Purchase Suggestions

Your library can choose to use the Aspen purchase suggestion system, link to your own webform, or opt out of any purchase suggestions in your catalog.

If you use the Aspen purchase suggestion system, patrons submit purchase suggestions and track the status of requests in the Aspen catalog. Authorized staff manage requests in Purchase Suggestions through Aspen, updating the status of a request to the next step in the review process, including referral to collection development for purchase or lending via interlibrary loan.

If you use your own form, patrons will simply see a link to Suggest a purchase at the bottom of every search results page, which will direct them to your website.

Submit a help ticket to help@swanlibraries.net if you would like to change which system you use for purchase suggestions.

Using the Aspen purchase suggestion system

Submit a request

Patrons can submit a purchase or materials request when logged into their library account. Either:

  • Select Purchase Suggestions from the dropdown list of account functions 
    purchase suggestion in the account menu.
  • Conduct a search for the title requested, scroll through search results. If the desired title is not found, Suggest a purchase is available at the bottom on search results. 
    Suggest a purchase under search results 
    In this case, the search string is automatically populated as the title in the Purchase Suggestions form.

Purchase Suggestions form

The form reminds patrons to search the catalog before requesting a title. Form fields include:

  1. Material Information
    • Format (required) - depending on format, additional information may be requested (e.g. season)
  2. Title Information
    • Title (required)
    • Author 
      purchase suggestion form.
  3. Hold Options 
  4. Supplemental Details 
  5. Contact Information

Note that it is not possible to customize what fields are required.

Patrons limits

Default limits allow patrons to place 60 requests in a year, with no more than 5 open at one time. If a patron submits a request when limits have been reached, they will receive an error message. 

Monitoring requests

Under My Account, patrons can review and track their requests, both open and closed.

Patrons can list My Purchase Suggestions to:

  1. Show open requests or all requests with Update Filters
  2. Sort by title, author, format, status, or creation date
  3. View Details selected to review the request
  4. Cancel Request if no longer desired
  5. Submit a New Purchase Suggestion

aspen-patron-manage-purchase-suggestions.png

Managing requests

You will need to have permissions to manage materials requests. 

  1. Go to Aspen Administration 
    Select Aspen Administration
  2. Open Purchase Suggestions > Manage Requests 

    aspen-purchase-suggestion-admin.png

  3. By default requests that are open will be listed for review and update (see Statuses). Staff can:

    1. Expand Filters
    2. Fill in search parameters to limit requests listed
    3. View the Details of a request
    4. Update Request to change status and add information
    5. Check selection boxes to choose multiple requests
    6. Assign Selected Requests (ignore this update option since role-specific Aspen logins are used for staff)
    7. Update Selected Requests to update the status of several requests at once
    8. Export Select to Excel to create a local copy of requests for internal processing at your library

    staff-manage-materials-request4.png

Filter by status

Statuses to show, by default, are those considered open. Expanding Filters > Statuses to Show includes these as checked/default statuses to display in the Manage Requests listing. 
staff-manage-materials-request5.png

Manage Statuses and Emails

Library staff with OPACADMIN permissions can edit statuses under Purchase Suggestions > Manage Statuses.

By default, SWAN will set up the following statuses for you. 

  • Request Pending
  • ILL Under Review
  • Not enough info - please contact Collection Development to clarify
  • Referred to Collection Development
  • Already owned/On Order
  • Cancelled by Patron
  • Cancelled by Staff
  • Item Purchased
  • Request Filled by ILL
  • Unable to acquire the item

Automated emails to patrons are disabled by default. If your library chooses to enable automated emails, note that they will come from a generic no-reply email address that is not customizable. It is also not possible to send emails to staff when a status is updated.

You can also choose for library staff to receive an email when patrons submit a new purchase suggestion. To add an email address, submit a ticket. We suggest using an email list one or more staff have access to.

Reports and statistics

Administrative Options > Purchase Suggestions provide:

  • Summary Report 
    Summary Report
    1. Filter by time period.
    2. Filter by date range.
    3. Chart displays requests by current status.
    4. Table displays count by date and status for daily statistics.
    5. Export to Excel.
       

  • Report by User

    1. Filter by status to display, by default open statuses are checked.
    2. Sort by barcode or other fields, if desired
    3. Export to Excel.


    Report by User