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New term inspiration for your reading list
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 13 January 2025
New year greetings from the ReadingLists@UCL team! Three things to get us back in the swing of term.
- Applications are open again for Student Curriculum Partners nominations. This is a wonderful scheme pairing students with modules, to review them through the lens of inclusivity. The academic receives recommendations on their module, and an insight into how students view their curriculum. A key aim of the project is to reduce awarding gaps for marginalised student groups at UCL. As an academic all you need to do is nominate your module to initiate the process. Did you know you can use your online reading list as a starting point to examining the diversity in a module? Take this further with our ReadingLists@UCL’s Guide, Liberating the Curriculum page.
- During Disability History month 2024 the UCL Community contributed book suggestions on the national theme ‘Disability, livelihood and employment’. Read more in the UCL article ‘Disability History Month 2024’. The call out is from the Library Liberating the Collections group, and if you wish to find the recommended books in UCL Libraries then online reading lists are created for all the History and Celebration months.
- Finally, our ReadingLists@UCL Guide for academic and support staff has had a significant update, with additional resources. Do take a look for support in linking your list to Moodle, getting started and more. You can book a 1:1 with the team any time, to learn how to add and manage readings, ask questions or troubleshoot issues. We look forward to hearing from you!
New Bookmarking Extension button for Chrome
By Pamela Clarke, on 11 October 2024
The new Bookmarking Extension Button for Chrome has been released ! The current one will stop being supported at the end of this year, so Talis have provided an updated version. This will replace the current Extension bookmarking button, and will improve the bookmarking experience including bookmarking from Youtube !.
It’s easy to install, and on most home machines you will probably see that it is already sitting neatly where your previous button was located on Chrome.
The new icon is now a bright green circle with a T in the middle.
New Bookmarking Extension button
However, if you cannot find the bookmarking extension on Chrome follow the steps below:
- Select the Jigsaw icon on the Extension toolbar
- Click on the “Pin” icon next to Talis Aspire Reading Lists to “pin” it to your browser
- You should now be able to see the “T” icon
Chrome Bookmarking Extension with pin
Versions for other browsers will be released over the coming days and we will let you know when these are available.
Inspiration for your reading list
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 26 September 2024
Some inspiration for a few ways to elevate your resource list in order to engage your students.
- Consider adding some of the many film, documentary and TV programmes available through UCL subscriptions. A
dd links to rich resources from the BFI Player, Kanopy, BoB and more; some platforms allow you to create your own playlists or clips of AV material for targeted teaching. Ask your Subject Liaison Librarian for further platform recommendations, specific to your subject. - In the first few weeks of teaching, set a task which requires interaction with your reading list. Visiting the list early can encourage students to remember where it is and revisit it more often. Integrating your list into Moodle can also help remind students where resources are kept.
- Use your list to develop your students’ information literacy, search skills and research skills, by inviting them to analyse your reading list for diversity. You will benefit from your students’ different perspectives and backgrounds and may be able to incorporate their recommendations into your curriculum. See the ‘Activity: Student analysis of reading lists’ (right hand column) on the Liberating the Curriculum page of the ReadingLists@UCL Guide for more notes on this suggestion.
Resolved: Issue adding YouTube to reading lists
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 21 August 2024
Edit 10.10.2024: this issue is now starting to be resolved.
When your browser updates it will automatically update the ‘Bookmarking extension’: you will know this has happened as the icon will also update to a letter ‘T’ in a blue-green dot. Once updated, bookmarking from YouTube will be supported again. Chrome has already updated and other browsers will follow (depending on the browser’s own timelines for updates).
Further details can be found on the Talis Aspire Updated Bookmarking Extension FAQ or, as always, do get in touch with any questions!
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A temporary issue has been identified when bookmarking from YouTube. Clicking on the Bookmaking Extension button does not create a link to a YouTube page as usual.
The software provider (Talis) is working to fix this. Until it is fixed you may find it helpful to use the workaround of adding a resource manually: from the ReadingLists@UCL home page, navigate to your ‘My Bookmarks’, then select ‘Add’ and ‘Add manually’.
