Read 'em and weep

Read ‘em and weep

“remember to thank all the books you haven't read over the past three years”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68187942@N00/3287986172/
Thursday, 6 September 12

What is a Reading List?
Something to get through course validation
List of resources students will need refer to constantly through the course
Bibliography of useful resources for a course
Week by week reading
List of books the library should stock

‫א‬

Around 2000, working at RHUL
Decided to implement the Aleph Course reserves

•Course reserves and Reading Lists are related but not the same
•Clunky data entry (spreadsheets)
•Clunky interface (you’ve used an OPAC right? Just lists - not sections or other organisation -
just a list of stuff)
•Didn’t handle things not in the library very well

http://sb.aleph.fcla.edu/F/?func=file&file_name=basic-u-wfu30&local_base=u-wfu30

Functional, but not pretty

++‫א‬

Wanted to:
•build on what we’d already done
•improve data entry (reduce duplication) not the same
•allow more organisation within lists
•focus on recreating experience of ‘printed’ lists
lessons:
•Some lists are very very long
•data entry improved (just and ID for library materials) but still clunky (Access db)
•still not so good for non-library materials

http://liblists.sussex.ac.uk/lists/003FCDD4-B594-C84C-151F-164B90C66A32.html

Note that a lot of the readings are different chapters from the ‘course book’
Also note that a ﬁlm screening (presumably to happen in class) is included in the ‘reading
list’

http://www.flickr.com/photos/santifc/153861174/

OLIVE - Open Linking in a Virtual (learning) Environment
http://wwwedit.wmin.ac.uk/olive/deliverables/OLIVE_Project_Report.pdf
Two parts to project:
Westminster focused on integrating federated search with Blackboard - about using power of
federated search to make data entry easy and deal with items not in the library (print)
collection easily
RHUL focused on making linking easy - creating OpenURLs. Got involved with discussions
about an IMS standard for Resource List Integration (http://www.imsglobal.org/rli/) (later JISC
funded attempt to implement IMS RLI not very successful http://www.jisc.ac.uk/
uploaded_documents/ed-ﬁnalreport.doc but more to do with Web Services than concept?)
Lessons:
Beneﬁts to integration
VLEs don’t do a good job of handling resource lists without effort

http://lists.lib.plymouth.ac.uk/lists/abf203.html

Who is going to read all 116 items on this list?

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/53074617@N00/3423788587/

My Reading List wilderness years - Imperial College
Focus on acquisitions
Spreadsheets and Access databases
Lots of work

https://rlo.ncl.ac.uk/modules/MAS1041/2012

Nice short list - easy to do, all books

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/telstar/96879615/

TELSTAR (Technology Enhanced Learning supporting STudents to achieve Academic Rigour)
http://www8.open.ac.uk/telstar/
Different approach - about integrating Referencing with learning environment
Focus on Moodle VLE
Two different ways of delivering items:
1.integrated into written material
2.lists of references
(plus a load of other stuff)
Lessons:
Tension between library desire to ‘manage’ the lists and ease of integration of lists with
teaching content (not moved on from ‘I just have my list in a word doc’)
Sometimes reading lists are a general list of resources, high level, e.g. list of journals or
databases - and for these a ‘reference’ style doesn’t really work

http://lasu.salford.ac.uk/displaylist/AD-W200-20225-13

More general materials that might be of use during the course - different to more directed
reading


Sir Louie project at the University of Oxford
http://blogs.oucs.ox.ac.uk/sirlouie/
Reading lists managed by “Citation Helper” tool in Sakai
Integrated ‘add to resource list’ function into Discovery service - aimed at academics who
might build the list


Used link back to resource discovery to be able to integrate display of electronic availability
(via link resolver)


Used link back to resource discovery to be able to integrate display print details (ultimately
from Aleph)

http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk/mod/readinglist/view.php?id=20061

Re-implementation of Telstar with focus on the ‘reading list’ aspect
Different approach to integrating into the VLE - build lists in RefWorks but allow integration
into course by pasting a URL
Integration into local resource discovery (Primo) and library catalogue (Aleph) as well as
OpenURL
Presentation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlO8rgqR_pk
Article at http://ssudl.solent.ac.uk/2040/1/January_2012_31-38.pdf

http://www.rhul.ac.uk/mediaarts/informationforcurrentstudents/undergraduatereading.aspx

A reading list - but not meant for the library?

Why do you want to
‘manage’ reading lists?


Be clear about what
you want to achieve


Who is it for?
What is it for?

Think about
integrations, prioritise
the most important for
your aims


It’s an investment


Not cheap, think about the long term:
Improve student experience
Reduce library costs
Show value for money
Adherence to licences

If it was easy, everyone
would be doing it


In some ways ‘reading lists’ are a condensed form of the the library service - discovery,
delivery, in context, for learning
“It appears that there is simply not an easy and cost-effective out-of-the box solution to
providing reading lists since there are so many different requirements and issues to address.”
http://ssudl.solent.ac.uk/2040/1/January_2012_31-38.pdf

Read 'em and weep

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Read 'em and weep