We presented a session at ER&L Conference 2024 with University of Phoenix, Springshare and Sage Campus on how academic libraries can ensure that students receive the correct guidance at the point of need. As technology continues to advance, AI is making its way into various aspects of our lives, including Higher Education, with students navigating Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT themselves.
The University of Phoenix shared their experience of combining Lean Library‘s iFraming technology with Springshare’s LibGuides integration to deliver library support and guidance on AI directly into patron workflows.
Read on to discover 8 insights about how libraries can provide students with the AI guidance they need:
A study from University of Northampton regarding an AI Special Interest Group found that students have ethical concerns regarding the use of Generative AI and are worried about implications relating to bias and accuracy. Most notably, they felt like they didn’t have the skills to use AI effectively for their studies. Talia from Springshare explained that when students need ‘live’ help with AI, they don’t want to chat with AI – they want to talk to a person! This positions the library in a unique spot where they can come in and provide contextual point of need help in the form of LibGuides, LibChat and Sage Campus.
This research is from our latest Librarian Futures report, The Librarian Skills Landscape, which consists of global perspectives from over 2,000 academic library professionals regarding the emerging skills required to fulfil a library’s mission. This shows that librarians have an important role to play in expansion of their own knowledge of AI in academia, and ensuring students are aware of the challenges, risks and concerns around AI. How do librarians increase their knowledge of AI?
PJ Purchase at University of Phoenix emphasized establishing a cross-functional team with key stakeholders was key in setting up an AI Hub as there were varying degrees of knowledge within the library. The AI Hub is an open center which enables any member of staff within the university to up-skill. There’s training materials, documents and articles from top industry leaders which enables staff to learn more about Generative AI. Additionally, University of Phoenix decided they were going to embrace Generative AI for themselves and their students, and they needed to decide some parameters around how they thought it was going to be used.
PJ Purchase explained University of Phoenix library is collating these content pieces in phases. Phase one involved writing the guidance materials, whereas phase two is to create a Learning Center through which to teach the ethical use of AI. The Learning Centre focuses on learning objectives which are woven into coursework, for example, to measure AI skills or on-demand training for upskilling. This training could lead to badging opportunities in the future. What tools can libraries use to surface their guidance in patron workflows?
Research from student data within our first Librarian Futures report (2021) found that 59% students would prefer to hear from the library via their homepage, and 55% said only where and when they need it. This raises questions as to what extent the library homepage is an efficient channel when most students begin their research outside of the library on sites such as Google and Google Scholar.
The phrase “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t really work in libraries with students not easily discovering library guidance at the point of need. How can librarians make sure they meet students where they are in their workflow? University of Phoenix utilize their library tools to combine Lean Library’s iFraming technology with Springshare’s LibGuides integration to deliver library support directly into patron workflows. This means when students are searching for research on the web, the Lean Library browser extension will lead students back to content, such as LibGuides, within the library’s collection with one click. Another use for this integration could be that when a student lands on Open.ai or ChatGPT, they’ll see a LibGuide from their library with tips for using ChatGPT ethically and generating the best research outcomes.
Springshare’s LibChat integration enables librarians to create their own chatbot “flows” to guide end-users towards the answers and resources they’re looking for, before they talk to a librarian, prompting students to choose the type of help they’re looking for.
The newly launched Sage Campus and Lean Library integration surfaces their new short online course, The Art of ChatGPT Interactions, to students and researchers when they are in locations within the OpenAI.com domain. The course was designed by AI expert Dr Leo. S Lo, Dean of the College of University Libraries & Learning Sciences at the University of New Mexico. This means students can learn about using AI effectively, improve their prompt engineering and achieve outcomes for their studies and research, without their workflow being interrupted.
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning the different ways that university libraries can use tools to help students navigate the ‘academic wilderness’. If you’d like to find out more about the recently launched Sage Campus and Lean Library integration, catch up on the webinar recording below:
Want to see Lean Library in action? Request a demo now!
We presented a session at ER&L Conference 2024 with University of Phoenix, Springshare and Sage Campus on how academic libraries can ensure that students receive the correct guidance at the point of need. As technology continues to advance, AI is making its way into various aspects of our lives, including Higher Education, with students navigating Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT themselves.
The University of Phoenix shared their experience of combining Lean Library‘s iFraming technology with Springshare’s LibGuides integration to deliver library support and guidance on AI directly into patron workflows.
Read on to discover 8 insights about how libraries can provide students with the AI guidance they need:
A study from University of Northampton regarding an AI Special Interest Group found that students have ethical concerns regarding the use of Generative AI and are worried about implications relating to bias and accuracy. Most notably, they felt like they didn’t have the skills to use AI effectively for their studies. Talia from Springshare explained that when students need ‘live’ help with AI, they don’t want to chat with AI – they want to talk to a person! This positions the library in a unique spot where they can come in and provide contextual point of need help in the form of LibGuides, LibChat and Sage Campus.
This research is from our latest Librarian Futures report, The Librarian Skills Landscape, which consists of global perspectives from over 2,000 academic library professionals regarding the emerging skills required to fulfil a library’s mission. This shows that librarians have an important role to play in expansion of their own knowledge of AI in academia, and ensuring students are aware of the challenges, risks and concerns around AI. How do librarians increase their knowledge of AI?
PJ Purchase at University of Phoenix emphasized establishing a cross-functional team with key stakeholders was key in setting up an AI Hub as there were varying degrees of knowledge within the library. The AI Hub is an open center which enables any member of staff within the university to up-skill. There’s training materials, documents and articles from top industry leaders which enables staff to learn more about Generative AI. Additionally, University of Phoenix decided they were going to embrace Generative AI for themselves and their students, and they needed to decide some parameters around how they thought it was going to be used.