Click image to enlarge
Complete the fields by copying the URL and title of the YouTube page as a minimum (or add more metadata as you prefer). If you have any difficulties please contact us for more support.
Many apologies for the inconvenience, particularly at a busy time when you are preparing readings for the new academic year. We will update this blog when the issue has been resolved.
Moodle health checks on offer
By Pamela Clarke, on 24 July 2024
Does your Moodle course contain PDF or Word document readings that may not be accessible, or links that don’t work off-campus? Have you taken over a module and need help tidying documents into a reading list? Good news: Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) can help!
Teaching and Learning Services in the library manages both ReadingLists@UCL and the UCL copyright licences. Given access to Moodle, or a list of readings, they can undertake a one-off project to re-create your reading list in ReadingLists@UCL and update your links and documents to be both copyright compliant and more accessible.
Owl postcard for readinglists@ucl
We will give you editing access and offer orientation training so that you or a colleague can take over managing your list once set up.
Contact readinglists@ucl.ac.uk and ask for a ‘Moodle Health Check’. Please note: we are very busy around the start of Terms 1 and 2 but we will let you know a timeline that accommodates our existing workload.
Reading list rollover for 2024 is complete
By Pamela Clarke, on 17 July 2024
The rollover is complete! All your 2023-24 reading lists have been archived and a copy created for 2024-25, which you can edit straight away.
If modules are not running this year, please let us know so we can archive the list. This hides it from view to avoid confusion and also saves it for future re-use.
Over the summer you can prepare your reading lists for the new academic year: you just need to review, edit and publish!
Books HD” by Abee5 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Do my digitised readings also roll forward?
When your new list is created, the digitised readings (digitised under the CLA licence and added to your list by the TLS team) also copy forward. There is a separate, behind-the-scenes process in July/August where the readings are re-checked automatically for the coming year. If your module is not running let us know so we can archive the digitised readings, ready for another year.
What if I or my students need access to the 23/24 version of the list?
If you ever need to refer back to your 2023/24 list for any reason please contact us using the email address below. We can recover it from the archive if necessary.
Training
Just as a reminder we also offer informal training sessions (either over Teams or in person), where you can refresh your knowledge of any aspect of ReadingLists@UCL with an expert member of the TLS team. Interested? Please contact us using the email in the link below to drop us a line.
Further questions and guidance
If you have any questions about the rollover process, or have any questions on anything to do with reading lists at UCL, please drop us a line
or consult our Libguide where you can find further information.
Reading List rollover 2024 !
By Pamela Clarke, on 7 June 2024
Owl postcard for readinglists@ucl
Each summer the reading lists have a new copy made for the new academic year, much like the Moodle snapshot. This year, we will rollover on the evening of Tuesday 16th July from about 5pm.
Reading lists for 2023-24 will have an exact copy made for 2024-25, which will publish immediately.
- The old version (2023-24) will archive, which means it will disappear from public view but can be found and re-used in future years if needed.
- Students will still have continuous access to their reading lists: there is no down time for viewing lists.
- Editing rights remain constant, so list editors are able to edit the new lists as soon as they appear.
- Lists already set up as 2024-2025 will be unaffected by the rollover.
Please note
- Unpublished changes will not copy forward into the new list: please publish your lists before 5pm on the 16th July if you wish your updates to be carried forward, or we can do this for you. Just email us, details are below.
- We suggest you stop editing reading lists before 5pm on 16th July, and continue editing when you can see it has the 2024-25 date stamp – certainly from the next morning Wednesday 17th July 2024, if not sooner.
- The Moodle ‘Library resources’ block needs no maintenance and will continue to link to the most recent year’s list. If you have been using the new LTI.3 reading list integration tool, you should not be required to re-link items. However, do get in touch if you experience any problems.
- To have old courses archived, new lists set up, or current module names amended, email us your requests!
