Planning for the future: working with suppliers to investigate next generation library systems

The HIKE Project is a JISC funded project managed by Computing and Library Services at the University of Huddersfield to carry out a full assessment of the suitability and potential of Intota as a replacement to the traditional LMS in the UK market.

Intota (http://www.serialssolutions.com/en/services/intota) is a single, Software-as-a-Service solution that supports the entire resource lifecycle for libraries, including selection, acquisition, cataloguing, discovery, and fulfilment regardless of resource type.

Intota aims to help librarians in their work by providing greater efficiencies so they can devote more time to mission-critical activities.
The project ran from June 2012 to February 2013 and involved working with JISC Collections; the Intota development team at Serials Solutions; and Dawson Books, the University’s main book supplier. As part of the project there was a need to understand the workflows in place for the current library management and related systems, before realising what would be required from a next generation library and web-scale management system.

This paper will report on Huddersfield’s collaboration between Dawson Books, to discuss current acquisitions workflows, ideal workflows and their implications for Intota, the library Acquisitions team, and the University’s Finance department. It will include discussion on the National Book Contract, book ordering, book reports, MARC records, e-books, out of print books, payments on the financial system, and any additional features that would be helpful for Higher Education Institutions, that could be incorporated directly into Intota from the book suppliers.