This week, Clarivate announced a new transformative subscription-based access strategy for academia. As part of this evolution, we are also making changes to the Rialto marketplace to better align with the needs and priorities of our academic library community.
Over the past five years, Rialto has served as a comprehensive selection and acquisition tool, helping over 500 libraries manage their collections more efficiently. During this time, libraries have also evolved amid rapid shifts in technology, budgets, and curriculum—requiring them to prioritize methods that deliver broad, cost-effective ebook access as simply as possible. To achieve this goal, libraries need a more holistic, data-driven approach to fulfilling user needs.
With this in mind, we are expanding Rialto from title selection and collection development to informed fulfilment, empowering libraries to make the best decisions for their institutions, better support student needs and ensure timely, cost-effective access to essential resources.
The Rialto of tomorrow
We will enhance the Rialto marketplace to include broader publisher coverage, data-driven collection insights, and AI-powered recommendations to help libraries:
- Get greater coverage from leading publishers. Rialto will provide ebooks for purchase in one neutral marketplace, and we look forward to growing our publisher partnerships to provide libraries with even more expansive access to essential content.
- Move from complex models to streamlined access. The marketplace will also expand to support subscription management, helping libraries transition from complex single-title ownership to streamlined, cost-effective subscription-based access.
- Gain efficiencies to deliver resources faster. Our AI-powered Collection Assistant will help libraries make informed decisions and choose the best route to fulfilling user needs. We envision Rialto expanding beyond selectors and acquisition libraries and involving more of the library staff, with options to access, analyze and share data in a collaborative environment.
- Provide cost-effective, equitable access. Rialto will include tools to help libraries evaluate usage, collection strengths and gaps to make their budgets go further, with cost-saving, actionable recommendations.
By focusing on the strategic goals of academic libraries, Rialto will transform how collections are managed—moving to a comprehensive, data-driven and collaborative approach to resource fulfilment.
Rialto will now be part of the Ex Libris product family and the Library Open Platform. This will create a more seamless experience for our Rialto users and unify library workflows even further.
A message to our community
We look forward to partnering with all of you as we begin this next chapter for Rialto. We will be engaging with the community to understand your needs, gather insights, and prioritize enhancements for the year ahead. We plan to share frequent updates, and we’ll continue to foster openness in our communication and ideas sharing.
