GIST - Getting It System Toolkit
Summary
What it is...
GIST for Web Version 1.1.1
The purpose of GIST is to provide a new model and useful tools to integrate and optimize acquisition and interlibrary loan services and to promote regional collection diversity. It is a system for merging Acquisitions and ILL request workflow using one interface, enabling user-initiated requests, coordinated collection development and acquisitions. The project is predicated on some assumptions about the request process. One, it is user-initiated and two, the process integrates disparate content and workflow (holdings, price, user feedback) that is difficult to systematically leverage in many request management systems. Lastly, GIST is designed to be a highly customizable and flexible workflow.
Milne Library at the State University of New York Geneseo developed and is releasing the first version of the Getting It System Toolkit (GIST) as of Wednesday, August 19, 2009. For documentation, see the Workflow Toolkit wiki at
http://toolkit.idsproject.org/doku.php?id=wiki:gist for full details about downloading GIST, installation instructions and customizations. Here is an example of SUNY Geneseo Workflow:
Presentations
GIST Blog 
What it isn’t (yet!)...
- Complete acquisitions system
- Order Records
- Cataloging (Attach symbol, download record, etc.)
- No serials or article purchasing system
- Gift Manager
- Donor Acknowledgement
- Selection flagging with Collection Building Profile
- Budget Manager
- Makes purchasing and budgeting more transparent
GIST Version 2.0 (and beyond) Goals
Budget Management
The GIST budget management utility will enable budget tracking by requestors and adds necessary approval processes as needed by libraries. Purchase requestors will see the cost of a particular book in terms of their individual and/or department budget.
Gift Processing & Management
Development of a gift processing management utility will automate processes, including batching lists and acknowledgement letters for donors, as well as, providing alerts for materials fitting locally set collection building parameters. These two tools will have a dramatic impact on improving both acquisition and interlibrary loan services by scaling practices and strategies at a network level and recognizing the mutual dependence of their operations with a new common set of tools.
Other enhancements
- Cataloging features (import MARC records, attach OCLC symbol, etc.)
- Ordering module features (send orders directly to vendor, etc.)
- Creation of statistical reports
- More vendor APIs
- Web interface for approvals and approval statuses
For comments and suggestions, please visit the Getting It System Toolkit Blog at http://gettingitsystemtoolkit.blogspot.com/
Recommended Reading:
Anderson, Rick. “Is the Library Collection Too Risky?” Against the Grain 21:3 (June 2009), 86.
Chadwell, Faye. “What’s Next for Collection Management and Managers?” Collection Management 34:1 (2009), pp. 3-18.
Holley, Robert P. and Kalyani Ankem. “The effect of the Internet on the out-of-print book market: Implications for libraries.” Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 29:2 (June 2005), pp. 118-139.
Levine-Clark, Michael. “An analysis of used-book availability on the Internet.” Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 28 (2004), pp.283-297.
Ruppel, Margie. “Tying collection development’s loose ends with interlibrary loan.” Collection Building 25:3 (2006), pp. 72-77.
GIST Development Team @ SUNY Geneseo
Special Thanks
- The GIST project is partially funded by the Rochester Regional Library Council through the Regional Bibliographic Databases and Interlibrary Resource Sharing Program
- Beta testing was by Adam Traub (St. John Fisher College)
- WorldCat API programming support was provided by Kyle Banerjee (Orbis Cascade Alliance) and Terry Reese (Oregon State University)