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).

The 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.

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.

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.

• For a demonstration, our two short ‘Getting started…’ videos (under ‘Quick guides’) show how to edit a reading list using the new view.
• You may also find interesting A short ‘overview’ article by the software creator, Talis, on the new list view.  This is not specific to UCL and uses different branding.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

The rollover was requested to start on Tuesday 17th July, however you will have noticed the 2017-18 lists remain on display.

The Talis team identified an issue relating to student numbers so paused the rollover: they updated us on Wednesday 18th with the news that they are testing the fix they have created and will re-start the rollover when they are confident there are no issues.  So sorry for this delay!  You can contine to edit your 2017-18 lists as usual, but please publish your changes as you work, to make sure they are saved.

New 2018-19 reading lists do not roll over and can be used as usual.

‘Perfect Gwith Barrels’ by Philip Male

In TLS we are preparing for the annual ‘rollover’ of ReadingLists@UCL. This is our final task of the academic year: the CLA report of UCL’s digitised readings was sent in June, the majority of teaching has finished, and the exam period too is largely over.

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 the evening of Tuesday 17th July 2018.  From about 5pm that day:

• Reading lists for 2017-18 will have an exact copy made for 2018-19, which will publish immediately
• The old version (2017-18) 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 2018-19 will be unaffected by the rollover

Please note:

• Unpublished changes will not copy forward into the new list: please publish your lists before 17th July if you wish your updates to be carried forward.
• We suggest you stop editing reading lists before 5pm on 17^th July, and continue editing when you can see it has the 2018-19 date stamp – certainly from the morning of 18^th July, if not sooner.
• TLS are aware of the new module codes being introduced and will begin updating the reading list module codes from around 19^th July.  More details in our blog post on this.
• 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.

You may have noticed that a new Explore user interface (UI) has been soft-launched and is in a development phase for user testing.

When adding new readings into an online reading list however, please continue to use the classic Explore interface.  ReadingLists@UCL can only interact with one catalogue interface, so until the new UI has been formally launched, the reading lists will continue to interact best with the classic Explore interface.

Click to enlarge

We will post an update on this blog, and on the ReadingLists@UCL homepage message, when the switch has been made to the new UI.

Do contact the TLS team if you have concerns or questions.

The ISD server migration work is complete and ReadingLists@UCL has returned to full function.  Thank you for your patience during this time.

You can now bookmark books from the library catalogue, Explore, as usual.  Readings on your lists will display the library shelfmark and how many copies are on the shelf, as usual.

The TLS team will run a report of all readings bookmarked in the past three days to check they are linking to the catalogue correctly.

If you have any queries about your reading lists, please get in touch with us!