TALIS ASPIRE AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE BIRMINGHAM
ABOUT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE BIRMINGHAM
v UCB is based in Birmingham City Centre, there are over 8,000 students on Higher Education, Postgraduate and Further Education programmes including 1100 international students from 65 countries.
v UCB is a specialist institution for Undergraduate management programmes in the fields of Hospitality, Tourism, Events, Culinary Arts, Business, Sports Therapy, Spa Management, Marketing, Childhood and Education.
v We also offer a range of Postgraduate opportunities.
v Approximately 800 modules.
WHY? THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS
v Improve our existing reading list system.
v The existing system was only enabled for book content, with no ability to include other material.
v The ability to link to online content, therefore giving improved access and discovery for students.
v E-Books become better integrated within the virtual library.
v Much easier to manage a reading list - instant editing enabled.
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
v Review and evaluation of product considering: ● Costs of admin time ● Ease of use ● Integration with our existing library management systems
(inc authentication) ● Support from provider ● Product costing
v Formal proposal to internal committees to secure funding.
v Agree a time frame for implementation.
v Planning meetings with Talis.
v Demonstrations to lecturing staff.
IMPLEMENTATION
v Go ahead May – formally agreed July 2013.
v Existing system in place so concept wasn’t alien.
v Kick off meetings – ensuring compatibility and integration with UCB systems.
v Exporting data from existing system was challenging!
v IT support needed.
v Integration with VLE was complicated because it required technical expertise.
IMPLEMENTATION CONTINUED
v Urls for eBooks were historically not in our Marc records, so we had to contact all our eBook suppliers for our url’s.
v These were then input into the Aspire metadata ensuring
online resource links were intact.
v Updated current lists to meet the data upload deadline. v Portal placement.
ROLL OUT
v Should we have a trial group of modules or go for the BIG BANG?
WE WENT FOR THE BIG BANG OPTION. WHY?
v We had invested heavily in the project.
v Two systems would only have led to confusion.
v Let’s get the students used to Talis from the get-go.
v We had the time from July to late September to prepare.
v Why not?
ROLL OUT
v Specialised staff training and Q+A sessions.
v Putting Aspire onto the catalogue PCs – reading list access in library.
v Replaced the existing reading list system.
v Put links in place in our VLE so the students were familiar with access points.
v Fresher’s Fayre, informal ‘Meet and Greets’.
v Set up meetings with lecturers and organised some informal 1 to 1 sessions.
ISSUES
v The previous system allowed students to print their reading list with Dewey numbers and pictures.
v This lead to some staff resistance as initially Aspire was seen to complicate the existing process.
v Lecturers – slower/reluctant to embrace Aspire. Misplaced fear that it will lead to a greater workload.
v Tidying up existing data in our catalogue to ensure eBooks are picked up in Aspire.
ONGOING TASKS
v Monitoring the Talis website for reading list updates.
v Taking part in product webinars.
v Checking into the Reading List Forum – suggesting and voting for ideas.
v Recently in preparation for Rollover, we realised that half
of our lists hadn’t got a date period assigned to it.
v Attaching the Hierarchy to modules.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
v Lecturers need to take ownership of their own lists rather than the Library doing it for them.
v Using Aspire for book requests and ordering.
v Decision taken to arrange lists in Aspire to replicate the existing Module Delivery Schemes and organise reading into a weekly format.
QUESTIONS Contacts: [email protected]