NEWS

ProQuest Rialto™ Marketplace Debuts in Three Libraries,
Addressing the Pain of Selection and Acquisition

Earliest orders already reducing transaction time by up to 45 percent

Three university libraries – the University of Edinburgh, the University of Texas at Dallas and Southern Methodist University – have gone live with ProQuest Rialto™, and librarians are already seeing positive results.

Rialto rebuilds the selection and acquisition process for academic libraries, delivering efficient workflows, data-supported decisions, and the right information at the point of decision. Working with librarians around the world, ProQuest identified the most pressing issues in selection and acquisition – such as lack of data for decision-making and scattered work processes – and used technology to resolve them. Rialto meets the needs of today’s libraries and marketplace, leading to time savings and better coordination among library staff.   

“At Edinburgh, we receive more than 17,000 requests per year from faculty, students, and staff. Using Rialto has already decreased the time it takes us to create an order by 45 percent,” said Elize Rowan, Content Acquisition and Access Manager at the University of Edinburgh. “When you scale that to 17,000 requests, it will release the equivalent of a full-time staff member’s workload. Rialto is providing an opportunity for us to rethink our workflows – and when our team got their hands on Rialto for the first time, they were excited about unlocking its potential.”  

“Rialto is much more robust, modern-looking, and intuitive to use than other vendor systems, and from beginning to end, the acquisitions process is quite effortless,” said Heather Barrett, Head of Acquisitions at Southern Methodist University’s Fondren Library, which uses the Alma library services platform. “When we order an item in Rialto, we can see real-time information from Alma such as our fund balances and whether any copies of the material already exist in our holdings. If we need to check the status of an order, we can do so without leaving Alma. This is much easier than having to go to a different vendor system or contact a vendor representative to get status information.”  

“The Rialto journey began with an idea to reimagine how libraries acquire content,” said Audrey Marcus, Vice President of Product Management and Operations, ProQuest Books. “Involving libraries and publishers in the development of this groundbreaking product has been a crucial piece of the process. We’re thrilled to see that our earliest users are already seeing its time- and effort-saving benefits, and we can’t wait to bring these benefits to more libraries.”  

ProQuest announced its partnership with 10 leading academic libraries to develop Rialto in November 2018. Last year, five publishers joined the team to provide additional development guidance. Throughout the coming months, more Rialto development partners and 20 global early adopters will begin enjoying their transformative workflows. You can learn more about ProQuest Rialto on our website.

www.proquest.com