PJ Purchase explained University of Phoenix library is collating these content pieces in phases. Phase one involved writing the guidance materials, whereas phase two is to create a Learning Center through which to teach the ethical use of AI. The Learning Centre focuses on learning objectives which are woven into coursework, for example, to measure AI skills or on-demand training for upskilling. This training could lead to badging opportunities in the future. What tools can libraries use to surface their guidance in patron workflows?
Research from student data within our first Librarian Futures report (2021) found that 59% students would prefer to hear from the library via their homepage, and 55% said only where and when they need it. This raises questions as to what extent the library homepage is an efficient channel when most students begin their research outside of the library on sites such as Google and Google Scholar.
The phrase “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t really work in libraries with students not easily discovering library guidance at the point of need. How can librarians make sure they meet students where they are in their workflow? University of Phoenix utilize their library tools to combine Lean Library’s iFraming technology with Springshare’s LibGuides integration to deliver library support directly into patron workflows. This means when students are searching for research on the web, the Lean Library browser extension will lead students back to content, such as LibGuides, within the library’s collection with one click. Another use for this integration could be that when a student lands on Open.ai or ChatGPT, they’ll see a LibGuide from their library with tips for using ChatGPT ethically and generating the best research outcomes.
Springshare’s LibChat integration enables librarians to create their own chatbot “flows” to guide end-users towards the answers and resources they’re looking for, before they talk to a librarian, prompting students to choose the type of help they’re looking for.
The newly launched Sage Campus and Lean Library integration surfaces their new short online course, The Art of ChatGPT Interactions, to students and researchers when they are in locations within the OpenAI.com domain. The course was designed by AI expert Dr Leo. S Lo, Dean of the College of University Libraries & Learning Sciences at the University of New Mexico. This means students can learn about using AI effectively, improve their prompt engineering and achieve outcomes for their studies and research, without their workflow being interrupted.
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning the different ways that university libraries can use tools to help students navigate the ‘academic wilderness’. If you’d like to find out more about the recently launched Sage Campus and Lean Library integration, catch up on the webinar recording below:
Want to see Lean Library in action? Request a demo now!
We are excited to share that we’ve introduced new self-serve settings that will streamline the way librarians work with Talis Aspire: The online resource list management system loved by over 100 universities worldwide.
This latest release enables Talis Aspire customers to self-serve configuration of settings, including language, branding, and resource item importance – without needing to raise a support ticket. This empowers librarians to customize the resource list management system to their institution’s specific needs and tailor the experience for their users.
This release is part of our ongoing theme of development to empower librarians and we will continue to move more settings into the hands of users to be able to customize and control throughout 2024 and beyond.
Talis Aspire is an online resource list management platform that fully integrates with your library ecosystem. It connects faculty and students with relevant library holdings, dramatically reducing resource list admin and provides the library with useful insights to streamline acquisition.
A new ‘Settings’ area has been created, where users with a System Administrators role and specific users chosen by each institution, can adjust their tenancy of Talis Aspire. We will be continually adding more settings to this area for self-service, with this first phase of settings enabling users to:
Customers can set a default language on their Talis Aspire tenancy to display for all users and can also select up to three languages for their users to choose from (English, Welsh and Canadian English) with American English being added in the future.
Customers are able to self-customize how Talis Aspire reading lists appear for their users to align with their institutional branding, including brand colors, the ability to easily update their institutional logo and hyperlink to their website, and edit headers and footers. This provides a recognizable and seamless experience for faculty building lists and students reading the lists.
Customers can now tailor the options presented to faculty and list builders to select when noting the importance of items they add to resource lists, to better reflect specific requirements at their institution. Importance options can be reordered by drag and drop, be set as active or inactive to show to or hide from patrons, and librarians can view how many associated items are linked to each importance option.
We understand the importance of giving libraries greater control and autonomy of their Talis Aspire experience. At its core, self-service puts control back where it belongs – in the library’s hands.
Self-service also gives librarians greater visibility of just how many custom options are available in Talis Aspire, with straightforward access to customize their instance of Talis Aspire.
Importantly, self-service of customization saves librarians valuable time as it removes the need to contact the Talis support team or raise a support ticket to make changes to their Talis Aspire tenancy.
If you want to try it out, get in touch with us to get a customized demonstration.
Lean Library Cite: Streamlining Your Patrons’ Citation Process April 2, 2024Lean Library Cite initially launched in February and has now been updated with improved functionality and new capabilities, which helps streamline your patron’s citation process further. Cite enables students and researchers to easily generate and copy references of articles they access online, via the Lean Library browser extension, to use for writing or with their reference manager of choice – whether Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, Sciwheel or more.
Lean Library puts your library on your patrons’ shoulders via an easy-to-use extension on their browser. It simplifies online access to library content and open access alternatives and embeds library collections and services into the patrons’ workflow – whether they start on Google Scholar, PubMed, or beyond.
This new feature builds upon the existing product loved by librarians and their patrons worldwide, now guiding students and researchers from the discovery stage of their workflow to the citation stage ready for authoring their work.
Lean Library Cite simplifies the citation process by generating accurate citations for journal articles and eBooks that patrons are reading, from within the Lean Library pop-up. Patrons can now effortlessly obtain and copy citations for materials as they read with an easy “Get Citation” button.
Once clicked, the citation will be copied to their clipboard, allowing your patrons to easily paste it when writing or into their reference manager of choice.
