This document discusses reading list management in Irish universities. It provides context on university expansion in Ireland and current reading list practices, which vary across institutions. It then presents a case study of NUI Galway's implementation of a Reading List Management System (RLMS) to improve student satisfaction, engagement, and collection management. Key aspects included getting academic staff to submit reading lists, ensuring adequate copies based on class size, and integrating the lists into the learning management system. Since launching in 2016, over 450 lists have been added. Student and faculty feedback has been positive, and the library's student satisfaction ratings have continued to improve. However, ongoing advocacy is still needed to gain full academic buy-in for the system.

1. Hugo Kelly
Collection Management Librarian
James Hardiman Library
National University of Ireland, Galway
Careful Now:
Reading List
Management in Irish
Universities

2. Contents
• Irish University Context
• Current reading list practice in Irish
University Libraries
• Case study: NUI Galway implementation of
our RLMS
• Final Comments

3. • Ireland has 7 universities: one for
every 637,000 people.
• The UK has 132 universities for a
population of 61,113,205: one for every
463,000.
• France has 269 universities for
65,073,000: one for every 242,000.

4. Expansion
• 1994-2002 - the numbers of full-time third level
students increased by 43.9 per cent to 124,600
• 2007-2016 - the number of third level students
increased strongly by more than a quarter (27.7%)
from 138,362 to 176,632.

5. OECD (2017), Population with tertiary education (indicator). doi:
10.1787/0b8f90e9-en (Accessed on 11 April 2017)
Participation

6. Education At A Glance 2016. 1st ed. Paris: OECD, 2016.
(Accessed on 11 April 2017)
Expenditure

7. Education At A Glance 2016 OECD Indicators: Country Profile for Ireland 1st
ed. Dublin: Department for Education, 2016.
https://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Statistics/International-Statistical-
Reports/Education-at-a-Glance-OECD-Indicators-2016-Briefing-Note.pdf>
(Accessed on 11 April 2017)
Student- Staff Ratio

8. Context
• High participation
• Low student teacher ratio
• Large expansion of fulltime students
• Falling expenditure
• Low fees
• How does this picture impact on libraries and
reading list management?

9. Current Reading List Practice in Irish
University Libraries
• Short survey of seven Irish Universities and Royal College of
Surgeons Ireland (RCSI)

10. How do you currently manage reading
list/high demand use?

11. Please rank in order the core 4 difficulties associated
with reading list and high demand materials provision?

12. How Important would it be for your Library to adopt a
reading list management such as Talis Aspire or
Leganto?

13. What would be your primary 3 concerns about
introducing a reading list management system?

14. Future Plans
• We have recently made improvements to the process of managing our lists and will hopefully be able to automate this process in the near
future. It's a home-made solution so not very sophisticated. A reading list management system would be ideal but it doesn't matter what the
benefits are - the cost is prohibitive.
• Only to put more efforts into communications with academics.
• We are piloting a new system with some schools for 2017/18
• Yes, we need to be proactive and put resources into this area
• We hope to review our entire LMS system in the next year or so. As part of that review we plan to consider a reading list management option.
• We need to work with the university's documentary standards too bring in more harvesting techniques. The book of modules etc are all
inadequate which drives the faculty "cut'npaste"
• No.

15. Observations
• Academic engagement is a central issue
• On-going budgetary and space problems (legacy factors)
• Lack of student pressure – no talk of hidden costs
• Libraries do not place responsibility on students
• Perhaps academics still do?

16. Case Study: Reading List
Implementation at NUI Galway

17. Undergraduate subject breakdown at
NUI Galway
Education & Service 133
Arts and humanities, social sciences, journalism
and information
4171
Business, administration and law 1851
Natural sciences, mathematics and statistics 2046
Engineering, manufacturing and construction,
information and communication technologies
(ICTs)
1291
Health and welfare 1770

18. 2009 -Student Satisfaction?
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree Don't Know Agree
Agree
Strongly
The range of study materials available
for my course is adequate
4.1% 20% 5.5% 60.7% 9.5%
The Desk Reserve Collection meets my
needs for essential reading list materials 5% 20.6% 30.6% 38.7% 5.1%
The Library holds copies of all reading
list books
6.6% 26.1% 30.8% 32.1% 4.4%
I buy the essential text books for my
course
9.8% 26.7% 3.6% 43.1% 16.8%

19. Academic staff formally asked to submit their reading list
• indicate which titles were core and background reading
• specific chapters students were to read
• module code and class size
Library Staff taking responsibility:
• Appropriate number of copies and loan status relative to class size
• Shorter loan periods (1-day and 3-day) on open access
• Purchase of e-book version
• Scan of a single chapter or journal article for delivery via
Blackboard
Libqual ratings improve
1st Reading List Initiative 2010

20. In reality…
• We received reading lists from just
17% of the modules active in 2012/13
• Staff time involved in checking lists
quite considerable
• No dedicated staff
• Duplication of effort - if the same list is
submitted year after year, it will be
checked multiple times
• Working outside of Library and
University systems

21. Enter the Reading List Management System:
pilot programme

22.  2 Assistant Librarians + 1.4 FTE Library Assistants
 Conduct reading list training
 Purchase new books if necessary (no need for separate
ordering)
 Change loan statuses on books, links to e-books, full-text
articles
 Scan requested chapters or articles and place link on
Blackboard
Enter the Collection Development Team

23. • Direct access to lists via Blackboard
• Live library availability information
• Direct links to online content
• Guidance on what to read when and
why
Integration
Reading
Lists
System
• Easy to quickly review lists
to see new material that
will be needed
• Class size information
allows decisions on how
many copies/loan status
etc.
• Direct linking to vendors
• Single authoritative source
of required readings
• Can evolve throughout
semester
• Easy to give reading
guidance to students on
what to read and why
• No need for separate
Library ordering
• Reports of student
engagement with lists!
Reading List
System /
Blackboard
Collection
Development
Academic
Staff
Students

24. Official launch June 2016
• Strategy of early adopters
• Target key disciplines/units
• 451 Lists added overall
• 195 modules live for 16/17 across all Colleges
• 164 User profiles / 55-60 Active users

25. Libqual continues to improve
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
UG Libqual Rating: “The printed library materials I need for my work”

26. Student Survey Responses
• The Reading List System makes preparing for
exams, essays and projects more straightforward:
47% agreed, 24% strongly agreed
• The Reading List System improves my overall
engagement with the course module: 42% agreed,
18% strongly agreed,

27. Academic Engagement
• Initial enthusiasm
• Some sceptical reaction
– Spoon-feeding argument
– We already are doing this through
Blackboard
– Lack of follow through after training
• Content issues & functionality
• Issues of system fatigue/No top down culture

28. Ongoing Advocacy
• Library Operational Plan 2016/17: target of 700 reading lists
published
• School/discipline meetings
– Linking to Collection Development
– Assisting with initial lists
• Linking to Curriculum Management System
• Collection management policies
• Ongoing training and promotion

29. Final comments
• Nationally traditional approaches are changing
• Realisation that resources and solutions need to be found
• However resources are not everything
• Academic buy-in is central
– Why is this such an issue?
– Historic and cultural reasons
• Highly strategised approach required

30. In summary there is a lot of this with our
academic staff….