Course resource lists are the starting point for many students in discovering content for their learning. Talis Aspire is a leading resource list management system that connects faculty and students to library holdings from directly within their course resource lists to boost student outcomes, increase usage of library content and help faculty do their best teaching.
As 2024 draws to a close, we’re reflecting on how institutions have put libraries at the heart of teaching and learning with Talis Aspire. Guided by invaluable customer feedback, we continued enhancing Talis Aspire’s features and functionality in 2024 to streamline librarian and faculty workflows – and secure better student outcomes.
Read on as we highlight the year’s key developments, new university partners, and share an exciting glimpse of what’s coming in 2025…
Talis Aspire remains a preferred resource list management system for institutions, facilitating the creation of over 1.65 million resource lists worldwide.
In 2024, institutions published nearly 340,000 resource lists, which were viewed by students nearly 40 million times, and generated over 50 million students clicks. This ultimately connected students to content from the library, Open Educational Repositories and online stores, saving students time and money to support their success.
Talis Aspire also supported the development of reading skills, with students setting over 1.2 million reading intentions against resources in 2024, to help differentiate between essential, extra and further reading.
In 2024, we welcomed several new institutions to the Talis Aspire community; In North America, Rollins College implemented Talis Aspire to make more strategic and informed decisions about textbook purchases. We also welcomed new institutions from the UK, including Glasgow School of Art who selected Talis Aspire for its excellent customer support and commitment to actively develop the platform.
Amongst many customer success stories this year, University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) stands out as a prime example of how Talis Aspire can inform acquisitions and make learning more affordable. UNTHSC used Talis Aspire to streamline workflows, provide better analytics and improve access to course materials. The library team can now estimate savings by calculating the cost of each item students used in course lists, for one class alone, the annual student savings exceeded $125,000. Read the full case study here.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam embedded Talis Aspire into its library strategy, using 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. Read the full case study here.
La Trobe University leveraged Talis Aspire Advanced MIS to gain crucial insight into student engagement with digital resources, inform procurement decisions and streamline the library’s overall workflow. This effort resulted in 75% of courses now having a reading list. The library has also successfully tracked the percentage of lists containing ‘all-digital’ prescribed items, currently at 85%. Read the full case study.
We continuously developed Talis Aspire this year to better support the needs of librarians. Below, we highlight a few of the key enhancements made in 2024.
We significantly enhanced the bookmarking process with a new release of the Talis Bookmarking extension and brought key improvements including improved metadata support.
Key improvements included:
Several updates were made to Talis Aspire to simplify and enhance librarian workflows:
British Library EHESS orders: A new solution to streamline British Library EHESS orders directly within Talis Aspire.
New item alerts: Item-specific alerts that highlight changes requiring attention.
Update directly from Reviews: The ability to request resource digitization, update an item’s importance level, and assign outcomes to multiple items at once—all directly from the Reviews section, saving time and eliminating the need for multiple open screens.
Librarians can now take control of platform configurations with new self-serve settings.
System administrators can independently edit account configurations, including language, branding, and item importance settings.
This year, we’ve introduced several key improvements to make the list creation process as seamless as possible:
You can read about even more improvements made to Talis Aspire this year in our blog below:
Exciting new features are planned for Talis Aspire in 2025. Stay tuned as we’ll announce these developments next year. In the meantime, here’s a taste what’s in store:
As always, we thank the institutions within the thriving Talis Aspire community for their continued loyalty and wish you all a happy New Year.
If your library does not yet use Talis Aspire and wants to know how it could benefit from a resource list management system or see how Talis Aspire compares to your current solution, request a demo today.
Talis Aspire Case Study: University of North Texas Health Science Center November 1, 2024
In 2019, the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) began reviewing its reading list and course reserves usage, discovering that the research and education library team was embedding resource links directly into Canvas and course reserves were primarily serving as textbook shelving locations. With limited usage across the institution, it highlighted a clear need to update and optimize its resource list and course reserves process.
By 2020, the urgency for an update grew as the Covid-19 pandemic limited access to print resources. In response, UNTHSC switched its library service platform to OCLC’s WMS and implemented its embedded course reserves module. Despite this change, adoption remained slow, with only three active reading lists by 2021, limited usage by students and ongoing copyright infringement issues. In 2022, the team began exploring alternative solutions and discovered that OCLC had partnered with Technology from Sage to offer Talis Aspire to WMS customers as a comprehensive resource list management and course reserves solution. Due to its integration with existing systems, copyright capabilities and course reserves functionality, it proved to be the solution that best fit their needs.
By June 2022, UNTHSC had adopted Talis Aspire as their resource list management and course reserves system, which it branded internally as “List It.” The library team understood that full institutional support was essential for a successful implementation, so by 2023 they collaborated with various teams across UNTHSC to make the launch of Talis Aspire a success.
They worked closely with instructional designers, providing training on Talis Aspire, emphasizing its importance, showcasing its capabilities for managing copyright and course reserves and stressing the importance of providing students immediate access to resources at the start of each course.
