Guidance from the Talis side of this integration can be found here:
- Talis Aspire DCS Integration Request Form
- Talis Aspire DCS Integration Manual Synchronisation for Existing Requests
Skip to section:
- New academic requests via the DCS dashboard
- Academic request: preview mode
- Academic request: assigned
- Add or edit metadata
- Assign to other course
- Rejecting the academic request
- Progress to active request
- Reporting
New academic requests via the DCS dashboard
Once submitted successfully, Talis academic requests can be found on the Dashboard under ‘Academic Requests’.
Once in the request area you can click on each request which will take you to a request preview page.
Academic request: preview mode
In the request itself you can see the original academic request, as well as how much this has managed to match against data in the DCS (on the left hand side).
Items will only auto-match when:
- The Course or Module with the same Course Code has already been added to your DCS instance - if not, please add the Course Code
- The ISBN of the book is already in the DCS (even if used by another institution)
- The ISSN has been used with the same article title already in the DCS (even if used by another institution)
This is as much as you can do here. This is Read-Only access only. To start working on the request, please click ‘Assign To Me’.
Academic request: assigned
Once assigned, requests are now on the second tab of the ‘Academic Request’ section of the DCS Dashboard.
Either as soon as you click ‘Assign To Me’, or after entering the ‘Academic Requests in Progress’ filter of the ‘Academic Request’ section of the DCS Dashboard, and then clicking on the request, you will see an editable version of the request page.
Add or edit metadata
If items are missing, these can be added. Even if items match, they can still be overridden (we know academics are not always correct so all items are completely editable before you create the request).
Please note that, in order to auto-populate your Reading List item, you will need Course Codes to match between systems, so make sure you add your request to a course / module with a matching Course Code.
You can now also update the page range from this screen. To do this, click on 'Update Range':
Assign to other course
If you've changed course, click on 'Save Course' to save your changes:
It is possible to search by title or ISN if the information provided by the academic/lecturer is incorrect or incomplete (e.g. if they have mistakenly put in the wrong ISN):
- Use the search bar to search by Title, ISN or DOI (articles) when the auto-matched record is wrong or missing
- Use the page range bar to add a new page range if the one used by the academic is wrong, or if they didn't add one
- If you've selected a new metadata record and/or changed the page range, click 'Assign metadata' to save your changes
- If you're searching an the record you need isn't found, firstly check that you're searching for the correct item type: the DCS searches different databases depending on whether the academic requested a book or a journal article. Check the original request details on the right hand side of your request to see if they requested a book or an article. If they requested the wrong type, click 'Is Book' or 'Is article' to search the correct database, then click 'search' next to the search bar again
- If there still isn't a match on a record, click 'add new record' and enter the metadata manually
Rejecting the academic request
If you are already confident at this stage, then you can reject the request.
Then you can select the reason and ‘Reject’ or ‘Cancel’.
You can confirm that you wish to notify the Academic or not, and enter your text around the request details if you selected ‘Yes’.
This will send an email to the user who placed the request in your reading list. However you can send to an alternative contact, or else send to multiple emails using a comma or semi-colon separator.
Rejected requests can be deleted entirely from the system as soon as they are rejected. Or else kept as they are, where they’ll be reportable from the report ‘Rejected Requests’.
Progress to active request
If you are happy to proceed on a request you can select ‘Progress to Active Request’.
You will need to have assigned a course and extract first!
Now you are in an Active Request, and the request disappears from the ‘Academic Request’ section of the Dashboard. It is now a request – like any other – with a few exceptions.
You can still reject the request, which will work as detailed previously.
You can also see the original request details in this request.
Extract details are automatically automatched from the request, however these can be amended or alternatively you can try to source these from the DCS.
Once a link has been generated it is automatically available for your Reading List to use, without the need to copy and paste. However your Reading List might update your links as part of a scheduled task (for example every evening) or may require you to manually update the Reading List Record. Please see the guidance at the start of this article from Talis for more information.
You can also click 'Email to Lecturer' to let them know that the material is ready on their Reading List (or will be soon based on your setup).
This will open a popup that is pre-filled exactly like the 'Reject Request' email popup.
The email will be of the original requester from Talis Aspire. You can replace the email or else email to multiple users using a comma or semi-colon separator.
Reporting
In your HEI Report, an academic request will have a separate Date Received (when request sent though) to Date Request Created (when you click ‘Progress to Active Request’).
Under 'Request Route' in your HEI report, you can see which requests have come from Talis as these have Talis' API details (currently dcsapi@talis.com). This will help you know when requests came from Talis, as opposed to other sources (Academic Request Form or your own use of the API).
You also have the Rejected Requests report. This can be searched for by date and has the date received and request route mentioned above, as well as the reason for rejection. This report can be used to discover common reasons for rejections that could inform staff training or workflow setups.
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