If you are aware of students who may need access to the 2023-24 version of the lists, they can do any of the following :
- take a copy of the list by using the ‘View & Export’ button – before 5pm on 16th July
- save the URL of the list, which will continue to work even after the list is archived
- let us know that it needs to be revived if it has already been archived, and we will make it available for the student
Support
Do you need a refresher on how to edit and manage your lists? The ReadingLists@UCL webpages and Libguides have online quick guides including short videos, and FAQs. The TLS team offer refresher training via Teams or face-to-face
Get in touch and you could walk away with a new list set up and ready to go, linked via the Library Resources block in Moodle !
Are you still using the old Reading list integration tool for embedding your reading list in Moodle ?
By Pamela Clarke, on 23 May 2024
If the answer is yes, then why don’t you take a look at the new LTI 1.3 (launched last summer) ! As rollover for Moodle courses has now begun, new embedded links will have to be created for 2024-2025 Moodle courses using the new LTI 1.3.
However, you will still be able to view your reading list and embedded sections from the old LTI on current Moodle courses and any previous ones, but as the old LTI has now been retired, you cannot now use it for embedding links.
The new LTI is available from the Moodle palette as seen below.
Screenshot of Moodle palette showing the new LTI.1.3 integration tool
The new LTI offers the same features as the old one, but has a slightly different took and feel. We have plenty of information regarding the new LTI on our Teaching and Learning Services web pages, which includes some PDFs and videos on how to install the integration tool.
You also might like to read our previous blog from last year on the new LTI.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at readinglists@ucl or if you have a query about Moodle in general, please contact the Digital Education Team.
Need to find your reading list, then try Explore !
By Pamela Clarke, on 29 November 2023
Using the Explore catalogue to find reading lists
Teaching and Learning services (TLS) are regularly making reading list information available via the Explore catalogue. This means you can search the catalogue by module code and/or module title for your favourite reading list !
Only published reading lists or lists with unpublished changes (not blank lists) will be made available on a monthly basis.
To help you find your lists, here is a short video that shows you how you can filter to reading lists via the Explore catalogue.
Don’t worry you can still find lists at the usual home page for reading lists or via your Moodle course.
If you have any problems accessing reading lists via Explore, please do not hesitate to contact – readinglists@ucl.ac.uk
Exam Papers !
By Pamela Clarke, on 28 November 2023
It is that time of the year to submit this summer’s past exam papers !
Image of student studying and Portico
If you would like to submit past exam papers to Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) here’s how to do it !
First method
Download a local copy of the metadata sheet, and add a line of metadata for each exam paper you are submitting, and then email the PDFs together with the completed metadata sheet to readinglists@ucl.ac.uk. There is an example line at the top of the metadata sheet. Feel free to delete this before proceeding.
Second method
Download a local copy of the metadata sheet and add a line of metadata for each exam paper you are submitting. Then upload the PDFs of the exam papers, together with the completed metadata sheet to the ‘Exam Papers Submission’ sharepoint folder‘.
Within the sharepoint folder, create a departmental folder containing your PDFs (e.g. ‘Anthropology 2023) and metadata sheet. TLS will get an automatic alert and will process the papers in due course. There is an example line at the top of the metadata sheet. Feel free to delete this before proceeding.
Please note: You may need to click on “skip verification” if you are off-site to access the metadata sheet.
Which method to use
It does not matter which method you use, but method 2, using the Sharepoint folder is best for larger submissions, which may exceed the maximum size for an email.
In both cases a metadata sheet needs to be completed and submitted along with the exam papers. This is to ensure that each paper has the correct metadata when uploaded to the Explore library catalogue. Please ensure you make clear which line in the metadata sheet relates to which exam paper being submitted, and that you adhere to consistent naming between the PDFs and the metadata.
Once you have submitted your paper(s) using one of the above methods, TLS will contact you to let you know once the process is complete, and your papers will be available on Explore and Digital Collections
Please see our webpages for further information – https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/digital-collections/collections/exam, and FAQS.
Please note that we have a rolling three or five year collection of past exam papers depending on departmental needs. However we are now currently in the process of removing any papers prior to 2019, so if you want up-to-date papers to be made available, get submitting now !!
If you have any queries at all about the process, please don’t hesitate to email readinglists@ucl.ac.uk.