Adoption across the institution
By 2024, UNTHSC successfully launched Talis Aspire with a 1,333% increase in inactive reading list creation, rising from 3 to 43 lists. Of these, 38 course reading lists were created to ensure that students had access to all class resources from day one and are aware of which items are available as course reserves to avoid unnecessary purchases. Additionally, 5 reading lists now support campus initiatives, including a reading list for training programs across the institution.
Student savings and better insights into savings
Improved analytics was another welcomed benefit of Talis Aspire. The library team can now estimate savings by calculating the cost of each item students used in the course list. For one class alone, annual student savings exceeded $125,000.
Streamlined communication and copyright compliance
Talis Aspire also improved campus-wide communication, helping faculty and students understand reading lists, course reserves, content contracts, and copyright regulations, with copyright compliance now being nearly perfect across all courses.
The introduction of Talis Aspire has profoundly impacted academic workflows, strengthened interdepartmental collaboration, and improved support between departments, making collaboration an ongoing integrated process rather than a sporadic process. Faculty and staff are now better equipped to utilize course reading lists and course reserves effectively, with the library working closely with students to identify resource needs, leading to more informed collection development and ensuring resource availability when needed by students.
Talis Aspire has also had a measurable impact on student savings by reducing the need for students to purchase course materials individually. With clear access to essential resources through reading lists and course reserves, students can avoid unnecessary purchases, while the library can better track and estimate savings across courses.
Find out more about Talis Aspire.
If you’d like to hear more or receive a product demo, get in touch.
Talis Aspire Case Study: Loughborough University October 30, 2024
After 22 years of using its in-house Reading List System (LORLS), Loughborough University recognized the need to migrate to a modern system. Guided by both IT Services and the Library, the University sought a new system that prioritized user experience while seamlessly integrating with their LMS, Discovery Systems, and internal student and staff information systems.
The new system had to be intuitive for users familiar with LORLS, as reading lists are a key component of course content. It was crucial for the new system to enable timely stock acquisition and reporting, as these processes were closely linked to LORLS. Additionally, the system needed to support a smooth migration of over 2,200 lists with minimal disruption, ensuring staff and students would engage from the outset.
Loughborough University identified Talis Aspire as the ideal solution. It was the only system that integrated effectively with their existing systems while offering flexible entry methods to ensure a smooth transition for academics. Talis Aspire also enhanced the user experience for students. Furthermore, its proven track record and strong customer support, combined with regular updates and a thriving community, made it an ideal choice.
The migration was structured into two projects: one to implement the new system and the other to migrate the data. Both began in November 2023, with data migration completed by early March 2024, and the system went live in April 2024.
The implementation was comprehensive, covering system authentication, course hierarchies, staff training, acquisitions workflows, and user acceptance testing. The migration of data posed the greatest challenge, requiring academic access to be frozen for several weeks to clean and test the data thoroughly. By freezing access during semester 2, most reading lists were finalized with minimal edits required.
To ensure a smooth transition, the university opted to migrate mid-term during a quieter period when fewer reading list edits were needed. The initial plan was to run LORLS in parallel with Talis Aspire from April to June, but positive feedback from student and staff led to an earlier switch to Talis Aspire exclusively.
Upon its introduction, Talis Aspire received overwhelmingly positive feedback from students, who described it as ‘Engaging,’ ‘Intuitive,’ and ‘Modern’. Few student queries have been received, indicating the system’s ease of use and the effectiveness of the on-demand training materials. Within four months, the system had 5,500 users, including over 500 academics, with further growth expected during new academic year. The project’s success has led to the project team winning an internal Vice Chancellor’s award.
“Changing systems after 22 years of a home-grown system was inevitably daunting, but collaboration with colleagues across the University and with Technology from Sage ensured a successful transition. Talis Aspire provides an intuitive and engaging interface to connect our students to their resources, as well as enabling a smooth workflow for lecturers. There are lots of possibilities with Talis Aspire to further enhance our reading list practices and we look forward to exploring and introducing these to support our sector-leading student experience.” – Helen Young, Deputy Director of Library Services, Loughborough University
The success of this project was a collaborative effort involving multiple departments, including IT, Library, and the Student Union Executive officers. Detailed planning and extensive testing were critical, including:
User Stories and Prioritization: Identifying system needs via user stories and categorizing them as ‘Must,’ ‘Should,’ and ‘Could’ was essential. This process involved a wide variety of user types, including library staff, academics, students, procurement, and IT services. In future projects, involving an even wider variety of students and staff would be beneficial.
Metadata Quality: Ensuring clean and organized metadata was vital for successful migration, focusing only on necessary information.
Maximizing Expertise: Leveraging expertise across the institution was crucial, such as using established networks and training opportunities led by school administrators and other departments.
Continuous Testing: Testing at every stage of migration prevented future issues. For example, testing small data sets against the new hierarchy revealed issues that added a few days of work in the short term but saved extensive work later. Additional testing, such as LTI integration for reading lists and VLE rollovers, could have further improved the process.
