Teachers' LibGuide: Acquiring library resources

Aspire Reading Lists is the system via which books and other library learning materials are purchased for taught modules.

New modules

If you add your module readings when completing the details of your new module in the Module Management system, and the module is approved by the AU deadline, Library staff will create, populate and publish a new reading list for your module in Aspire. They will also order books and digitise chapters in time for teaching.

Existing modules 

Update your module reading lists in Aspire by these deadlines to ensure that books and other learning materials can be sourced by AU library staff before teaching begins. AU library staff will then check, buy and digitise items for library stock according to the Reading List Policy.

Each academic department has a cost centre fund allocated annually by the Library to pay for

• recurring subscriptions such as academic journals and databases (most of the fund)
• books to support research (until the annual allocation runs out)

If you are interested in a new journal or database subscription, contact your subject librarian for a quote in the first instance (approval from your department and the Library will be required before new subscriptions can be opened).

To request a book to support your research: visit Primo, Sign in and click the Purchase Request button at the top of the page

Please do not upload a personally digitised chapter or article into your Blackboard module. Chapters and articles can be requested for digitisation by the Library after they have been added to an Aspire reading list

Library staff will ensure that all scanned chapters from books and articles from journals comply fully with the terms and conditions of the Copyright Licensing Agency Higher Education (CLA HE) licence. Library staff will also ensure compliance by creating professional, high-quality scans and will add links to the scans from the Aspire reading list.

Email the Digitisation Service at digitisation@aber.ac.uk if you require further information or assistance with your digitisation requests.

More information can be found on Digitisation Service webpage.

If you want an e-book for your course, ensure you add it to your Aspire reading list with the importance set to Essential. Please also add a note to Library indicating your preference for an ebook.

Whether the Library can buy one for your module depends on:

• Whether the title is available to purchase with an institutional license. For example, the Library cannot buy a Kindle book for a module as they are not licensed to share. Even when the Library can buy an ebook and share it, there may be a limit on how many students can access the ebook at the same time
• How much it costs. Many ebooks with institutional licenses are so expensive that they cannot be routinely purchased. Find out more at the Campaign to investigate the academic ebook market, better known as #ebooksos