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Login to ReadingLists@UCL update

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 12 January 2023

The way you log into ReadingLists@UCL will shortly be changing.  In line with other UCL authentication, the authentication system is being migrated to a new service. This is part of ISD improvements to authentication and security at UCL.

There will be no downtime and no change to your access; the login screen will look slightly different and in fact is the same as you already use for your UCL email or Explore, the library catalogue. You will now be asked for your ‘userID@ucl.ac.uk’ (and not just userID).

Old and newer version of the authentication screensThe migration date is anticipated to be 30th January.

If you experience any issues at all please contact us at ReadingLists@UCL, or from a reading list you can use the ‘Feedback’ link at top of the page.

 

Editing interface upgrade

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 8 July 2020

ReadingLists@UCL has had access to a new editing interface for more than a year and many new list editors are already using it.  July 16th will see the final change to the new editing interface when the rest of UCL switches over.  This will only be noticable to people with editing access to a reading list.

 

Click to enlarge

If you are currently using the ‘Classic’ editing view which looks like this (click on thumbnail to enlarge), then on July 16th the view will change.

 

 

The new look is … well, a good deal like the usual view!  Once logged

(Click to enlarge)

in though, moving editing buttons (‘Add resource / Add paragraph / Add section’) become available as you move around the screen.  To the far right of the resource the ellipsis or three dots indicate a drop down menu of more options.

 

The main change is that you stay in the usual list view to edit, much like editing a Moodle page.

 

 

Please get in touch with us for help, including the following:

  • a 1:1 guided Teams session on how to edit and manage your reading list
  • to request editing access to a reading list, or for a new list to be set up
  • library assistance with populating your reading list

 

 

ReadingLists@UCL annual rollover

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 29 June 2020

Each summer the reading lists have a new copy made for the new academic year, much like the Moodle snapshot.  This year the rollover is scheduled for the evening of Monday 13th July 2020.  From about 5pm that day:

  • Reading lists for 2019-20 will have an exact copy made for 2020-21, which will publish immediately
  • The old version (2019-20) will archive, which means it will disappear from public view but can be found and re-used in future years if needed
  • Students will 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 2020-2021 will be unaffected by the rollover

 

Please note:

  • Unpublished changes will not copy forward into the new list: please publish your lists before 5pm 13th July if you wish your updates to be carried forward.
  • We suggest you stop editing reading lists before 5pm on 13th July, and continue editing when you can see it has the 2020-21 date stamp – certainly from the next morning Tuesday 14th July, if not sooner.
  • The Moodle ‘Library resources’ block needs no maintenance and will continue to link to the most recent year’s list.  The optional integration ‘Reading list items’ requires checking and possibly some re-linking of resources, particularly after the reading list has been updated for the new year.
  • To have old courses archived, new lists set up, or current module names amended, email us your requests!
  • A note on Late Summer Assessments for academic year 2019-20.

 

Do you need a refresher on how to edit and manage your lists?  The ReadingLists@UCL webpages have online quick guides including short videos, and FAQs. Though working remotely, the TLS team still offer 1:1 set up and refresher training through Teams.  Get in touch and you could walk away with a new list set up and ready to go, have guidance on how to link to non-standard resources, or find out how to embed reading lists in Moodle.

 

Chrome 80 browser update

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 5 February 2020

Google Chrome version 80 is being rolled out.  After 17th February using Chrome 80 may cause an error logging to some services, including ReadingLists@UCL.

If you use Chrome 80 and find you are unable to log in, workarounds include:

  • Use a different browser.
  • Use Desktop@UCL: UCL has not yet updated its Chrome browser so it will work fine.
  • Change the SameSite settings in your Chrome 80 browser.  Details of how to do this are in yesterday’s ISD update post.

Talis, the software owner behind ReadingLists@UCL, is also working to solve this from their end.  For the most up to date information on this please check the ISD homepage notices.

 

New look for ReadingLists@UCL

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 29 July 2019

Image of new reading list view. Click to enlarge.

Image of new reading list view. Click to enlarge.

 

The new list view for ReadingLists@UCL will be rolled out to UCL on 30th July 2019.

