Hi Andrew and others,



When we first started looking at developing a resource/reading list management system (which was later released as open source) we drew up a basic list of operational requirements. I've dusted these off and pasted them to the bottom of this response. Please feel free to use or ignore as you wish.



Regards,

Gary.



PS Sorry for the delay in responding to the thread but I was attending a training course the latter half of last week when the mailing list exploded with activity!



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Operational requirements: Resource/reading list management system



This document lists essential and desirable features (as indicated in square brackets at the end of each point) of a resource/reading list management system. A system that does not meet all the essential requirements will not be accepted. Desirable features, whilst not essential to meet the institution’s needs, will form a significant part of the evaluation criteria.



Data entry

• If the institution already has a significant number of resource/reading lists in electronic format then it should be possible to import these into the system [Desirable]

• Academics must be able to directly edit their own resource/reading lists [Essential]

• There should be a variety of ways of adding items to a resource/reading list (e.g. manual entry, via bookmark on web browser, import from standard citation management tools) [Desirable]

• Editing of resource/reading lists must be restricted to those users deemed appropriate (e.g. the academic owner of a list, departmental clerical support, library staff) [Essential]

• The system must support entry of various types of citations such as articles, books, journals and online resources [Essential]

• It should be possible to rank or group items on resource/reading lists in a manner of the institution’s or academic’s choosing (e.g. alphabetically, chronologically, by subject) [Desirable]

• It should be possible to indicate the relative important of items on resource/reading lists [Desirable]

• It should be possible to hide or un-publish a resource/reading list [Desirable]



Frontend interface

• It must be possible to display institutional branding via the frontend interface [Essential]

• It must be possible for users (i.e. students) to browse or search for a specific resource/reading list [Essential]

• Access to resource/reading lists should be restricted from outside the institution (e.g. via username/password) [Desirable]



Interaction with other systems

• Where possible it should utilise existing institutional authentication systems [Desirable]

• It must be possible to deep link directly to a specific resource/reading list in the system [Essential]

• It must be possible to indicate whether items on a resource/reading list are held by the Library (e.g. link to catalogue record, display of library holdings) [Essential]

• It should be possible to link directly to online resources from within the system [Desirable]

• It should be possible to access aspects of the system via APIs (Application programming interface) [Desirable]



Library workflows

• Library staff must be alerted when a resource/reading list is edited and informed what changes have occurred [Essential]

• It must be possible for Library staff to get a report of all resource/reading lists that a given item is on [Essential]



Other requirements

• The system should  provide basic usage statistics to indicate the adoption of the system throughout the institution [Desirable]

• It should be possible to provide a report to a campus bookshop indicating items on resource/reading lists that are likely to be purchased [Desirable]



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