Cite also allows libraries to select the library’s preferred citation style, which will then prominently appear at the top of the citation style drop-down menu for patrons. This feature enables librarians to easily guide patrons towards the citation styles commonly used within their institution.
And that is not all! Cite also alerts patrons when metadata is missing from fields, such as the title or author. This functionality allows patrons to then enter the correct data to accurately complete the citation.
Citation can be time-consuming and daunting, particularly for lower-level undergraduate students with no prior experience in the world of citation, academic writing, or using reference management tools. Simultaneously, the increasing popularity of integrating Generative AI, such as ChatGPT into their research workflow, underscores the increasing importance of accurate citation for both students and researchers.
Lean Library guides patrons seamlessly from the discovery stage into the accurate authoring stage of their workflow by making citation simple with an easy-to-use solution that:
Lean Library Cite integrates with the Citation Style Language to provide all major citation styles that your library may use.
Lean Library will soon be extending Cite to further content types including Websites, and much more!
Want to see Lean Library Cite in action? Get a demo now!
What happened at Talis Insight APAC 2024? February 29, 2024
Our much-loved Talis Insight APAC (Asia-Pacific) event returned this year as an in-person on 14th and 15th February! If you haven’t heard of Talis Insight APAC before, it’s our free, two-day event for library professionals to gather, network and discuss the role of Talis Aspire resource lists, sharing ideas for best practice.
This year the event was hosted at the University of Queensland, where thirty members of the academic community attended.
Read on for a recap of Talis Insight APAC 2024…
The event began with introductions and a keynote address by Nicola Langford, International Sales Director for Technology from Sage. Nicola expressed that it was great to be back on campus and in-person after being online for previous years. It was orientation week at University of Queensland, and the first day was ‘Market Day’ so the campus was busy with new students.
We then heard from Caroline Williams, University Librarian at University of Queensland, who gave an overview and reflected on the amount of change and progress she’s seen throughout her career. Nicola then spoke about Technology from Sage in her keynote speech, and discussed what we’ve been doing as a business to promote our new brand since it launched in 2022. Nicola talked about the products that have come together to form Technology from Sage – Talis Aspire, Talis Elevate, Lean Library, and Sciwheel, and our mission to help libraries amplify their presence on campus and across the university. We’ve come a long way since Technology from Sage launched in 2022!
Next, we had ice-breakers from our Talis User Group Reps (TAUG). The Talis User Group sessions are always a really engaging part of our Talis Insight events. We much appreciated the input of the TAUG reps on the imaginative ice-breakers, pairing up flags to find your matching country and later on a fun word and picture quiz.
Bex Carruthers from Deakin University kicked off the Reading List Reviews discussion. Reviews are central to all of us in libraries and this was a great opportunity for us to come together for a discussion. Bex started the talk with a look at the Reviews process at Deakin and there were lots of interaction from the floor with people making contributions. The session was topped off by Scott Gibbens, Head of Product for Talis, at Technology from Sage, who joined us remotely from the UK to speak about developments for Reviews and what the Talis Aspire roadmap looks like in 2024.
We ended the day with an in-depth overview of our latest Librarian Futures report, The Librarian Skills Landscape from Helen Anderson, Development Manager at Technology from Sage. There was a consensus that data skills and AI skills were important now and in the future. If you haven’t yet downloaded the report, download it here to discover more noteworthy insights regarding the emerging skills required to fulfil a library’s mission and meet the needs of today’s library patrons.
The sun was shining on our second day of Talis Aspire APAC! We gathered again at the University of Queensland and were joined by our Technology from Sage hosts, Nicola and Helen. After introductions and ice-breakers, we had a fascinating session from Kia Owens, Library Services Officer, at University of Queensland Library on Indigenizing the Curriculum with Reading Lists. Kia spoke about how UQ Library are building a set of resources to support the indigenizing of the curriculum using Talis Aspire to construct the list. There was so much interaction from the floor with people sharing ideas to take away and put into practice at their own institutions.
The afternoon session was led by Richard Tattersall, Senior Technical Consultant at Technology from Sage, who had pre-recorded a video (as he’s based in the UK) to delve into AI and the implications for the academic library. We shared experiences of what librarians were currently doing with AI and had comments ranging as follows:
We then had a few workshops led by our TAUG representatives. Our session on Advanced MIS, Power BI, Tableau and ChatGPT was led by Jamie McDonald, Reading List and Resource Sharing Specialist at La Trobe University and Natalie Hull, Assistant Manager Learning Resources at University of Queensland. It was a very interactive and interesting session, following up on the ideas in the previous AI workshop.
Finally, the TUAG led user group discussions were invaluable and very interactive. They covered topics such as monitoring Open Access resources, copyright and scanning, zero cost offers, rollovers and academic adoption and data. This gave important insights into issues that affect all libraries and will continue affecting them. It was great to hear suggestions from our TAUG community on how to further improve our services to ensure best practice.
We had a great time at the University of Queensland and it was fantastic to host another year of Talis Insight APAC, especially in-person. We look forward to an ongoing discussion with the user group community throughout the year!
Case Study: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam February 21, 2024In this case study, we look at how Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is planning to introduce Talis Aspire, to use in conjunction with Lean Library, to increase the use of open educational resources, decrease possible copyright infringements of educational materials and reduce the library’s annual spending on academic content.
Complete the form at the bottom of this article to download this case study in Dutch.
De Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) is a large university with 9 faculties, more than 150 bachelor’s programs, pre-master and master programs with 31,761 students, of which 19,736 are Bachelor students and 12,025 are Master students. The university’s motto is: Don’t just become something, become someone. Since its founding in 1880, VU has stood for scientific and values-driven education, research and valorisation. VU members are free thinkers with expert knowledge and a Broader Mind. This way, VU works together to create a better world for people and the planet. VU focuses on a connected world; governance for society; human health and life sciences and science for sustainability. VU is diverse, sustainable and enterprising. 4671 people work at VU. The university library is an inspiring place for people and knowledge. Where learning material is found, and information is available for impact in science and society. The university library unburdens, connects and innovates.
For years both the university library management as well as the Educational Management were looking for a way to determine which content from their collection should be kept and made available. Additionally, lecturers used various methods to create and share their reading lists, resulting in confusion and possible infringements of copyrighted educational material.
The university library contributed to the development of innovations in collaboration with the VU Center for Teaching and Learning, conducting research into supporting resources that could improve the design of education. The university library, together with SURF and 4 other academic institutions, began the development of their SURF CopyrightCheck service, in addition to the promotion of Open Educational Resources (OER). This raised the following question: How does VU provide a clear overview of the learning materials available within their electronic learning environment?
After much thought and research, many possible solutions arose. The library educational support team was familiar with Talis Aspire, and was initially attracted to it for its management of the correct use of learning materials in education under copyright law. In the Netherlands, the Easy Access regulation is in use: an agreement between publishers and academic institutions over how to jointly reduce copyright infringements.
The Educational Support Department devised a plan in which various objectives and principles could come together, starting with encouraging the use and creation of open educational learning materials:
This design required supporting resources, benefitting both library and educational management. We strive for a change from a non-binding to a conscious use of learning materials.
From the task of organising the provision of learning materials to students more logically, the university library wondered what (innovative) tools were available. It took the VU two years of thinking, using already existing resources, to come up with a landscape (fig. 2).
The ideal workflow consisted of a lecturer finding content and providing this content to students, whilst ensuring that there are no possible issues around copyright.
How is this achieved? As described on the graphic above (fig. 2), VU begins by ensuring their provision has the correct tools for the job and that their systems are organized logically and in a structured manner to encourage the goal of stimulating the use of open educational resources.
This landscape has impacted the way lecturers are designing their course. The recommended workflow would begin with lecturers having Lean Library already installed on their browser and when they search for content online, it guides them to content that is already available in the library through WMS/OCLC. This creates a clear overview of actual available content, forming the core content of reading lists, provided to students via the VLE.
It is essential that the educators are involved in the collective responsibility for the proper use of learning materials. To effectively make this happen, one component in fig. 2 still needs to be developed: the AscMe – component. With this, educational management enters the required literature into the study guide, from which a reading list can then also easily be created. If this part can be implemented in the existing landscape, it will fully support the conscious use of learning materials.
During teaching periods, lecturers add more literature and additional information to courses in the VLE. To ensure all content is copyright cleared, it goes through SURF CopyrightCheck and then added to the VLE. Once in the VLE, educational management receive periodic reports of the usage that those materials have, giving a clear overview of available content, opening the opportunity to discuss how and what materials lecturers and educational management are using. This even presents an opportunity to recreate certain materials and making them open available (OER). VU’s ultimate goal is to encourage the use of open educational resources and open repositories, including adding new content to the Dutch service: edusources, where higher education – institutions work together to create, share and use content to enrich education.
In discussions with the educational staff, this landscape is the starting point to encourage the awareness process regarding the appropriate use of learning materials, without infringing copyrighted materials.
When this is implemented correctly, it has obvious benefits for education:
Essential in this process is supporting the conscious use of learning materials. VU has a very structured system to support the logistics of administrative and organizational support for education. The logistics of an educational program. This starts with collecting information about courses, people involved, schedules, study guides and the content within each course, indicating required reading for students and content they need to purchase in order to take the courses appropriately.
This process of gathering the necessary information makes up their educational program, VU refers to as the Academic Structure & Content Modelling Environment (AscMe). Together with the supplier (TimeEdit) the VU is working to expand opportunities of AscMe on providing literature-information. With the goal being that when a program director adds literature to AscMe, it will be -via Talis Aspire- directly integrated with VU’s LMS. This will mean that lecturers and students will always have the right information available on reading lists. With this landscape in place, VU will get greater usage insights and a nice overview of the required literature being used in education. This bridges the gap between lecturers and students when it comes to considering the right content, together with reducing copyright infringements.
From a technical perspective, everything was fairly easy to set up:
In summary, Talis Aspire provided a solution that would not only make reading lists easily available in education, but it contributed to the vision the VU has around the use of open educational resources. This included reducing copyright infringements and having learning materials easily available in the learning environment of students, in addition to a better and more efficient management of learning materials.
Adopting Talis Aspire had been a possibility for a while, but the institution was initially not ready until the creation of the educational support department of the university library. Insights were uncovered during the exploration stage, however Covid put the process on hold, with the final decision to adopt Talis Aspire made in the spring of 2022.
The use of Talis Aspire will be a gradual process, with information specialists and lecturers being informed about the implementation and inclusion during the set-up period. VU’s goal is to have Talis Aspire fully operational by the start of the 2024-2025 academic year. With the knowledge and experience that will be gathered from using Talis Aspire and CopyrightCheck, VU wants to convert non-binding into conscious use, in order to have the landscape fully integrated by 2025-2026. With the inclusion of Talis Aspire, VU want to make education ready for exciting new possibilities, matching the university’s vision of unburdening, connecting and innovating.
Collaboration with the Talis Aspire team has been a very smooth process, with a clear interest in each other’s wishes and respect for all (im)possibilities.
