: Talis Aspire User Group Innovation Award
We held the Talis Awards as part of an Insight Webinar series that we held in May, following the postponement of our live event. We were thrilled to host the Talis Awards online and still share the success stories from our Talis Aspire universities with our community.
The Talis Aspire User Group Innovation Award is voted for by our Talis Aspire User Group (TAUG) representatives. It was one out of three awards that we presented, along with the Talis Inclusivity Award and the Talis University of the Year.
Allie Taylor from the University of Worcester is a member of the TAUG representatives and presented this award. She told us:
“The Talis Aspire User Group ‘Innovation’ award is presented to the university that has shown creativity and innovation in their use of Talis Aspire. We seek nominations from university teams engaging with projects on any aspect of reading lists and digitised content: analytics, pedagogy, acquisitions, comms and marketing or technological wizardry- anything goes. We know universities are using Talis Aspire in any number of creative and innovative ways. The entire community benefits by seeing best practices shared, acknowledged and celebrated.
We invite nominations via Lis-Talis-Aspire Jiscmail, then meet up online to discuss our favourites. We were pleased to see strong submissions this year, despite the delay caused by coronavirus.
This is my second year judging the User Group award, and it is always fabulous to see the diversity of entries. There is a good deal of creativity out there in our libraries as we respond to both the day to day needs of our services and the extra pressures thrown up in recent times. Our libraries continue to make an essential contribution to the student experience, learning, teaching and research, and the User Group award plays a small part in acknowledging this innovation.”
We were delighted to hear that the runners up for this award were Bangor University.
They were awarded for their Talis Automated Review Process. The TAUG representatives said: “Bangor University were chosen as runners up for their automated review process. The group liked the streamlined and efficient approach to ordering, and thought this project an excellent example of building a positive relationship with a supplier.”
Alan Dawson, from Bangor University, said: “We are pleased to have been awarded runner-up of the Talis Aspire User Group Innovation Award, for our work on Automated Review Process in Talis Aspire. Bangor University Library have created an automated purchasing method in collaboration with the book vendor GOBI. We call this TARP: Talis Automated Review Process. This automated spreadsheet is sent to GOBI who add the items to baskets for us. Because of how successful the trial is, GOBI have become our main book and e-book supplier.
This auto-review process has saved myself and others a substantial amount of time. Soon, this workflow may include using Advanced MIS to pull all list items and all list reports automatically, saving more time.
We have shifted from being reading list orientated to stock orientated; making sure the correct amount is ordered in a timely manner.”
Lisa Lympany, Senior Library Assistant: Usability and User Engagement and Alan Dawson, Metadata and Digital Developments Team Leader from Bangor University did a Q&A on their GOBI and Talis Aspire project as part of our Talis Insight 2020 webinar series. You can watch it below:
The winners of the Talis Aspire User Group Innovation Award were the University of Sussex.
They were awarded for their “No Such Thing as a Free E-Textbook” project. The TAUG representatives said: “This was an innovative and rapid response to lockdown, which the User Group thought was effective both now and in the future.”
Rachel Bramley, Learning & Teaching Librarian from the University of Sussex said: “Winning the award has been a real boost for us at Sussex. We’ve been working tirelessly to support our students and tutors throughout lockdown, as I’m sure everybody has, and it’s gratifying to have the team’s efforts recognised. I’m really proud of the continuity of our service and how we’ve maintained connections while working remotely, and it’s especially rewarding to feel the connection to the Talis community too!”
Rachel presented a webinar on their e-textbook project here.
Congratulations to all of our winners. We look forward to continuing to support them and their use of Talis Aspire to improve their library services and student experience.
Check out our posts on the other awards:
You can watch a recording of the Talis Awards here.
If you’d like to see recordings from the Talis Insight Webinar Series, click here.