Loughborough University is now exploring the full potential of Talis Aspire, particularly for accessibility and inclusivity. The Library is collaborating with Student Wellbeing, Accessibility, and Inclusivity services to develop good practice guidelines to help academics create prioritized reading lists that benefit all students, particularly those with additional needs.
Further work with the Technology from Sage team includes developing links and supporting Moodle rollovers, ensuring that resit students can access archived lists.
Another area of exploration is tracking data and analytics. Loughborough University is evaluating both the standard Aspire analytics options and the potential of Talis Advanced MIS to provide deeper insights into student engagement. As the university develops its learning analytics, integrating Advanced MIS may be necessary.
The primary focus in the coming months will be embedding the new system more fully across the institution and ensuring staff and students utilize Talis Aspire’s advanced functionality, supported by ongoing customer success calls with Technology from Sage.
Find out more about Talis Aspire.
If you’d like to hear more or receive a product demo, get in touch.
Talis Advanced MIS Case Study: La Trobe University August 22, 2024
This case study explores how La Trobe University leveraged Talis Aspire Advanced MIS to integrate Talis Aspire data with additional data sources, generating dynamic reports and dashboards through Power BI. This integration provided crucial insight into student engagement with digital resources, informed procurement decisions and streamline the library’s overall workflow.
La Trobe University library, committed to a digital-first policy, faced several challenges in optimizing its library operations. The library sought an automated solution to track the digitization of resources and monitor student engagement with both digital and print materials. A particular challenge arose from the decision to use a single time period in Talis Aspire, which complicated the reporting process. The library also needed a way to integrate Talis Aspire data with their curriculum management system, CourseLoop, to effectively monitor active and discontinued courses and get much deeper insight into course engagement and usage.
By integrating Talis Advanced MIS, La Trobe University transformed its reporting capabilities. The integration of Talis Aspire data with CourseLoop allowed the library to display and analyze this data using Power BI. This integration enabled the creation of reports that tracked student engagement with prescribed resources and provided insights into the types of resources accessed from reading lists. Moreover, the integration streamlined the mapping of different subjects to multiple time periods, optimizing the library’s general workflow and addressing the initial complications posed by the single time period in Talis Aspire.
The newly developed reports and dashboards have significantly improved the conversations between Liaison Librarians and faculty members. The library can now easily identify reading lists containing print items and encourage faculty to switch to digital resources where possible or consider Open Educational Resources (OERs), contributing to cost savings for the university. This approach has also enhanced the library’s resource procurement process, allowing for the identification of items that cannot yet be converted to digital formats using “library notes”, facilitating ongoing reviews of these items to check for the availability of digital versions later.
Additionally, the implementation of these reports and dashboards has enabled the library to enforce a policy that ensures every subject listed in CourseLoop has an associated reading list. This effort has resulted in 75% of courses now having a reading list. The library has also successfully tracked the percentage of lists containing ‘all-digital’ prescribed items, currently at 85%.
An unexpected benefit of these reports has been their utility as analytics tools, allowing the library to maintain better oversight of its operations. For example, when a new subject is created in CourseLoop, the team can quickly determine if a corresponding reading list exists. Similarly, the reports help monitor the discontinuation of subjects, ensuring that unnecessary reading lists are retired. The reports also highlight lists awaiting review, keeping the library’s workflow on track.
Another unforeseen outcome has been the ability to track reading lists with low student engagement. In some cases, this analysis has revealed that some lists were not integrated within the university’s Learning Management System (Moodle) and suffered from reduced visibility, leading to fewer student views. This insight has prompted efforts to improve the accessibility and promotion of reading lists.
A key learning point from this initiative has been the value of having team members who are not only familiar with reading lists but also possess expertise in data visualization software like Power BI. These individuals bring essential knowledge of reading list structures, time periods, and list rollovers, which is crucial when building effective dashboards and reports.
For institutions looking to implement data visualization tools like Power BI, the advice is to start by analyzing data from a single report. Power BI’s ability to import and test data from spreadsheets makes it an ideal platform for experimentation and hands-on learning.
Another key recommendation is to integrate AI into the library’s workflow. AI has proven invaluable for helping to master new systems and writing code, further streamlining operations.
Looking ahead, La Trobe University library plans to continue refining its reporting capabilities by incorporating Open Access data from OpenAlex into its reports. This will provide a clearer picture of the proportion of open-access resources in reading lists.
The university has also recently introduced a student dashboard, which tracks student interactions with resources.
In the long term, this dashboard will help identify high-usage items that may require additional copies and low-usage items that could be removed from reading lists. These developments will further enhance the library’s ability to manage resources efficiently and support student success.
We extend our sincere gratitude to Jamie McDonald from La Trobe University for his invaluable contributions and insights, which were instrumental in the creation of this case study. For any inquiries regarding the reports discussed within the case study, please contact Jamie McDonald at La Trobe University via email: j.mcdonald2@latrobe.edu.au.
If you’d like to learn more about Talis Advanced MIS, contact us.
