and take the qualification you need to succeed in the career you find yourself in, and love doing. Colleagues who sit with me on interview panels will know what I look for most in candidates is pas- sion – does this person want the job?”
Changes
When he became Content and Discovery Manager at Derby he joined the Senior Management Team, reporting to the University Librarian: “The next few years were the highlight of my career. I was able to influence the direction of the library and in particular the acquisitions, or con- tent and discovery, side of the library. I was keen to make some substantial changes.” Acknowledging the team effort, Matt
said: “I had various ideas about how we could improve the student experience. I’d describe various proposals to my area leads and they’d utilise their expertise in developing workflows and processes to take my proposals forward.” He said: “One of the immediate changes I made was a simple but effective one. We had over 100 fund codes on the LMS when I started. Within weeks that was down to 30 which was then reduced fur- ther over time.”
Other important changes he mentioned included: the move to shelf-ready and student-driven purchasing schemes. He also introduced purchasing inter library loans, saying: “We were effectively rent- ing a book when sometimes it could be cheaper to buy it and then add to our col- lection. Clearly it needs to be relevant to the collection, but we did purchase copies where relevant, and this was cheaper than the cost of an ILL for us, which of course means more students can benefit. “We’d made so many changes over time, the most substantial of all was introduc- ing five new systems, including the LMS, discovery and RLMS within the space of nine months.”
Matt says the changes revolutionised how acquisition of content was completed at Derby, resulting in being awarded the NAG Award for Excellence along the way as well.
New beginnings Matt says: “My first few weeks at ARU have been about seeing how acquisitions tasks are completed and knowing what I’d like to look at improving. And on the dis- covery side as well, are there new systems we can look at introducing to help students discover our collection for example? “There’s plenty for me to get into, and I’m passionate about wanting to im- prove the student experience and how I can help influence the direction at ARU. For example, I’m keen to stream- line and strengthen student-driven demand requests and also make some improvements to the way we manage our collection utilising some spreadsheets I introduced at Derby.
In addition, having the time to evalu- ate resources is key. “Utilising cost- per-use ratios to ensure we are getting value for money is more important than ever. Covid saw goodwill from publish- ers across the sector, but I’ve noticed price rises are starting to creep up again. This isn’t sustainable with static budgets.”
Trends in Content and Discovery “Acquisitions in the sector currently is at an interesting point,” Matt says. “Transformative agreements are at the forefront right now. These bring interest- ing challenges for the library, particularly around the VAT element. Also how do we move beyond transformative agree- ments towards a goal of fully accessible open research. I think it’s fair to say that they’ve not transformed as much as we’d like – are publishers really committed to transforming to an OA future?” On the discovery side, one challenge is students bypassing library discovery methods with the likes of Google Scholar or Google. “We spend a lot of time developing our discovery journey but we must recognise that students use a range of methods. At Derby I introduced two systems to help direct students to our resources, including Internet Brows- er extensions. So, they pop up when a student is searching for something we own, but they might have stumbled upon it on a resource which we don’t subscribe to. The extension shows them where it is.” Matt says this is particularly useful when students are off campus and miss the authentication benefit of being on-campus. “Some colleagues worry this is encour- aging use of Google, but we’re meeting the need from our students who do use these methods. We must recognise that and make sure we aid their journey.” Offering alternative access models for students is another passion: “In many ways it doesn’t matter for me how students access things, as long as they can. We must ensure we offer them what they need however they want to access it. Whether they access a resource via our discovery, via an ILL request or via a Scan and Deliver type service etc”
Provider sales techniques Transparency is another hot topic for Matt. “I’ve found it interesting chang- ing institutions and seeing the different prices being paid for the same resource. Sometimes there may be a genuine rea- son why, student numbers for example, but clearly there is more need for trans- parency in mind. I hope this is something the sector can move forward with.”
Horizon scanning “Horizon scanning is key to seeing new technologies or processes that are game changers. I regularly attend vari- ous events held by NAG, UKSG, SUPC, NEYAL, LIEM etc and I usually come away inspired with something else to think about.”
His appreciation of NAG’s work led him to join its Executive Committee: “I admired what NAG does and I’m happy to help. When I saw the callout, I looked at the membership and realised these peers are people I admire.” Matt says NAG is for everyone inter- ested in the acquisition management and development of library resources, producing guidelines and standards and offering education and training, knowledge sharing and networking – providing leadership and a source of shared expertise for its membership. Matt adds: “I regularly speak to peers at other institutions – often compar- ing notes. I also stay in touch with ex-colleagues who have moved onto new roles at other institutions. Having this network that you can get in touch with is so important at times. The HE library sector is such a lovely commu- nity to work within.”
Technology trends Matt says technology shows no signs of slowing down. “AI will be an interest- ing development. For example, can it help automate the book ordering process. So utilising criteria agreed by the team to make automatic purchases, without the need of manual input.” Matt is set to streamline other areas to make the user experience smoother. “We all know searching for content can be frustrating at times. It may take sev- eral clicks to open the resource you’ve searched for and found. Indeed, you might even find a broken link. Being able to open the content in one click is the preference. Integrating these with our link resolver is the way forward.” One function that AI may be able to help with is already being trialled at ARU. “The Library is looking at AI that can robustly take notes at meetings. We have some meetings where there is no designated note taker. So, this development can be helpful to allow members to concentrate on the discus- sion at hand, rather than taking turns minute taking.” BG
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