Cees van Gent, Head of Educational Support of the University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
VU still are in the exploratory phase, so there is currently no hard data, however lecturers have been very enthusiastic over the possibilities offered by Talis Aspire and the library team are looking forward to gathering previously unavailable data. There has even been student feedback positively commenting on the initial VU reading lists, and the VU rector will soon share his favourite reading list to the entire academic community.
The communication strategy was not only aimed at users, but (especially) higher management was also approached and convinced. The Directors of Operations and the Vice Deans of Education of all faculties were informed in sessions about the possibilities of Talis Aspire (and SURF CopyrightCheck). The focus was on cost reduction and didactic possibilities. This has led them to advise making these resources available for education. They are now participating in the strategy to get the process accepted at VU.
VU’s goal is to have Talis Aspire fully operational in all education for the academic year 2024 – 2025. The experience gained with Talis Aspire (and CopyrightCheck) enable VU to change the optional, non-binding use into a conscious one, and thus to achieve the fully-integrated landscape in 2025 – 2026.
For the first time I have an overview what is really happening in education regarding the use of learning materials. Especially around the required literature we need to have available for students to prepare for their exams.
Cees van Gent, Head of Educational Support of the University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Watch back our webinar with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam where we went over the core functionality of Talis Aspire, and Cees took us through:
If you’d like to hear more or receive a product demo, get in touch.
Talis Aspire in 2023: Connecting Libraries with Faculty and Students December 19, 2023As we bid farewell to 2023, we took the opportunity to reflect on how the Talis Aspire resource list management system connected libraries with faculty and students this year via their course lists. Read on for a round-up of how Talis Aspire supported student reading this year, new developments to the platform, new university partners we welcomed, and what to expect from Talis Aspire in 2024.
Faculty and other list creators at institutions created over 1.5 million resource lists on Talis Aspire in 2023 alone – that’s a lot of reading! These lists were accessed by over 37 million students, connecting them with over 53 million learning resources. Furthermore, students set 1.1 million reading intentions on the Talis Aspire platforms, helping hone their academic reading and study skills.
Talis Aspire continues to be a preferred resource list management for libraries not just in the UK but around the world. It works flexibly with all major library management systems (including ExLibris Alma, OCLC WMS , EBSCO FOLIO, Koha and more) to embed the library in the heart of teaching and learning. In addition to our 100 strong customer base, we welcomed new universities to the Talis Aspire community in 2023, including Loughborough University, University of North Alabama, Douglas College and University of Kentucky.
Curating a pedagogically robust course resource list makes all the difference to both student enjoyment and success. However, curating resource lists for modules, courses, extra curricular training or more takes huge amount of knowledge and expertise. The Talis Aspire community chose some of the best resource lists created on Talis Aspire this year, based on their use of structure, signposting, diversity of resources, and more. Browse the list below for just a taster of how Talis Aspire helps teachers do their best work:
Demands on the library are increasing and evolving. We recognized that Talis Aspire must too evolve to best support librarians, so we stepped up product development with a brand new product team and increased resource in 2023. Below is an overview of three exciting areas of development to the Talis Aspire platform in 2023:
Talis Aspire launched new integrations with library discovery services Primo, WorldCat and ESBCO Discovery Service (EDS), followed by Summon. These integrations enables users to search for resources via your library discovery system (i.e. your library’s existing internal holdings, licenses and subscriptions), directly within Talis Aspire. The flexibility of Talis Aspire being ILS-agnostic with its integrations means that, no matter which discovery system the library uses:
We undertook an intense customer listening exercise and grouped customer feedback from the last few years into key themes to build into the Talis Aspire product roadmap. The themes included list editing, reviews, self-service, analytics & reporting, and customization. This exercise meant we developed faster, more aligned to library needs and had some very happy customers! Watch the webinar recording below to hear Scott Gibbens, Head of Product for Talis, cover what we learned from the customer feedback exercise and what was delivered earlier in 2023.
In addition to the new integrations and feedback themed release, we also sped up and increased continuous improvement development to Talis Aspire. Below we highlight just a few of the cool, new features, enhancements and improvements to user experience:
Thank you to all our partner universities and congratulations on achieving these wonderful results on Talis Aspire. More exciting improvements and developments are planned for Talis Aspire next year, including improved reviews and acquisitions workflows and enhanced integrations to better streamline how librarians make acquisitions from Talis Aspire.
If your library does not yet use Talis Aspire but is looking to implement a new resource list management system, or wants to see how Talis Aspire compares to your library’s current resource list manager, get in touch:
As we near the end of 2023, it’s time to take a trip down memory lane and reflect on what has been a fantastic year for Lean Library: A resource access and workflow services tool for libraries.
Lean Library has undergone growth and major development this year, thanks to our customer loyalty, feedback, and new university partners. Here’s what happened in 2023…
Libraries work diligently to curate the best collections, resources and services to support their patrons. However, librarians are often the unsung heroes on and off campus, with students and researchers not properly utilizing (or even being aware of!) the extent of library services and resources.
Every day of 2023, Lean Library promoted and increased awareness of libraries by seamlessly bringing library content and services into patrons’ online workflows via the Lean Library browser extension (whether they were on Google, PudMed or beyond). This made patrons’ lives easier, improving their productivity and saving them time and money. And with over half a million downloads of the browser extension, Lean Library made a big impact around the world, as demonstrated in the infographic below:
In 2023, we completely redesigned Lean Library and improved the browser extension to launch on all major web browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari. This launch marked a significant step in Lean Library’s journey as the most comprehensive access broker and workflow tool with a goal to make learning and research workflows smoother than ever before.
