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ReadingLists@UCL reach 65%!

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 10 August 2017

Bengal Owl from John Gould’s A Century of birds from the Himalaya Mountains (London: Published by the Author, 1831). (ref. STRONG ROOM E, LARGE FOLIO 950 G6) (c) UCL Special Collections

I am very pleased to report that ReadingLists@UCL has reached its target for July 2017: 65% of taught courses at UCL now have an online reading list.

The target was set in the UCL Library Services Strategy to have 65% coverage by the end of July 2017. 65% equates to more than 3,000 reading lists, and forty-one departments have met, or exceeded 65% coverage. To show how far we have come, the first measurement of the new system in October 2014 showed a baseline of around 29% coverage.

Librarians, administrators and academics have worked hard to embrace the online reading lists, with the aim of providing excellent quality guidance and resources to students. With a wealth of e-resources available to us at UCL, many essential texts link to full-text readings, or are digitised using our CLA licence.

Here are some figures. Between 1st September 2016 and 31st July:

  • there were more than 460,000 visitors
  • the top visited reading list was ‘ANTH1001 Introduction to material and visual culture’ with 5425 page views
  • total visits each month have been consistently higher than in the same period last year
  • the busiest month was October 2016 with more than 70,000 visits
  • … and around two-thirds of these were returning visitors, demonstrating that students return to lists rather than look just once.

 

You can read more about online reading lists on our webpages and in our ReadingLists@UCL blog.  And of course do get in touch if you would like to know more!

 

Increased uptake of Readinglists@UCL

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 27 August 2015

We are delighted to report that 45% of current taught courses at UCL now have an online reading list.  This means the library has achieved its target figure for 2014-15, as set out in the UCL Library Services Strategy, 2015-18.

Even better is the response from students, who enjoy having all their resources easily accessible and in one place.  Lists can contain full text readings, film clips, Lynda.com training videos, links to professional bodies… or simply further reading in a traditional bibliography format.  Comments such as ‘Can I have a list for my other modules?’ are not uncommon.

Some departments have been quick to seize this easy way of improving student satisfaction:  Political Science, the Development Planning Unit and the Institute of Neurology were among the first departments to create online lists for all their current taught courses and reach 100%.  The MAPS faculty engaged as a whole, resulting in terrific coverage across its departments in a short space of time.

A new feature this year has been to not just link a reading list to its relevant Moodle course, but to embed readings into the body of Moodle.  We have also added more citation styles, as requested by departments.  Can you think of other developments you would like to see for your reading lists?  We welcome feedback.

Our library target for 2015-16 is for 55% of modules to have an online reading list.  New UCL students are already asking for reading lists for their upcoming courses, so don’t hesitate to get in touch, request a list, or drop into a summer session to find out more!