This presentation was written by Richard Corss (Nottingham Trent University), and presented at the 2010 Conference of the Ex Libris User Group, United Kingdom and Ireland (EPUG-UKI), held at the British Library Conference Centre, London on 1-2 November

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Resource Lists and the Ex Libris application suite
(and ALEPH/Voyager and SFX in particular)
Richard Cross, Resource Discovery and Innovation Manager
Libraries and Learning Resources, Nottingham Trent University
EPUG-UKI Conference, British Library, 1-2 November 2010

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Agenda
Context
•Nottingham Trent University and Resource Lists
•The Resource List Project at Nottingham Trent University
•Talis Aspire – implemented, live RLMS solution
Ex Libris applications and Aspire
•Academics – collecting information about resources to add to Lists
•Librarians – supporting List provision by acquiring resources
•Students – discovering resources on Lists (and connecting to them)
Potential future application and service integrations

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Resource Lists: context
Resource Lists and the Ex Libris application suite
EPUG-UKI Conference, British Library, 1-2 November 2010

4. NTU: A renewed push for information skills
• Raising information and literacy skills – an increasing HE priority
• Key aims: facilitate development of the ‘independent learner’; and
support ‘directed study’ through access to information resources
• Student feedback reported failings in delivery of ‘direct reading’
“I can’t find the things my lecturer told me to
read”
• Existing Resource List management was not up to task
“I can’t find a list of things from my lecturer
that I ought to read”

5. How were Resource Lists being managed?
• No guarantee to the student: no certainty that course offerings
would provide the learner with a reading list; experiences differed
• No consistent ‘format’: not physical format; nor structure; nor
extent; nor over reach and range of materials
• No single point of student discovery: some lists were held in the
VLE database; some as VLE documents; some as print-only
• No consistent method for library discovery: library sought to
acquire as many lists as possible, but only accessed a small
percentage (circa 20%)
• No rigorous workflow: lists were not seamlessly processed from
the academic, through the library service, and back to the student
• No fully supportive policy framework: to underpin systems

6. Need for a new RLMS
Highlighted need for a new integrated online ‘Resource List
Management System’ (RLMS), providing:
•Academics – ability to create, manage and maintain lists and make
these available to students
•Students – easy access to relevant lists, and to the discovery of
materials on those lists
•Library service – ability to review lists; report on items on lists;
inform selection and acquisitions decisions to resource those lists;
ensure those materials are accurately described and discoverable
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7. RLMS project group
• Secured backing of university to implement new RLMS
• Through specification, tender, and shortlisting process, NTU became
one of cohort of early adopters of Talis Aspire
• Began implementation in late 2009; RLMS fully live September 2010
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8. By early October: 30K visits a week
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9. Talis Aspire
• ‘Next generation’ Resource List Management System (distinct from
earlier Talis List reading list software)
• Exclusively offered as a hosted, cloud-based service
• Supports SAML based authentication and authorisation (Shibboleth)
• Integration with local ALEPH, Voyager and SFX services provided as
part of implementation (along with customisation, data import, etc.)
• Search and browse options for list discovery
• Support for deep-linking from VLE (or other locations)
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Resource Lists: ALEPH, Voyager and SFX
Resource Lists and the Ex Libris application suite
EPUG-UKI Conference, British Library, 1-2 November 2010

11. Populating a resource list with items
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• A JavaScript based web browser plug-in enables records to be
Bookmarked directly from the library catalogue and a number of
full-text journal platforms
‘Bookmark’ items online
– from the OPAC, journal
platforms and elsewhere
Populate lists with items
– arrange, organise and
annotate as required
• Academics (or librarians) create lists through a two stage process