 

The new list view has been developed to improve performance, including on mobile devices. More importantly, it meets web accessibility standards making it inclusive for all UCL users.  Updating the look will ensure that online reading lists are fully compliant with the 2018 UK Accessibility regulations. Talis (the company which powers the ReadingLists@UCL software) has a Web Accessibility Statement which gives further details, inlcluding information on compatibility with screen readers and additional help on using accessibility tools with ReadingLists@UCL.

Some list editors have been using the new list veiw in Beta for the past few months: the ‘classic’ view will now be replaced.  There is a walkthrough video of the new look for student users – and anyone else curious to take a look.

Notices were sent to subject librarians, the Departmental Administrator’s forum, and Digital Education, to cascade to reading lists users.  If you have any questions about the new look please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the ReadingLists@UCL team.

 

Looking ahead…

The next developments will be a new Moodle integration in summer 2019, in conjunction with the Moodle team.  An update to the list editing view has been developed but won’t be rolled out to UCL until summer 2020: list editors who like the look of this are welcome to start using the Beta editing view from August 2019, just get in touch to arrange this.

 

 

Rollover complete!

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 19 July 2019

The rollover is complete! All your 2018-19 lists have been archived and a copy created for 2019-20, 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.
  • To set up new lists please get in touch or see our Getting Started advice.Image: review, edit, publish

Over the summer you can prepare your reading lists for the new academic year: you just need to review, edit and publish!

 

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 TLS) also copy forward.  There is a separate, behind-the-scenes process in June where the readings are re-checked automatically for the coming year.  The only exceptions are a few readings which are not digitised under the CLA licence, but instead had direct copyright permission granted: the links to these readings will temporarily break until the permission is re-requested for the coming year.  This is a task that TLS does annually and they will be in touch if your readings are affected.

 

And finally don’t forget a new user interface is being introduced on 30th July.  See the Summer Update blog post for more, or view the walkthrough video to see how it will look.

 

 

ReadingLists@UCL rollover

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 27 June 2019

Summer reading

Each summer the reading lists have a new copy made for the new academic year, much like the Moodle snapshot.  This year the rollover is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday 16th July 2019.  From about 5pm that day:

  • Reading lists for 2018-19 will have an exact copy made for 2019-20, which will publish immediately
  • The old version (2018-19) will archive, which means it will disappear from public view but can be found and re-used in future years if needed
  • Students will 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 2019-2020 will be unaffected by the rollover

 

Please note:

  • Unpublished changes will not copy forward into the new list: please publish your lists before 16th July if you wish your updates to be carried forward.
  • We suggest you stop editing reading lists before 5pm on 16th July, and continue editing when you can see it has the 2019-20 date stamp – certainly from the next morning Wednesday 17th July, if not sooner.
  • A note on students undertaking Late Summer Assessments, and accessing their 2018-19 list.
  • To have old courses archived, new lists set up, or current module names amended, please email us your requests!

 

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.  You could walk away with a new list set up and ready to go, get guidance on how to link to non-standard resources, or find out how to embed reading lists in Moodle.

The ReadingLists@UCL webpages also have guides, FAQs and contact details.

 

Summer news

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 7 June 2019

Over the summer there will be some changes to ReadingLists@UCL. We would like to make you aware of them, so you can plan to navigate them.

Hazel Ingrey. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Navigation marker, Margate

 

Rollover

The annual ReadingLists@UCL rollover will occur on the evening of Tuesday 16th July.  As in previous years, there will be no interruption to use of reading lists for students or academics.  We will post fuller information nearer the time, and subject liaison librarians will notify their departments.

 

New Look

A new user interface (UI) is being introduced this summer.  It has been developed in response to user feedback but, more importantly, it meets web Accessibility standards ensuring it is inclusive for all UCL users.  Making this change will ensure that ReadingLists@UCL are fully compliant with the 2018 UK Accessibility regulations.

For teaching staff the new list view is available in Beta now: email the ReadingLists@UCL team if you would like to use it ahead of its roll out. We will give you access so you can toggle between the Classic and Beta views.

There is a walkthrough video of the new look for student users – and anyone else who is curious to take a look!

 

New optional Moodle integration

The ‘Library Resources’ block is still an excellent, stable way to link from Moodle to an online reading list, and something we recommend so that students have a consistent experience across modules. (How do I add the Library Resources block into Moodle?).

