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Archive for July, 2017

Disruption to ReadingLists@UCL 31st July – 3rd August!

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 25 July 2017

Some rights reserved CC BY-NC https://www.flickr.com/photos/ramnaganat/7346166054/ ; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Traffic Cones by Natesh Ramasamy

 

From Monday 31st July 3pm – Thursday 3rd August 9am, there will be some disruption to ReadingLists@UCL.

Aleph, the Library Management System behind UCL’s Explore catalogue, is having its server moved as part of the ongoing ISD datacentre migration. This will mean a necessary outage of the library catalogue.

 

This affects online reading lists in two ways:

  • For students: existing readings won’t have their live ‘Availability’ on display: you won’t be able to see whether the texts are on the shelf or out on loan.  The shelfmark, however will remain on display (see screenshot below).
  • For UCL staff: you won’t be able to bookmark new readings from Explore.

Bookmarking from e-resources such as e-journal articles and e-books are unaffected.  You can also bookmark from COPAC, though its information is not live; bookmarking from COPAC has an extra step.  And of course do get in touch with the ReadingLists@UCL team if you need any help.

Read more information on the Aleph server move and how it affects all UCL Library services.

 

Library Availability

Library Availability

Annual rollover complete!

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 19 July 2017

The online reading lists have rolled over succesfully, creating copies of all lists ready for the 2017-18 session.  The reading lists for 2016-17 have been archived.

You are able to continue editing as usual.  In fact, this is the perfect time to update your list: students look at their readings over the summer and it is very easy to add a section of ‘Summer reading / research’.  Even if you haven’t finalised changes to all readings, you can still set up the structure and update dates and notes.  Though students are very positive about their reading lists, a couple of complaints have been about currency; the previous year’s dates were still on display.

Do you feel too busy to get re-acquainted with how to update your list?  Drop-in to us on a Wednesday afternoon and we will help you log in and make a few basic changes; or ask us for a quick refresher to get started again.  We are also happy to visit you in your office.

 

Drop us an email if you would like to:

  • re-use a previous version of your reading list (for example, for those modules that run every other year)
  • Archive a reading list if it is not being run in 2017-18
  • Change a module title / name on an existing reading list
  • Set up a new reading list

 

One final thing. Your ‘My Lists’ page may still contain 2016-17 lists.

  • To remove older lists: Go to ‘My Lists’. Check the box left of the list title; at the top of the page click ‘Action’ -> ‘Remove’
  • To add new lists to your ‘My Lists’ area: navigate to the 2017-18 list and click the button ‘Add to my lists’ (top right hand side).
  • All reading lists are at the same module URL each year (e.g. http://readinglists.ucl.ac.uk/modules/publg084.html ), this does not change.  The link from Moodle to the reading list (via the ‘Library Resources’ block) is also stable and won’t need updating.

Do my digitised readings also roll forward?

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 17 July 2017

A timely question today from a UCL medical department.  Having seen that the online reading lists will roll over on Tuesday 17th July, they ask ‘when my reading list becomes a 2017-18 list, will the digitised readings on it also roll forward and remain available?’.

Readings BenTerrett 3234063524

‘Readings’ by Ben Terrett CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

All online reading lists roll forward and have a new version for 2017-18 created. If a department lets us know a module isn’t running we will archive the list so it isn’t visible for the coming year.

When lists roll forward, any readings that the library has digitised will also roll forward and remain available. The majority of these readings are digitised using the CLA licence. These have a little auto-check as occasionally rights holders withdraw from the licence, however we find that almost all readings are fine to re-use the next year.

Just a few readings will not be available by virtue of having individual copyright permission requested. The TLS team will need to re-request the copyright permission if the readings are to be used again in the coming year.  We email the academic or list owner for confirmation that they would like to re-use the same readings for next year:

  • If they are required then we re-request the copyright permission and the department covers any fees incurred, as usual.
  • If the readings are not needed, or if there is no reply from the department or tutor, then unfortunately we will have to remove the reading from the reading list as it won’t be covered by any permission for that year.

Our course readings webpage has more information on digitising readings under the CLA licence and how we request copyright permission.  Please do get in touch if you have any questions!

Does the blue ‘Preview’ button mean there is access to the full text?

By Pamela Clarke, on 11 July 2017

Alas no, as this would not comply with copyright regulations, but there may be selected extracts and contents pages available which is still really, really useful!

The Preview automatically links to Google Books and pulls in text from there, so is only available for some books.  Do be aware that the preview could be removed by Google at any time!

If the chapter you need is not available from the preview, which I know is very frustrating, you can always enquire about the possibility of digitisation from Teaching and Learning Services (TLS), who are happy to assist you.  We use UCL’s copyright licences to make copyright compliant copies for teaching with.

The example below shows how the preview is displayed in an online reading list: you can use the search box, and arrow buttons to navigate through the preview. Happy previewing!

 

preview_screenshot for blog

 

 

Annual reading list rollover

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 11 July 2017

Summer reading

Summer reading

 

In TLS we are preparing for the annual ‘rollover’ of ReadingLists@UCL.

This is the final task of the academic year for us: the CLA report of UCL’s digitised readings was sent in June, the majority of teaching has finished, and the exam period too has ended.

Each summer the reading lists have a new copy made for the September term, much like the Moodle snapshot.  This year the rollover is scheduled for Tuesday 18th July 2017.  In brief:

  • Reading lists for 2016-17 will have an exact copy made for 2017-18, which will publish immediately
  • Students and staff will have continuous access to their reading lists
  • Editing rights remain constant, so academics and teaching support staff are able to edit the new lists straight away
  • The old version of the reading list (2016-17) will archive, which means it will disappear from public view but can be found and re-used in future years if needed
  • Existing 2017-18 lists will be totally unaffected.

Please note:

  • Unpublished changes will not be copied onto the new list: please publish your lists before 18th July if you wish the changes to be carried forward.
  • If you would like reading lists removed – for example if a course is no longer being taught – please email us any time
  • Similarly, if any courses have updated titles or course codes, email us to request the details are updated.

Do you need a refresher on how to edit and manage your lists?  Drop in to our office in Senate House on Wednesday afternoons, 2.30 – 4.30pm for a quick session. The ReadingLists@UCL webpages also have guides, FAQs and contact details.