Case Study | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
In 2018, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) went live with Leganto, Ex Libris’ course resource management system. The institution’s librarians use Leganto to connect with faculty and students, to improve the faculty and student experience and to better understand how their collections are being used.
About Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
The Library System of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, UC Libraries, is a network of libraries that depends on the Office of the Pro-Rector and responds with information services, collections, technology, and physical spaces appropriate to the needs of the different Academic Units of the University. It is a leader among university libraries in the country. The 10 libraries distributed in the 5 campuses of the University and in the Sótero del Río Hospital, have wireless internet access in comfortable individual and group study spaces, rooms with computers and various environments to consult printed, audiovisual, digital, or virtual material. In terms of quality and quantity, UC Libraries has one of the best conventional and electronic collections of university libraries in the country.
In order to respond in a timely and integrated manner to new demands, as well as to the coordination of processes and services, the following Committees operate: User Attention, Collections Management, Liaison with the Environment, Teaching and Learning, Support and Collaboration for Research and Academic Publication, Future School Library and Training Committee.
Our collection: More than 1,466,015 physical items, more than 536,540 electronic collection titles and 257 bibliographic databases.
Key Takeaways
- From 2021 onwards, the library has seen an increase of 40% in faculty members using Leganto
- A seamless integration with the institution’s learning management system, Canvas, benefits the students, faculty and library.
- Leganto makes it easier for librarians to communicate with students and faculty
Leveraging Leganto’s user-friendly interface to better serve faculty
One of PUC’s main goals in adopting Leganto was to increase faculty engagement with the library through their course reading lists. “It can be challenging to get faculty to cooperate with the library on reading lists,” explains Maribel Alvarado Acuña, Head of support and systems area at PUC. “The user-friendly interface encourages faculty to use Leganto to create course reading lists, and also gives us the opportunity to be more connected with faculty overall.”
A seamless Leganto/Canvas integration enhances library communication
Leganto serves as an integration between the library and the learning management system, and this integration is key to PUC’s librarians. “We are using Canvas now … Leganto, through Alma, is perfectly integrated with our Canvas solution. The ability to display information from Leganto within the learning management system is really useful for our faculty and students. This makes it easy for us to deliver reading lists that get used.”
Looking to the future: Tapping into Leganto data
The collections management team of the PUC Library System plans on using Leganto analytics to understand how their collections are being used. Based on this data, the team will be able to see which titles and formats are being used so they can make better-informed acquisition decisions.
The library is also eager to use the insights Leganto provides to encourage additional faculty to adopt the platform. “Seeing how students are engaging with your material can have an impact on how faculty members design their courses and what types of materials they use,” says the team.
Pontificia Universidad Católica Library System’s tips for making the most of Leganto
Marketing makes a difference. Over the last three years, the library’s collection group has promoted the tool to faculty through emails and on the library website. They also run in-person and online training sessions for faculty to encourage use of Leganto. These marketing efforts have led to meaningful results: “In the last three years, we’ve seen growth of 40% of faculty members using Leganto.”
Leganto can save time for librarians and faculty. The collections management team recommends using Leganto’s Course Rollover feature, which enables institutions to reuse existing courses and their associated reading lists. As the team notes, “Rolling over a course’s resources from one year to the next saves us time.”
Many thanks to our case study contributors from Pontificia Universidad Católica Library:
- Maribel Alvarado, Head of support and systems area, Library System, Lisette Bravo, coordinator of collections management committee, Library System
- Andrea Estupiñan, Collections management librarian, Law and Communications Library, Library System
- Nataly Ruiz, Collections management librarian, Theological Library, Library System