Some teaching staff prefer the additional option of embedding readings from their list directly into the the body of Moodle and use the ‘Reading list items’ option.  A new LTI has been developed by the ReadingLists@UCL software owner (Talis) which embeds readings in Moodle in this way, whilst having better accuracy at maintaining the links after the annual rollover.  This integration will be implemented in collaboration with the Moodle team.  More on this later in the summer!

 

 

Library summer changes

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 28 August 2018

In addition to the Moodle and module code changes, UCL library also has some upgrades this summer.

As mentioned in an earlier post, a new Explore interface was soft-launched in autumn 2017.  On Monday 10th September 2018 this will become the only Explore search and the ‘Classic Explore’ will be retired.  The underlying library catalogue is also being migrated to newer software.

 

What does this mean for ReadingLists@UCL?

When bookmarking paper books and journals from the UCL catalogue, please continue to use the Classic Explore catalogue, which looks like this (click to enlarge):

ReadingLists@UCL can only interact with one catalogue interface, so until the 10th September the reading lists will continue to work optimally with Classic Explore. On the 10th September Classic Explore will be retired and ReadingLits@UCL will have its settings changed to work with the new Explore.

This does not affect e-resources: you can bookmark as usual from e-journals, e-books, TV and film resources, and more.

 

How will I know when to use the new Explore?

The new look Explore will become the only version of Explore on 10th September.  It looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

Are there any other changes?

The SFX@UCL button found on some electronic resources will be re-named, as the underlying software has changed.  The new ‘FindIt@UCL’ button will work in the same way, leading you to the online resource.

As part of the migration there will be a circulation freeze from 5th-10th September.  This means the ‘Availability’ information on Explore might not be correct; this only affects physical books and journals that can be borrowed from the library.  Availability information is also shown in online reading lists so students and staff should be wary of this; you can ask your site library staff about book availability.

Reading lists can usually be found in the Explore catalogue, however as they are listed under their former module codes, and are in the process of having their module codes updated, the information is out of date.  We have decided to remove this information until all lists have a new module code, when we will add them back into the catalogue.

 

For more details on this Explore upgrade, including updates about outages, please see the UCL Library news webpage.

 

New Moodle and New Module codes: update

By Hazel M Ingrey, on 3 August 2018

 

New module codes

In June we gave an outline of how TLS planned to manage this change to the new module codes.  Since then, the reading lists have rolled forward and TLS have started updating the module codes, using information from the Academic Model Project team. You don’t need to let us know which modules you would like updating: we are doing all online reading lists.  If any lists don’t have a new code, we will get in touch with departments to ask if they would like them left or archived

New Moodle

Moodle has been upgraded this summer and the ‘New Moodle‘ is already available, with the updated 2018-19 module codes.  For integrating with reading lists, New Moodle works in the same way as Legacy Moodle: you just need to switch on the ‘Library Resources’ block to make a link to the reading list. There is a more detailed integration which we will update this autumn, to ensure better interaction between Moodle and reading lists: ISD staff need to complete their prioirty Moodle migration work before doing this.  ‘Legacy Moodle’ is also still available for reference and also Late Summer Assessments.

 

Two possible problems:

  1. Students undertaking re-sit exams may wish to re-visit their former reading lists, if they haven’t saved a version.  Legacy Moodle won’t link to the 2017-18 reading list as these are now archived.  Students can search all current ReadingLits@UCL lists by module name; or if the list has been updated already, we can retrieve the previous version from the archive.
  2. The Library Resources block also contains a link to past exam papers.  All exam papers are found under their old codes so this link will not work!  Students can search Exam Papers online by module title.  If you wish to hide the broken link for this year, use the settings of the ‘Library Resources’ block to configure the block.

 

What you can do now:

  • If you have saved URL links of 2017-18 reading lists, either for your own reference or in student handbooks, please update them before term starts
  • Review the contents of your reading list: edit it to update notes, dates and readings, then publish to make it available to students.
  • Check your Moodle module has a ‘Library Resources’ block, and the link to the reading lists works
  • If you would like editing access to a reading list, get in touch so we can enable that for you.

 

For help with editing and updating Moodle, head to New Moodle and select the ‘Staff Help’ tab for guidance, or use the ‘Contact Moodle Support’ option there.

For help with editing an online reading list, please get in touch with ReadingLists@UCL.

For sourcing new books, journals, films and more, contact your friendly subject liaison librarian!