12. The Bookmark browser plug-in (IE and FF)
Any web location can be Bookmarked:
 Extracts page title and URL
• Minimal metadata
• URL may not be persistent or authentication-aware
Web locations configured for the Bookmark plug-in:
 Extracts identifiers to perform an additional look-up (LCN, ISBN, DOI)
 Returns far richer metadata
 Enables more appropriate linking
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16. The Bookmark plug-in – ALEPH and Voyager
ALEPH
•Bookmark request extracts LCN from Bib Rec
•LCN is added to X-Server request, which returns Bib and Holdings
data, written to the Aspire record
•LCN X-Server look-up is used once to extract the Bib data and
repeatedly in real-time for the Availability look-up
Voyager
•Bookmark request extracts LCN from Bib Rec
•LCN is added to a z-request (with functionality as above)
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17. The Voyager and ALEPH preference
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• A list author begins a search on Amazon, bookmarking an Item…

18. • Aspire extracts ISBN values from the Amazon record; finds a match
in Voyager or ALEPH, so draws Bib data and the LCN value from the
OPAC to create the Bookmarked item
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19. Authoring a Resource List – drag-and-drop
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Resource List – preparing the student view
• Adding and organising items – authoring (direct or mediated)
• Item priority status – set by list author
• Item annotation – added by list author

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Resource List – Item view (physical stock)
• Item data – extracted from OPAC record
• Library availability – a live holdings look-up
• ‘View in library catalogue’ – a LCN deep-link
• ‘Other formats/editions’ – a Title/Author search

22. Resource List – Item view (electronic book)
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• Item data – extracted from OPAC record
• Link – $856 URL presented in Resource List record
• ‘View in library catalogue’ – a LCN deep-link
• ‘Other formats/editions’ – a Title/Author search

23. Resource List – Item view (journal article)
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• Item data – extracted via CrossRef look-up from journal site DOI
• SFX link – inclusion of DOI is threshold for display of SFX link

24. Integrating SFX
• Talis has licensed use of CrossRef service for Aspire: Digital Object
Identifier (DOI) parsing is key mechanism for retrieving electronic
journal metadata
In RLMS record
• SFX conditional display in
an Item view is dependent
on the presence of a DOI in
the Item record
• Adds DOI (and DOI only)
to available OpenURL
• DOI also added to COinS
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25. Submitting lists for library review
• List authors submit lists for library review
• Authors can add information (on e.g. numbers of enrolled students)
• Library staff can review and record outcomes of review within
Aspire; or export data for external use
• Authors receive confirmation feedback on completion of review
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27. ‘Check other references’
• Item-level one-click check
of other occurrences of on
item on other lists (by
LCN, ISBNs, ISSNs and
DOIs)
• Useful for informing stock
level calculations and
identifying acquisitions
threshold triggers
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28. Log of selection and acquisitions outcomes
• RLMS does not displace any
existing Acquisitions
processing (Order,
Invoicing, Budgets and
Funds, et al)
• Can be used to record any
steps in the library Selection
workflow, and Acquisitions
decision making
• Recording Resource List
identifier in LMS order allows
cross-referencing between
two applications
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Some of the immediate key challenges
• Impact on existing selection and acquisitions workflows
• Deciding on how to satisfy RLMS tracking and reporting
needs (RLMS, LMS or both)
If academics create lists…
• Academics bookmarking things the library does not have
(but could have) in stock – key developments in alternative
authority sources have recently gone live; still the need to fix many
externally sourced records
• Academics creating links to electronic materials (even though
they always have, in dark corners of VLE) – new requirement to
validate and fix as necessary (metadata and authentication)

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Resource Lists: potential future integrations
Resource Lists and the Ex Libris application suite
EPUG-UKI Conference, British Library, 1-2 November 2010

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Key future enhancements and integrations
RLMS and the Ex Libris suite
•PRIMO (as Bookmarking source; availability and holdings data
source)
•Voyager, ALEPH, PRIMO, SFX (maybe for MetaLib) for web services
look-up “This item is referenced on the following Resource Lists…”
•URM Selection & Acquisitions processes and MMS
RLMS and other applications
•Citation and referencing services (RefWorks, EndNote, et al)
•Vendor and material supplier services (for purchasable items)

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Questions or comments?
Richard Cross, Nottingham Trent University | richard.cross@ntu.ac.uk
Nottingham Trent University - RLMS
http://resourcelists.ntu.ac.uk
Resource Lists in Talis Aspire are openly accessible