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The Royal Institute of International Affairs, more commonly known as Chatham House moved from a legacy library system to a Soutron platform that now manages its library catalogue, research projects, archive, publications workflow and multimedia records across the entire organisation.
Chatham House needed more than a library management system. It needed a platform flexible enough to handle records, information and archive management across multiple media formats and departments. In six years, Soutron grew from a library catalogue into an institutional repository that automates publishing workflows, tracks research grants, embeds multimedia and integrates the library into the work of the whole organisation.
The mission of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, more commonly known as Chatham House, is to help governments and society build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world. The organisation pursues that mission through dialogue, analysis, and solutions-based ideas, and by empowering the next generation to build a better world.
The Library and Information Services team at Chatham House supports that mission by facilitating access to a wide range of information resources to both staff, members of the Institute, and the wider public. It also helps the business, as a whole, with advice and support on information and records management which has been possible with the power and flexibility offered by Soutron.
“Since bringing Soutron onboard, the software has saved our library team huge amounts of time.”
David Bates
Library and Information Services Manager
After an extensive search, Soutron was identified as being the only software that met the Institute’s requirements.
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Since 2016, Binni has led the work on making the most of Soutron’s features through a number of projects:
As an increasing amount of the Institute’s output became born-digital, the ability to embed the PDFs of the Institute’s Research Reports and Briefings in catalogue records immediately made them more accessible.
Over the longer term this has led to a closer relationship with the Publications Team who wanted to create Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for the Institute’s published output to make it more accessible over the longer term and easier for external authors to cite.
The result of the work on this is that the Library is now integrated into the workflow of the Publications Team which guarantees that the Library receives a copy of every single report at the point of publication.
Leading on from this, the Publications Team have since approached the Library to build on this work by enabling them to attach publication contracts to the relevant records which will help them manage permission requests for reuse of the Institute’s research.
In addition to the Institute’s formal publications, since 2008 Chatham House has been publishing Expert Comments on its website.
These are contemporaneous comments on issues of the day, however there are a lot of them. Binni investigated if there was a way of automatically capturing and cataloguing both the existing 1,400 Comments and new ones going forward. Working with Soutron, they identified a way forward.
To automate the workflow, an XML file is exported daily from the Chatham House server into the library’s FTP server. By mapping the metadata contained in the XML file to newly created metadata fields in Soutron, the import of the research information is easily accomplished, and the material is automatically published on the library’s Search Portal.
This process is completely automated whilst providing Binni the opportunity to review and top and tail specific ones when applicable.
The Library took over the responsibility for acquiring transcripts of these events, many of these events are now livestreamed and made available on the Institute’s YouTube channel. As well as being able to attach a PDF of the transcript it’s also possible to embed the YouTube video in the catalogue record, providing users with the greatest possible access to events.
In conclusion, in the six years since Chatham House acquired Soutron, the Library team has taken it from being simply a library catalogue to also being an institutional repository with multimedia embedded into the records, a tool for managing the Institute’s archive, and working across departments to support a number of business functions within the organisation.
Despite this progress, the Library team is well aware that it’s not yet making the most of Soutron’s capabilities although they’re looking forward to doing so over the next few years.
To learn more about Chatham House, their mission, publications and new policy ideas, explore their website:
www.chathamhouse.org
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Yes. Chatham House took Soutron from a standard library catalog to a full institutional repository over six years. The platform now manages the library catalog, research project tracking, archive management, automated publishing workflows and multimedia records including embedded YouTube videos. Soutron's flexibility meant the library could expand its role across the organization without changing systems.
Yes. Chatham House worked with Soutron to automate the daily import of Expert Comments from its server using an XML export. Metadata from the XML file is mapped to fields in Soutron and content is published automatically to the library's Search Portal, with the option for the librarian to review and edit specific records where needed. This process replaced manual cataloging of over 1,400 existing comments and continues to handle new ones going forward.
Soutron's flexible database can be configured to support business functions across an organization, not just library workflows. At Chatham House, the library used Soutron to build a research projects database for the Research Partnerships team, tracking grant applications, ongoing projects and completion dates. The library also integrated into the Publications Team workflow to manage DOIs, permission requests and publication contracts, expanding its value across the whole organization.
Yes. Chatham House embeds YouTube videos of livestreamed events directly into catalog records alongside PDF transcripts, giving users the fullest possible access to content from major international speakers. The ability to attach and embed multiple media formats in a single record is a core part of how the library now serves both staff and the wider public.
