Material Notifications Reporting Terminology

Material Notifications Reporting Terminology

Material Notifications are flagged by the Akademos by VitalSource team as they confirm inventory with publishers or place course materials orders for the upcoming academic term. As this team manages the physical inventory of the materials adopted for your institution, flags are used to indicate potential issues related specifically to the physical availability of adopted materials.  

Note: Even though a publisher may flag an adoption with a particular material notification (see the list of options below), Akademos by VitalSource may have either enough physical inventory to cover enrolled students or be able to fulfill adoptions digitally. 

To identify material at risk of not being delivered by the first day of class, we've classified notifications into red and blue risk categories.

Below is a guide to reading the Material Notifications report: 

Program Type

• The two options on the report are SC and EA:
  • SC (Student Choice): Course material that is adopted at an institution, and students elect to purchase from the virtual Bookstore website.
  • EA (Equitable Access): Course material that is adopted at an institution where all print and/or digital course material models are delivered to students before the first day of class, and all students pay the same price.
• Bookstore Open Date
  • Date that your Virtual bookstore opens to students for purchasing
    • Once purchasing opens, refunds cannot be guaranteed if course materials are later switched and no longer adopted.
• Course Start Date
  • Date reported of the specific course start.
    • Note: This can be different from the actual term start date.
• Material Notification Type
  • Five material notification flags are used in the bookstore system:
    1. New Edition
    2. Out of Print
    3. Awaiting Stock from Publisher
    4. Reprint
    5. Unable to Source Print
  • New Edition: The publisher/vendor has informed the Procurement team that a new edition is available, and orders for the old edition potentially might not be fulfilled
  • Out of Print: The publisher/vendor has informed the Procurement team that the item is no longer supported/printed, and we may not be able to obtain additional physical inventory
  • Awaiting Stock from Publisher: The publisher/vendor has informed the Procurement team that the item was not available when they attempted to place the order. We will obtain an estimated in-stock date, and our order can be expected to be fulfilled by the publisher/vendor at that point
    • To note, the date listed is not when the inventory will be shipped out to students
  • Reprint: The publisher/vendor has informed our Procurement team that the item is available under a different ISBN (examples listed below):
    • Hardcover is no longer printed, but paperback is available
    • An item is no longer printed but may be available digitally
    • A bundle is no longer offered, but the individual components that make up the bundle are
• Risk Status Creation – This is the date at which the item was flagged by our team. An item can be adopted if it has a flag, this allows you to see if a flag was already in place at the time of the adoption or if our team was informed about this issue after the adoption occurred.
• Adoption Date  – This is the date an item is adopted. Using this information, and the date in “Risk Status Creation” column allows you to determine if the flag was in place pre or post adoption.

Suggested ISBN

• The procurement team provides recommended ISBNs when checking the availability of alternative adoptions. 
• This is provided by the publishers and vendors when our team checks the availability of materials.

Status

• Two different options: Active and Pending
  • Active: The item has been adopted and has been identified as at risk, but the Bookstore team has not yet reached out to the faculty/adopter, nor has it been escalated to the Adoptions Enablement team.
  • Pending: Item is adopted, has been identified as at risk, and outreach and/or escalation has occurred for this item.

Notes

• If an item is “Pending,” notes detailing the Bookstore team's outreach will be documented here. Unless otherwise stated, the Adoptions Enablement team is reaching out to the course's assigned faculty.

Physical Only

• The adopted item has a limitation set to show only print options. If an eBook is available for the title, it will not be shown to students for purchase.
• If an item is on the report with this designation set, the faculty may need to allow eBooks in order to have a purchasable item for students. 

Ebook Available

• This column indicates if an eBook is potentially available for the adopted course material 
  • If Ebook available is “Yes,” and if there is a value in the “VBID” column, it indicates that an eBook has been matched to that ISBN and will be available to students to purchase.  
  • If Ebook available is flagged as “Yes” and there is not a value in the VBID column or if Ebook available is set to “No” and there is a value in the VBID column, it indicates that an eBook is not currently available. 

While our teams make every effort to provide a digital alternative for all adopted course materials, if you believe an adoption has an eBook available for your specific school and do not see it on the Materials Notification report, please reach out adoptions@vitalsource.com.

Risk Status

RED: 

• A red status indicates that we have neither physical inventory nor a digital match of the current ISBN, and so, as the adoption currently stands, we will not be able to source.  
  • For adoptions with a risk status of red and flagged as Out of Print or as having a New Edition, we will not be able to fulfill the order unless the adoption is updated 

BLUE:

• A blue status indicates that the title is available either physically, digitally, or both and while our team will review, we do not believe there will be an issue procuring and delivering inventory. That said, when an item is flagged as either out of print or as having a new edition, our team will send a single email to the adopter letting them know it could be challenging to procure in future terms and these will be hidden.

new Pivot Table highlighting Red ISBNs 

This pivot table to in place to help you easily see how many individual titles are impacted. Because a title could be adopted across multiple sections or courses, this table allows you to quickly see which adoptions are affecting multiple courses versus just a single course or two. We hope this provides you with a quick high level understanding of where the at risk titles stand.