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Technical updates!

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 22 June 2022

There are some small changes coming to reading lists that we want to let you know about in advance.

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

 

Bookmarking button

Some browsers are increasingly not working well with the ‘Bookmarking button’, which is used to harvest metadata for your online reading list.  For some years an alternative ‘bookmarklet extension’ has been available which is supported by newer browsers like Edge.  The bookmarklet extension is available for Edge, Chrome and Firefox browsers.  In some browsers you are able to create your own shortcut using a keystroke rather than a mouse click on the icon.

In a week or so you will begin to notice a pop up when you edit a reading list.  It will offer a prompt to use the new bookmark extension, which you can dismiss or ask to be reminded later.  You are welcome to use both or either bookmarking options: the existing bookmark button will continue to be available.  More detailed information can be found in the support article ‘Installing and using a bookmarklet extension’.

 

Upgrade to Moodle-ReadingLists@UCL integration

This upgrade (called LTI 1.3) will improve security and allow changes to improve the annual rollover: in practice this will negate the need for annual maintenance of links embedded in Moodle.  This upgrade is still in Beta testing but we will update here when there is more news.

 

We love to hear feedback on the service and any suggestions for development that would help you.  Please send comments to the ReadingLists@UCL email or use the ‘Feedback’ button at the top of ReadingLists@UCL.

Which browser should I use?

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 1 November 2019

The current and last versions of Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Microsoft Edge are officially supported for using with with ReadingLists@UCL; previous versions are supported to best efforts.  The reading lists team recommend using Firefox  as we find it to be most compatible for editing lists. You can find which version of your browser you are using by using the ‘Help’ or ‘About’ in your browser Menu Bar; you can find which are the most recent versions on websites like Browse Happy or through the browser’s official website.

To add readings into your reading list you will need to add a ‘Bookmarking button’ into your browser. You only need to do this once, it is quick to do and we offer to help with a quick orientation.  Here are some screencasts for adding the bookmarking button in Firefox and adding the bookmarking button in Safari (34 seconds long, with no text description: please contact us for assistance with an alternative format). Each browser is set up differently, so occasionally you will need to first reveal the ‘Bookmarks toolbar’ on your browser.

Microsoft Edge has limitations on its support for JavaScript bookmarklets, so if you use this browser you may have had problems using the usual bookmarking button.  To resolve this a new browser extension is available: this article on bookmarking extensions from the software developer, Talis, gives information on how to download and use the extension (N.B. the ‘known issue’ they mention has already been resolved).  The extension is also available for Chrome and Firefox.

There is also planned functionality to be added into the new list editing view, currently being developed.  The new list editing view is in beta testing and will be rolled out to UCL in summer 2020, there will be a follow up blog post about this!

 

 

How do I bookmark from COPAC?

By Sandra Bamborough, on 1 June 2016

Many academics encourage students to research more widely or use libraries beyond UCL.  If you wish to add a book to an online reading list that is not in UCL’s Explore catalogue, COPAC is a useful alternative.  It is a union catalogue, searching 90+ UK library catalogues including the British Library, University libraries and specialist research libraries.  Most teaching staff prefer this to a commercial alternative, such as Amazon or online bookshops.

Bookmarking from COPAC is slightly different.  Start as usual:

  • Navigate to the title of the relevant item
  • click on the ‘Add to My Bookmarks’ button

At this point, instead of turning into the bookmarking screen, you will see a new link called ‘Bookmark to reading list’ appear to the right of the bibliographic information, under the locations details (see below):

COPAC 8

 

  • click on this ‘Bookmark to reading list’ link to bookmark the item as usual (ignore the contents of the screen on the right).
  • check the item links correctly from the reading list.

This has been a frequent question this week – even from one of our ReadingLists@UCL team!

For other FAQs on non-standard bookmarking, look to the tag cloud on the right of this page and select ‘non-standard bookmarking’