Loughborough Online Reading List System
Gary Brewerton
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Posts by Gary Brewerton
Momentous events
02 Jun 2011
Well, OK maybe they’re not that momentous but…
A couple of months ago we (Jason and I) met up with Ian Corns of Talis Aspire fame and had a bit of a catch-up session. Much has changed at Talis: their Library Management System division has been sold off, what was Talis Aspire is now called Talis Aspire Campus Edition, they are launching talisaspire.com and Ian has a new job title (which is no laughing matter :-)).
We also bemoaned the lack of any reading list events happening this Summer. So in light of that we were particularly pleased when the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University (i.e. them upstairs) decided to host a workshop on “Meeting the reading list challenge” especially as Ian and myself will be giving a presentation on reading list systems at the event.
As we’re now involved in helping to organise the event I thought advertising it here might be a good idea!
Meeting the reading list challenge: A workshop
Department of Information Science, Loughborough University
Thursday 14th July 2011, 10:30am – 3:00pm
Do you know what resources your academics are recommending to students? How easy do your students find it to locate these key resources?
These issues (and many others) will be discussed at this forthcoming workshop.
Your host for the day will be Dr Ann O’Brien from the Department of Information Science, Loughborough University. The morning session will consist of presentations on “What is a reading list?” and “A magical mystery tour of resource/reading list management systems” given by Gary Brewerton, Project Manager for LORLS (Loughborough online reading list system) and Ian Corns,Customer Liaison Manager for Talis Aspire.
A free buffet lunch will be provided after which there will be wide ranging discussions on topics such as: what makes a good list? How do you engage with academic staff? And, what roles does the library actually have with regard to reading lists? There will also be opportunities for you to ask questions of those present.
This is a free event. If you would like to attend please email Sue Manuel (s.manuel@lboro.ac.uk) to reserve a place stating your name, institution and any specific dietary requirements.
We look forward to hearing what others have to say about reading lists and associated systems on the day.
Twitter hash tag for event: #mtrlc
And we have a launch!
14 Feb 2011
At approximately 11:40 this morning we launched LORLS v6 to students and academics at Loughborough. This was done using our standard importer which extracted data from our previous LORLS 5 installation. We then ran a number of local modification scripts (e.g. to remove years and alter the metadata layout).
This seems like an opportune moment to say a few thank yous to those who contributed to the development and implementation of this new version:
- Jon and Jason, who in the best traditions of a pantomime horse developed the back and front ends
- Ginny and Jenny, for producing promotional and training material
- Theresa, Vicky, Karen, Lynne and Sue, for testing and critiquing the new system
- Sue 2.0, for putting up with us during the database design
warprocess - And to all the other library staff, academics and students who provided invaluable input and support for this new version.
And finally as it is Valentine’s Day a little (and I do mean little) poetry:
Roses are red, violets are blue,
LORLS 6 is here, just for you!
T minus 7 days (and counting…)
07 Feb 2011
We are now just one week away from the new version of our reading lists system going into production use here at Loughborough. As part of the build up to this library staff have been engaged in various promotional activities such as: liaising with key staff in departments, distributing flyers to academics, attending departmental meeting and placing announcements on relevant noticeboards.
In addition to these activities, Ginny (Academic Librarian) and Jenny (e-Learning Officer) have produced an excellent four minute video demonstrating some the features of the new version.
Christmas comes early
06 Dec 2010
by Gary Brewerton
in LORLS
With the snow and ice still covering jolly old Loughborough our thoughts naturally turn to Christmas, or more specifically Christmas presents. Will we get that present we really want or will it be socks yet again! So as you don’t end up with just a pair of socks we thought we’d put a little extra in your stocking: the alpha release of LORLS 6.
Please feel free to download and install this first release of LORLS 6 and let us know what you think of it. However it does come with the following health warning: “This is an alpha release – it’s absolutely NOT recommended for production usage.”
