Looking Forward: The DCS in 2018

Happy New Year from everyone on the Digital Content Store (DCS) Team!

The DCS enjoyed a fantastic 2017, hitting some significant milestones; the system has now seen over 2 million student downloads of content, provides content to over 50% of UK students and over 25,000 Higher Education (HE) modules, and is now used by over 80 Higher Education Institutions. We also introduced several new features to the DCS that provided users with new functionality and greater insights, including: the Academic Request Form, the Student Reader, and integration with even more library management and reading list systems. We're exceptionally proud of what we've managed to achieve in 2017 and hope that you found the system supported and perhaps enhanced your library's services. 

But now, we look forward to 2018 and the new developments we're looking to introduce for your improved use and experience of the system. Over the last year we have been paying close attention to all your comments and suggestions, as well as conducting a survey at the end of last year, to make sure that any new ideas we explore reflect your needs and priorities. 

As such, we will be looking in to two areas that we know were of high priority for many users. Firstly, the DCS being able to provide an EHESS 'Awaiting HEI review' notification by email, and secondly, including a way for the system to include different editions of books within extent limit checks, as well as other extent limit improvements. 

It has always been our goal to make the DCS a system that works efficiently for as many HE users as possible, and so we will be exploring the possibility of further reading list integration, integration with more library management systems, and the option of a request API becoming available for individual HEIs.

We want to continue improving our latest features, by including additional student access fields in Reports for Student Reader users (number of views, downloads and prints), and by making some Academic Request form and lecturer configuration improvements.

As the year progresses, the system will adapt to meet GDPR requirements. We'll also be looking in to the possibility of a better dashboard layout, with a toggling ability and improved keyboard commands. 

We are also keen to ensure that all Higher Education Institutions can use the DCS, and with that in mind we are looking to offer a manual authentication process for institutions too small to be covered by a federated authentication platform, such as Shibboleth. 

These are just some of the ideas we have for the year ahead, but we'd love to hear from you about any other developments you'd like to see. Leave a comment below letting us know what you think of our ideas and if you've got any of your own to throw in to the mix.