The redesign was driven by invaluable feedback from librarians, students, and researchers. We completely revamped the browser extension to be quicker, sleeker, and better than before, with:
Useful stats and insights are key to any library in demonstrating the value of a technology they implement. That’s why Lean Library launched a new Stats Insight Dashboard that provides insights on Lean Library’s stats on real-benefit factors including:
This takes Lean Library beyond raw statistics to unveil the real value that Lean Library brings to institutions, making it simpler for librarians to demonstrate its value as a must-have tool. The impactful insights enable libraries to build a story around their patron’s usage and visualize the positive impact of Lean Library in transforming the library’s visibility and usage.
The Alternatives feature is a core Lean Library feature that helps patrons access digital resources easily in alternative ways. In 2023, a series of improvements were released to Lean Library, dubbed ‘Alternatives 2.0’, to better support the library in uniting their diverse range of collections in the open web, from print to digital. We strive to be the solution that brings together these rich, library-held collections to users, when they would not typically go to the library environments to find them. The Alternatives 2.0 improvements are as follows:
Zurich University of the Arts implemented Lean Library to enhance their user-centered library strategy and make patrons aware of the many great resources they have access to – thanks to their library. They utilized Lean Library’s enhanced content integration feature to surface the library’s ‘Very Short Introductions‘ collection, which offers a concise and original introduction to a wide range of subjects. By surfacing this collection on Wikipedia and other sites, it promotes it to patrons at point of need.
Often Wikipedia is the starting point for basic research. By linking to the Very Short Introductions collection, we can inform our students and other members of the university of additional valuable information the library licences, and which patrons might not be aware of.”
Simone Welti, Library Information Specialist, Zurich University of the Arts
In July 2023, Kennesaw State University Library implemented Lean Library to promote and drive usage of its digital collections. The library saw an drastic increase in library collected usage after implementing Lean Library, growing from 88 to 3,355 library resources accessed in just 4 months. That’s a whopping 3,712% increase, clearly highlighting the valuable Lean Library unlocks for both the library and patrons.
Lean Library has been instrumental in helping students and faculty become aware of the breadth of resources they can access through our subscriptions, particularly those provided through academic publishers.
Karen Doster-Greenleaf, Director of Research & Instructional Services/Librarian Associate Professor at Kennesaw State University
The service makes my work in research and document finding that much easier for me. Thank you!”
Student, Kennesaw State University
I started using Lean Library when I started researching my dissertation and realized I couldn’t possibly go through 20 different pages of Google Scholar, figuring out if I had access to them. It’s saved me a lot of time.”
BA Student, University of Lincoln
Lean Library is a very useful tool, especially for students, who often forget about the search tools offered by the library… One of the best things is its human team… we are taken very good care of.”
Librarian, University of Extremadura
2023 has been a year full of many Lean Library webinars, conferences, and events that gathered librarians from all corners of the world – from the United States to Europe to Australia. We’ve been delighted to grow our connections and relationships with libraries across the globe and it has been a memorable journey for all of us at Lean Library.
Lean Library’s user community came together in-person at the inaugural Tech from Sage Insight in Birmingham, UK. The event connected users to learn best practice, network, and workshop hot topics like AI in academia or the knowledge gap between librarians and students. Attendees gained insights from experts, learned about evolving needs of patrons, and explored ways to enhance their library through technology. It was a librarian’s dream event, but don’t worry if you missed out as the talks are still available here.
It was an honor to host an engaging in-person event at University of Salford, diving into the massive role academic libraries play in supporting student success and the challenges they face. University of Salford library presented on how they’ve used Lean Library to ensure students can seamlessly access vital study materials and bridge the knowledge gap between the library and students.
Lean Library had a blast presenting at various conferences throughout the year, including these sessions at ER&L in Texas and ACRL in Pittsburgh:
The team at Lean Library thank our university partners for a great year and look forward to connecting more libraries with their patrons in 2024. If your library is contemplating an access broker, looking to streamline access and drive usage of library holdings, or wants support moving toward a patron-centric approach, get in touch below to arrange a demo of Lean Library today.
When conducting our research for our latest report Librarian Futures Part III, we asked librarians and library leaders about their visions of the future: which skills do they see as essential to develop in the short, medium, and long-term? We had a range of responses, but a few points really stuck out to us:
With the end of 2023 fast approaching, it’s a good time to look to the future. We asked colleagues from universities around the world to reflect on the information in Librarian Futures Part III, and tell us where they see exciting opportunities and emerging challenges for 2024, and what their upskilling resolutions are for the year ahead.
If you haven’t yet read our latest report, Librarian Futures Part III: The Librarian Skills Landscape, download your copy below:
It would be remiss of me not to mention AI as a starter – the shift it will bring to all parts of society is akin to the changes wrought by the industrial revolution.”
Andrew Barker, Library Director, Lancaster University
“Looking from the vantage point of December 2023, to meet the challenges that 2024 will bring, I have reflected on the skills, or the understanding, I will need to ensure 2024 (and beyond) is a success and that the library I lead at Lancaster continues to be at the vanguard of sustainable innovation.
It would be remiss of me not to mention AI as a starter – the shift it will bring to all parts of society is akin to the changes wrought by the industrial revolution, and I need to begin to better improve my understanding of the opportunities and challenges (in that order) it is bringing.
It will have far-reaching consequences to libraries and librarians as we once again reframe our old skills to meet new opportunities, it will bring lots of opportunities, but we need to better understand the skills it will require from us – and for us to keep an open mind about the changes it will bring. It will change education, but once again our skills as librarians will ensure we prosper.