Hello world
25 Jun 2010
by Gary Brewerton
in LORLS
We’ve been developing a new version of LORLS (Loughborough Online Reading List System) for a past few years on and off. As part of this development process we’ve kept a diary of our thoughts, plans, issues and achievements. Up until now we’ve kept this diary private among ourselves, however as we’re now at stage when we can start releasing information about the new version, both internally and externally, we thought it would be a good idea to go public with the diary.
So here it is.
When to implement?
28 May 2010
LORLS v6 (aka LUMP + CLUMP) is now almost at a stage where we can consider going live with it here at Loughborough. Unfortunately we’re too late to launch at the start of the Summer vacation as we need time to fully advertise and train staff on the new system. That means we’ll probably launch the system at the start of the new academic year (October), Christmas or in time for the second semester (February 2011). We’re currently consulting with academic departments and library staff on when they’d prefer and are getting a strong steer that Christmas would be least disruptive for all concerned.
In the meantime we’ll obviously continue to develop and test the system. Alongside this we’re looking to create a sandbox so that staff can play on (and learn about) the system before the official launch – whenever that will be.
Presentation to Users Committee
23 Feb 2010
by Gary Brewerton
in LORLS
I have a five minute slot tomorrow to give a presentation about the new version of LORLS to our Library User Committee. So I’ve knocked together the following brief PowerPoint presentation:
Demoing to library staff
27 Jan 2010
Today we held a demo of LORLS v6/CLUMP for any and all interested library staff. Previously we’d only demoed it to a small focus group of library staff and those few academics that came to the e-Learning showcase. Reactions to the system seemed pretty positive although it did highlight that we still have a long way to go as the staff gave us a long list of “must have” additional features. These include:
- Alert library staff to any changes made to reading lists
- Logo for the Service (other than just the words “Online Reading Lists”)
- Can the data be cleaned up? For example remove dates from authors
- Include classification/shelfmark on full record
- Change colour of links when you hover over them
- Need to think about terminology for hide/unhide option
- Useful to have number against items on long lists – these are often used when liaising with academics
- Have an alternative to drag and drop re-ranking for large lists
- Draft items on lists should be greyed out
- Option to publish all draft items on a list at once
e-Learning Showcase
14 Dec 2009
by Gary Brewerton
in LORLS
Spent a large part (11am-3pm) of today at an e-Learning showcase on campus. One of our Academic Librarians and I were there to demonstrate the new version of the reading list system to academics and support staff. Unfortunately the space provided for the poster session was far from ideal which meant that we got to meet very few people and more importantly was some distance away from the mince pies and mulled wine.
However whilst the quantity was low the quality of visitors was high. Of particular interest to the academics was the drag-and-drop reorder of lists and the ability to import bibliographic data from random websites. The latter being Jason’s new BibGrab tool.
Another positive from the event was the plate of mince pies I got for holding a couple of doors open for the catering staff when they were clearing up at the end. I must remember to share these with the rest of the team…
Reading Lists: Friend or Foe?
20 Nov 2009
The title above refers to a half day WESLINK event on reading lists which I was lucky enough to be invited to on Wednesday. The event was hosted at Keele (big shout out to my SatNav for finding the place). It started with a buffet lunch, followed by presentations from three institutions on how they currently manage their reading/resource lists:
- Spreadsheets at Keele University
- Talis List at the University of Birmingham
- LORLS at Loughborough University (by yours truly).
The day finished with a group discussion. One of the main things I picked up from this was the differences in approach as to who edits the reading lists. Some sites were strongly in favour of the library being responsible to all editing of online reading lists. At Loughborough we’ve always been keen for academics to edit the lists themselves, after all they are the intellectual creators of the lists.
It also seems very inefficient for the library to re-enter information into a system when the academics are most likely already doing this (even if they are just using Word). Ideally if the information can be entered just once, by the academic into the online system, this should free up time for all concerned: library staff not acting as data entry clerks and academics not having to check others interpretation of their work.
However in order for this to happen the system needs to be as easy as possible for the academic to use. This is why as part of our LORLS we’ve been developing BibGrab.