ACQUISITIONS AND EDIFACT  
Introduction  
In May 2010, the Library at Buckinghamshire New University (Bucks) embarked on an 
ambitious project to overhaul its acquisitions workflow by automating processes and 
introducing shelf-ready supply1. This was a symptomatic response to a reduction 
in staff,  
1 Roker, B. & Williams, C., ?Achieving more with less: acquisitions in hard 
times?, SCONUL Focus 52, 2011, pp 34-38  
campus consolidation, budgetary constraints and an outdated acquisitions 
workflow that needed to catch up with a changed workplace. This is a very 
familiar scenario that many higher education institutions have had to face. As 
we investigated shelf-ready acquisitions and looked at acquisitions 
developments achieved by other higher education institutions, we realised that 
the options available to achieve our goal and deliver improvements were many 
and that we would need to make decisions on which course to take.  
9xx versus EDIFACT  
We began by looking at 9xx ordering which is a US-based standard. This 
ordering method allows libraries to create orders on a vendor?s website which 
are then loaded into the library management system by the 9xx ordering 
programs with the order data embedded in the MARC record. It?s a tried and 
trusted method of placing orders supported by the major UK book suppliers. 
However, it?s not an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standard. We knew 
that 9xx ordering would streamline our workflow and deliver improvements 
but the cost of purchasing the additional software module from Sirsi Dynix 
proved prohibitive for us at the time. So we turned our attention to the 
Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport 
(EDIFACT).  
EDIFACT wins  
A visit to Brunel University in August 2010, proved useful in showing us how 
the quotes method of ordering, supported by the EDIFACT standard, would 
also enable us to streamline our acquisitions workflow. Most importantly, this 
could be achieved without needing to purchase additional software as our 
library management system, Sirsi Dynix?s Symphony, already had the reports 
that would run the EDIFACT messages to manage the communication of 
bibliographic order data between book suppliers and Bucks. Financial 
constraints coupled with the need to maximise resources we already had led 
us to opt for quotes ordering using EDIFACT. With the appointment of our 
Systems and Research Librarian, Elizabeth Chamberlain, a month earlier, so 
started a closer look at Sirsi Dynix?s EDIFACT user guide and the reports 
that would need setting up to run behind the scenes to achieve the acquisitions 
workflow we desperately needed. We had been sending orders via EDI to 
vendors for more than 7 years but now needed the additional messages for 
bibliographic order data to flow seamlessly between the vendor website and 
our library management system. For the whole process to work, we also 
partnered Dawson Books and Sirsi Dynix in some developmental work to 
enable quotes ordering with them using the EDIFACT standard.  
EDIFACT Reports  
So for the past 18 months, we have been running a suite of timed reports in 
Symphony which turn quotes or proposal orders on the book suppliers? 
websites into firm orders. Once the proposal orders or quotes are placed on 
the vendors? bibliographic databases, a file of these is made ready for our 
EDIFACT reports to pick up. We run the EDIFACT file ftp retrieval and 
EDIFACT file receiving reports to collect the order files and arrange the 
proposals by vendor. Then the EDIFACT book quotes report converts the 
quotes into order data in Symphony giving the orders system-generated order 
numbers. These orders now have bibliographic data, holding codes, funds, 
quantities and in-house classmark notifications. We run these 3 reports in 
quick succession twice daily at 8.20am and 3.25pm. The EDIFACT standard 
presents all this bibliographic order data in a specific way ready to send back 
to the vendors as firm orders.  
LOADED BIB RECORD  
020: |a0071411712  
100: |aNadel, Barbara A  
245: |aBuilding security : handbook for architectural planning and 
design:|nc2004  
250: |a1  
260: |aNew York, NY :|bMcGraw-Hill,|c2004  
999: |hHWBK7D FORM=LDORDER .ORDR_ID. |aBNU-2200499 
.VEND_ID. |aCOUINSEDI .ORDR_LIBR. |aWYCOMBE .FISCAL_CYCLE. 
|a2011 .ORDR_TYPE. |aFIRM .LINE_ITEM_BEGIN.  
.LINE_ITEM_ID. |a164566-1001 .LINE_TITLEID. |a9780071411714 
.LINE_VEND_CURR. |aSTERLING .LINE_UNIT_PRICE. |a65.00 
.LINE_COPIES. |a2 .LINE_XINFO_BEGIN. .QLI. |aOA4031347/001/033 
.NOTE. |a*690.22 NAD* nis .LINE_XINFO_END. .LINE_ITEM_END. 
.FUND_SEGMENT_BEGIN. .LINE_FUND_ID. |aBKSEC 
.LINE_FUND_COPIES. |a2 .FUND_SEGMENT_END. 
.DIST_SEGMENT_BEGIN. .HOLDING_CODE. |aHWBK7D 
.LINE_DIST_COPIES. |a2 .DIST_SEGMENT_END.  
EDIFACT book quotes report lists all loaded bibliographic records and order 
data. The standard also supports notes fields so specific information such as 
special classmark requirements can be sent back to the vendors in the firm 
EDI order. MARC record and classmark requirements are sent as a Note in 
the order record to the vendor.  
We run the EDIFACT file transmission report daily at 10pm which picks up 
all firm orders made ready that day and sends them by EDI to the vendors.  
EDIFACT Book Orders and Beyond  
Phase 2 of our acquisitions project has seen the automation of invoicing and 
order responses using the EDIFACT standard. We no longer manually input 
invoices into Symphony for payment or update order records with status 
reports. Invoices from vendors are now picked up and loaded into Symphony 
using the EDIFACT book invoices report. The invoices are then ready for 
review and then payment. In a similar way, files of order response reports are 
picked up by the EDIFACT book orders report and display as status reports 
in the relevant orders. The automatic updating of outstanding orders with 
their new order status has saved time and manual input.  
We have one final piece of EDIFACT message work outstanding which will 
then see the completion of phase 2 and our acquisitions project. We are 
currently working with our Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium 
(SUPC) book suppliers to deliver automatic receipt and loading of book 
orders. We anticipate that this EDIFACT message will save time as we 
currently manually receipt and load every book and will impact on both our 
Acquisitions and Cataloguing teams. New acquisitions will arrive with their 
orders already received on Symphony and with item barcodes loaded.  
Conclusion  
The success of our acquisitions project to automate our acquisitions workflow 
and introduce shelf-ready supply has been achieved by a number of inter-
 related factors. We owe the benefits of our automated processes to the co-
 operation of our book suppliers, the technical expertise of key individuals at 
Bucks, Sirsi Dynix and our book suppliers and the combination of the right 
people being in the right place at the right time and asking each other the 
right questions. EDIFACT, as the underlying standard, has also enabled us to 
achieve the tall order of overhauling our entire acquisitions process without 
needing to invest additional monies. The careful timing and sequence of these 
EDIFACT reports has enabled us to maximise our technical and human 
resources at Bucks, which at a time of continuing economic constraint, has 
been very beneficial.  
Belinda Roker and Catherine Williams Acquisitions Librarians, Bucks  
 
acq@bucks.ac.uk