Secondly, I want to dive deeper into understanding the connectivity between being part of a university committed to sustainability and the resources we license and purchase – understanding that will ensure we are then able to drive change in the sector to think of new ways of delivering digital to our users without further dam aging the planet. Both big things to deal with to think about and upskill – but it is in the big changes where we will bring meaningful change. Bring it on!”
Skills never thought to be part of a librarian’s position description are now the norm. It hasn’t stopped and it doesn’t look like it is going to stop anytime soon.”
Hector R. Perez-Gilbe, Research Librarian for the College of Health Sciences, University of California
Librarians have been facing drastic changes in their professional world for the last couple of decades and I feel confident in saying that the most drastic changes within academic professions. Technology has impacted libraries in ways that revolutionized the librarian profession into challenges that are constantly changing. Skills never thought to be part of a librarian’s position description are now the norm. It hasn’t stopped and it doesn’t look like it is going to stop anytime soon. The new set of skills and knowledge required to keep up with current trends in information and information-seeking behaviors have taken us to places we never imagined.
When I was in library school, I never thought I would be involved in learning programming coding, or statistical understanding. As a medical librarian, I was always trying to stay ahead or neck and neck with the changes. Tough proposition at the time, so I enrolled in an epidemiology program and got my MPH. Data, analysis, and programming are the main topics in medical librarianship if you want to get elbow-to-elbow with the big leagues of medical information and clinical research.
Our role has shifted from reference desk to team members in clinical research and systematic review studies. Far from the librarian of 20 years ago. Librarians in all disciplines have to keep up with trends in their areas of expertise and the only way to do so is to go out of our comfort zone and learn new skills. One big accomplishment, non-librarian colleagues see us as an asset and team member to help achieve their professional goals. Let’s see where the next chapter will take us.
That is the beauty of this profession – our skills, ideas, and visions are transferrable across a wide range of settings.”
Hannah Rutledge, Director of Library and Information Services, Longwood Gardens
When Librarian Futures Part III was in the research phase, I was at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries as director of their biomedical library. Now, reading the published report, I’m the Director of Library and Information Services at Longwood Gardens, immersed in the world of botanical and horticultural librarianship. That is the beauty of this profession – our skills, ideas, and visions are transferrable across a wide range of settings. Naturally, I feel somewhat removed from the academic library world, yet there are numerous parallels, many of which are clearly outlined in Librarian Futures Part III report, allowing me to feel inspired and right at home.
If I may be honest, the report left me with more questions. I was intrigued but not fully surprised by the different perspectives of library leaders and frontline librarians. This shows not only difference of priorities (which is expected), but it may also show the opportunity for a gap in communication or understanding. Are they communicating these priorities to each other? Does this impact the availability of or support for professional development? Furthermore, I’m curious as to the breakdown of “library leaders,” as there are various levels of library leaders with different priorities in the same institution (i.e. medical library director vs dean of libraries). Now that the librarian skills landscape has been identified, what is the next step? How can we help librarians advocate for the training and development they need? What additional work is needed to accurately identify those interests, needs, and opportunities?
To run off to the gardens now…At Longwood Gardens we have horticultural students and interns (domestic and international), executive leadership fellows, as well as staff and researchers seeking information from various fields ranging from landscape architecture to garden design to sculpture, from turf care to orchids to woody plants. The teams under my purview include the library, archives, digital asset management, plant information and mapping, and docents.
My own primary goals for the new year:
These are vague goals, lacking any actionable tasks, outcomes, or timelines. At this point, they serve more as a guide. With Librarian Futures Part III in tow (as well as the previous two), I intend to utilize the data and insights to help create a better library, archives, and information services – for our users, for the success of the organization, and most importantly, for my staff.
Librarians play a large role in connecting their communities as bridges between people and organizations. Information is the tip of the iceberg.”
Christine Quirion, Chief Operating Officer, Skilltype
The Librarian Futures III report findings show high representation of information science skills across the community, suggesting a comfort zone. Librarians play a large role in connecting their communities as bridges between people and organizations. Information is the tip of the iceberg. The libraries Skilltype works with encourage re-skilling in areas such as AI, online learning, and data literacies so the library can be a full partner in teaching and research. Based on the report’s findings, Skilltype will highlight skills that help information professionals increase their impact and curate their careers in 2024. Skills that I expect to see more of include community outreach, instructional design, project management, assessment, design thinking, marketing, and user experience. These are essential skills to uncover community needs, communicate effectively with stakeholders, and maximize the library’s impact.
Across my academic library career, my skill range extended organically every few years. I started as a digitization supervisor and grew into leadership, UX, and digital development. Now, I’m part of a startup for libraries. Each time I extended my range, my network grew to include colleagues from campus IT, student services, or teaching & learning. New people and perspectives can also be catalysts for growth.
Our research has found that in today’s academic world, the roles of IT and librarians are converging more than ever.”
Richard French, Product Manager, OpenAthens
Our research has found that in today’s academic world, the roles of IT and librarians are converging more than ever. Embracing technology has become pivotal for librarians, forming an integral part of their responsibilities. At OpenAthens, our focus for the next year is on simplifying our products and empowering librarians with user-friendly tools, enabling them to adeptly navigate the increasing significance of technology within their roles.
Thank you to Andrew Barker, Hector R. Perez-Gilbe, Hannah Rutledge, Christine Quirion and Richard French for their contributions to this blog post.
