Loughborough Online Reading List System
Posts tagged Talis Aspire
The end of the end
27 Jun 2024
by Gary Brewerton
in LORLS
So just a few days shy of 24 years we bid a fond farewell to LORLS as we finally decommission the service. We intend to keep this site available for a few more years but won’t be updating it further.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have worked on the system, made suggestions, suffered arguments about what structural units are and generally used the system. In particular I’d like to thank my co-developers: Jon and Jason without whom LORLS wouldn’t have existed or have lasted so long.
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So long and thanks for all the fish
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The middle of the end
15 Apr 2024
So today the University’s new reading list system (https://lboro.rl.talis.com) went live and we set redirects from LORLS to point to it. We’ll still be running the LORLS server for a couple more months for the benefit of library staff but then it will be decommissioned.
The data migration exercise seemed to go very well although it was interesting to note that despite the two systems having very similar internal data structures there were issues around our allowance for “lists within lists” and how the two systems treat items at draft status. But luckily these issues were easily resolved with a little effort.
The beginning of the end
03 Nov 2023
by Gary Brewerton
in LORLS
So today we held the kickoff meeting to move from our in-house reading list system to its chosen successor Talis Aspire.
My role in the project is to provide the data from LORLS in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format. Luckily we already wrote a nightly JSON export of all the current lists for integration with our Moodle VLE. So, current me is very grateful to past me and colleagues for developing this feature as it’ll greatly reduce ongoing efforts.
The hope is to launch with the new system, including migrated data, for Easter 2024.
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
Second meeting with Talis
29 May 2009
When I met with Mark and Ian from Talis back in January they’d suggested hosting a follow-up meeting later in the year. So yesterday when I went to visit them I was expecting it to be somewhat of a “blast from the past” what with me being an ex Talis customer. But everything was different: new offices, lots of new staff and lots of new ideas.
Ian played host and introduced me to Chris, a lead developer for Talis Aspire who went on to give me a demonstration of the system which I must admit is very impressive. I wasn’t able to reciprocate with an online demo of LORLS as we haven’t yet knocked any holes in our institutional firewall to allow external access to our development server. However, I was able to show Chris and Ian some screenshots.
One thing I noted at our first meeting was the similarities between our two systems. This became even more evident after I showed Chris a simplified E-R model of our data design as he went on the say that apart from the entities relating to access control it was basically the same as theirs. Hopefully this means that “great minds think alike” and we’re both on the right track.
After the meeting I met up briefly with Richard Wallis (one of the few faces I recognise from the old days) who went on to explain about his Juice Project. This is in effect a piece of middleware that can sit between your website and various external resources. The benefit being that instead of everyone writing their own method to access the resource you can instead use someone else’s code that already does it. This sounds like a great idea and one I think we should consider using for LORLS.
Meeting with Talis
29 Jan 2009
Had a really interesting meeting this afternoon with a couple of folk from Talis. Mark Bush, who is new to the company, contacted me a few weeks ago to arrange it. The purpose of the meeting was to gain greater understanding of different approaches to reading list management. Mark was accompanied by Ian Corns who despite his job title of “User Experience Champion” didn’t arrive wearing a cape or with his underpants over his clothes.
The first part of the meeting turned into a show and tell: with me detailing the birth of LORLS and our ongoing project to redevelop the system, and Mark showing me a little of Aspire, Talis’ replacement for their existing Talis List product. The thing that struck me was how similar in concept their new solution is to what we’re doing with LORLS.
The second half of the meeting was given over to discussing the various possible strategies to use when implementing a reading list solution. Obviously selecting an appropriate system is important. However many of the key issues that will determine whether it is success are not necessarily system dependant.
For a listing of some of these key issues send £12.99 and a stamped self-addressed envelope to Ga… OK OK I’ll tell, please just stop hitting me Jon 🙂
- Involve all stakeholder as soon as possible in the implementation process – pretty obvious I know but still important to remember
- From a Library perspective it’s much easier to work with academics if you’re not seen as the ones forcing the system upon them
- Pump priming the system with academics’ existing (often Word based) reading lists can be a real winner – once a list is on the system is much easier to get academics to update it or at least be aware if they haven’t so you can then nag them about it!
- Training, training, training
- Local champions can often do more for the success of a project than official promotions – identify your champions and support them
- It’s important to know the lie of the land – what may work with one department won’t necessary work with another. For example Engineers have a very different approach to reading lists than Social Scientists.
- Competition between academic departments or faculties can be a useful means of encouraging adoption of the system but needs to be done with care
- Use every opportunity to stress the importance of reading lists to academic departments, for example: bad module feedback, that’s because of your lack of reading lists on the system; external review approaching, why not invest some time in updating your reading lists to demonstrate clear communication between academics, librarians and students.