Earlier this year I met with the MAPS Faculty Library Committee to give them a quick introduction to ReadingLists@UCL.  The composition of this meeting was really good because as well as academics the attendees included the Subject Librarian, the StAR (Student Academic Representative), academic/student liaison and an administrator, so I could showcase the benefits of the online reading lists to all of these audiences.

Some departments in MAPS find that they have little need for books in their teaching so this was the perfect opportunity to illustrate that a reading list does not have to be stuffed full of references to books and journals, but instead can be as little as a few links to relevant professional organisations that students need to be aware of. The Q&A session was followed by a brief demo of what reading lists could contain, where I emphasised various online resources, not just books.

Following on from the meeting we were tasked with putting together a short ‘crib sheet’ for the department. We already have the online ‘Quick Guide’, but we tailored another guide for the MAPS faculty and included an example of how to link to a website, how to link reading lists to Moodle blocks and how to install the Bookmarking Button. The resulting MAPS Getting Started with online lists guide is now online.

We further customised the guide with a list of suggested resources which could be useful, particularly on courses where reading lists aren’t commonly used.  Being familiar with the subject areas, Robert Tomaszewski, the Subject Librarian, was very happy to contribute these suggested resources.

This list of suggested resources is also presented as an online list to illustrate how it works in practice.  MAPS lecturers can include the resources in their own reading lists, or link to the guide.  For example, there is a guide to avoiding plagiarism, or you might prefer to include the link to UCL’s current plagiarism guidelines for students, as some other academics have also done on their reading lists.

MAPS have chosen to recommend that their lecturers create their own lists. We set the lists up, send editing access to the tutor and offer a quick orientation, so they can start managing their list. Take a look at an interesting list.

This strategy has worked fantastically well for the Faculty, with resulting successes so far of 99 out of 103 courses for Mathematics (96%) having an online reading list, whilst Statistical Science have reached the magic 100%. A similar approach could be taken by other Departments with low or relatively low take-up of reading lists, with suggested resources tailored to each department.

There are of course many alternative approaches to increase the number of reading lists and improve the student experience.  Please email us for further information, or to request a ReadingLists@UCL poster, aimed at either students or staff, which you can customise for your department.

Congratulations to the winners of our competition to win BoB treats!

You may recall a UCL Library tweet (@UCLLibraries) in which we said the first online reading lists with links to BoB (Box of Broadcasts) would win some BoB treats.   René Weis, Jonathan Kendall and Suzanne Jago were the creative academics to first use BoB in their teaching, and added links to their online reading lists.  As René even has two BoB entries in one list, he is arguably the number one user of BoB in reading lists at UCL!

BoB is a broadcast service that UCL subscribes to.  It allows educational use of TV and radio programmes:

• Share a link to a programme with your students, add a link to an online reading list or even tweet it
• Save clips from programmes and create playlists
• Programmes can be viewed by any BoB users, which includes all registered students and staff at UCL (only inside the UK).
• Using BoB in your teaching helps stay copyright compliant

To add a link to a BoB programme in your online reading list:

• Log in to BoB using your UCL sign in and password
• Navigate to the programme you wish to add to your reading list and click on its title
• Press the reading lists button ‘Add to My Bookmarks’
• Change Resource Type from ‘Webpage’ to ‘Audio-visual document’ and add new fields to enrich the data e.g. date, publisher, author
• Click ‘Create & Add to List’ to add reading to a particular list and also your bookmarks OR click ‘Create’ to just save the resource in your bookmarks to add to your list at a future date
• ‘Save draft’ or ‘Publish’ changes to your reading list. Saving a draft will mean that no one but you can see the changes.  To enable students to see the updates, use ‘Publish’.  This makes the changes available immediately.

By the way, in case you’re itching to know – the winning entries are:

Do get in touch if we can help further!

UCL Library’s webpages have migrated and launched on Thursday 4th September.

As a result the address for many of our web pages has changed, so please remember to check and update your bookmarks.

For searching for, and accessing, your reading lists, the address remains the same: http://readinglists.ucl.ac.uk

Similarly the web address for Explore does not change. Explore is the library catalogue and resources page from which you can bookmark journals, books and ebooks to add to your reading list.

Here are some key addresses which have changed – the new ones are on the right in blue:

Once a student has registered and started at UCL they will be able to access the reading lists for their courses on Moodle, through the Library Resources block.

The good news is they don’t need to wait until then: if you have created an online reading list for your course, even if more resources will be added in readiness for the new term, your students will be able to access this online now. Students can search by module code or title, or drill down through the hierarchy till they find their course, then click on their list.

They can see which readings are essential, or suggested for student purchase, so they can read or buy these before they arrive at UCL. Some links may take them to subscribed resources hidden behind a log-in page (e.g. an electronic version of a book or journal article, or TV programme) which they won’t be able to access until they have registered at UCL.

One department is already making use of this for their students by including details in their welcome letter. This is a great taster for their courses and the keen and enterprising student can get ahead with their reading.

For those thinking of coming to UCL in the future, our reading lists offer a fantastic shop window of what we have to offer those students who choose to learn with us.

Students can find more information on the reading list student page.

We have been busy updating the TLSS reading lists web pages.  Have a look at our ReadingLists@UCL home page to see the new content we have uploaded.

Do you know how to set up a reading list?  If you need a reminder on how to use your lists, here is a ‘Quick Guide’.  If you can’t remember, here is how to add your bookmarking button.  We have also added a few new FAQs to help you and your students get the most out of your reading lists.

Are you a member of a support staff team who works on reading lists, or would like to know more about them?  We now have a new page of FAQs to help support staff answer those niggly questions we have been asked most often.

If you have any other queries or would like some help or refresher training, please email us: readinglists@ucl.ac.uk

Welcome!

This summer sees extra energy going into ReadingLists@UCL as we are joined by Sandra Bamborough, who will focus on reading list advocacy across UCL.  Sandra will be visiting departments, seeking student feedback and highlighting good practice.  As the main contributor, this blog will regularly track her progress.

A long standing member of the TLSS team, Pam Clarke has been supporting ReadingLists@UCL since it began in 2011 and regularly gives orientations to teaching and support staff.  Pam will give updates on features and new functions to ReadingLists@UCL.

Of course there are many other people who help with reading lists and we will hear from them too over the course of the summer!

We would love to hear your questions and feedback, so please do get in touch with us at readinglists@ucl.ac.uk