Where has Larry the Lean Library Llama been in 2023? December 11, 2023
As many of you may know, we have a furry mascot for our Lean Library browser extension – isn’t he cute? The Lean Library Llama joins us at events and conferences, listening in as we talk to academic librarians from all over the world about Lean Library, the easy-to-use browser extension which simplifies online access to library content. We’ve named our Lean Library Llama Larry, but we’ve heard librarians and students name their llama all different names: from Allama Morisette to Louisa.
Do you want to find out where Larry the Llama has been this year and what he’s been up to? Read on to discover the travels of our four-legged friend…
Larry was lucky enough to travel to Austin, Texas for Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference (ER&L) 2023 back in March and had a great time on the stand chatting to librarians about their library.
We were delighted to have three sessions at ER&L Conference 2023, ranging from future-proofing access to patron reference management.
Find out more about our sessions below:
In April, Larry and his friends joined us at our inaugural Tech from Sage Insight Conference in Birmingham at The REP Theatre. It was a jam-packed two days for academic librarians with workshops and presentations on Higher Education topics, ranging from the risks and opportunities of AI to rethinking the library of the future.
We ran a giveaway during the two-day conference for six librarians to win their own llama to take home. All they had to do was tweet about the conference using #TechfromSage. The lucky winners were Lowri, Jackie, Haylee, Hazel, Fiona and Chantal. We loved seeing the photos of the llamas from the winners:
In May, Larry the Llama joined the Technology from Sage team at REBIUN Asamblea Conference in Alicante, Spain – a wonderful city for an academic conference and we loved meeting so many librarians from Spanish institutions.
Congratulations to Juana from Universisidad de Alicante who won a llama at the stand – we’re sure that this llama has gone to a fantastic home.
In September, Larry and his friends flew to Kennesaw in the United States (they’re becoming very well-travelled llamas) to promote the Lean Library browser extension at a usage driving event for students, run by Kennesaw State University Library.
We absolutely loved seeing the fantastic photos of the llamas enjoying a cold beverage and hanging out in the Lean Library branded paper bags. We felt it was a fantastic way for Kennesaw State University Library to celebrate that students now had access to Lean Library for their research.
Discover more about how Kennesaw State University Library have used Lean Library to increase their patron usage of digital collections in our case study.
In November, Larry the Llama visited a couple of institutions within the United Kingdom. First stop, was University of Derby Library where three llamas were part of a competition for students to install the Lean Library browser extension and a gain a new study buddy at the same time. We absolutely loved that the three llamas who had found new homes were named Allama Morisette, Banana- Llama and Bubble.
Larry and his friends travelled further up north to Lancaster, United Kingdom to visit University of Lancaster Library and meet some students. The llamas became part of the Lean Library Llama Digital and Usability Outreach Team and we’ve heard reports that they’ve been patrolling University of Lancaster Library to tell students about how Lean Library makes their research process even easier.
We loved the Lean Library tags on the llamas that the University of Lancaster librarians created!
Larry the Llama visited Barbie Land in the summer to be Barbie’s loyal travel companion as she went to the Real World. This may have happened in Larry’s imagination, but we’ll leave that up to you to decide!
We hope 2024 brings even more travels for Larry the Lean Library Llama! Stay tuned for more adventures around conferences and institutions around the world.
Read our blog post to find out more about what Lean Library has been up to in 2023!
9 Key Findings from Librarian Futures Report Part Three November 9, 2023
We recently launched our Librarian Futures Part Three report, titled The Librarian Skills Gap. The report, in partnership with Skilltype, explores the emerging skills required to fulfil a library’s mission – in a decade shaped by social, political, and technological change – and meet the needs of today’s library patrons. We gathered global perspectives from over 2,000 academic library professionals, from frontline librarians to library directors, to ensure a representative set of insights for the report.
Our second Librarian Futures report asked the question: How can academic libraries be more deeply involved in the undergraduate learning journey? The new report investigates the new skills, competencies and responsibilities which librarians will develop in the years ahead and are going to be pivotal to this. We hope this report inspires conversations in your library, amongst your peers, and within the wider library community.
Here are the 9 key findings from Librarian Futures Report Part Three:
An overwhelming majority of librarians agreed or strongly agreed with the following statements:
Results were much more mixed for the statement “I feel confident regarding advancing my career”.
Although some are neutral on this question (17%), and a small number do not feel able to meet these challenges (8% disagree, 1% strongly disagree).
74% of respondents reported that they engaged in upskilling, on average, at least once every 3 months.
However, many librarians are being left out of such conversations, and the impact is particularly pronounced for staff without postgraduate qualifications and for staff working in a hybrid fashion and over 10% of library professionals surveyed as only upskilling once per year.
This is likely in response to the rapid rise of generative AI.
Moving into the medium and long term, a number of librarians see skills in learning analytics being crucial to develop.
Over half of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were given ample opportunity to develop their skill set by the university (56%), and over half felt well supported to do so by senior management (62%), line managers (80%), and colleagues (72%).
Just 19% of respondents felt that students recognise their efforts to learn new skills. A plurality (41%) of librarians were neutral on the topic, while a relatively huge 40% of librarians actively disagreed with the statement.
Approximately 75% of librarians have had the opportunity to engage in upskilling at least quarterly.
It is also worth noting that librarian training is coupled within travel budgets, which has increased the impact of COVID on librarian training budgets.
The next most popular choice was “other,” with respondents specifying their different ways of discovery. Some respondents described using online platforms such as Coursera or LinkedIn to discover new learning, while others spoke of having to undertake mandatory training.
Download our Librarian Futures Part III report to discover more noteworthy insights regarding the emerging skills required to fulfill a library’s mission and meet the needs of today’s library patrons.
Share your thoughts about the findings in the new Librarian Futures Part III report on Twitter and LinkedIn.
