7. Improving a List

There are many features to the Reading List platform that could be helpful to use with new and existing reading lists. This page provides suggestions for ways in which improvements to a reading list can be obtained.

They include:

• Top 3 tips to improve your reading list
• Check the student view
• Contact your Scholarly Services Librarian

Top 3 tips for Reading Lists

There are a lot of ways to add value and engage students with your Reading List. Here are our top 3 tips:

1. Make it concise

Reading lists shouldn't be a comprehensive list of everything published in a certain field. Lists containing 100+ resources can be intimidating for students, and feel unwieldy.  Instead, focus on the main resources for each topic/week then prioritise them using the reading list importances (Prescribed, Recommended, and Further). NOTE: Not every importance needs to be used in each section.

2. Organise your resources

Aim for a consistent feel between your unit site and your reading list. Use sections on your reading list to help students connect the readings with the weekly content/topics.

Note

You can also add sections within sections to group together similar resources or concepts, or relate readings to a specific task (eg. compare the theories in these articles, and discuss ...etc. )

3. Add annotations and context

Use Paragraphs or Student notes on individual items to annotate your reading list, highlighting such things as:

• expectations (e.g. to be completed before of attending the seminar)
• what students will get from the resource(s) (e.g. This article nicely summarises concept X...).
• key ideas, structure of writing, or points for discussion.

Check the student view

Sometimes looking at the list without any editing functionality allows us to see areas for improvement (e.g. typos, items out of sections, etc.).

You can view the list as a student by: 

1. Clicking on View & Export to open the drop down menu.
2. Then select As student.  

The benefits to viewing a Reading List as a student:

• View the published version of a Reading List before it new changes are published.
• Test the links of a Reading List to make sure that none of the links are broken.

Caution

You cannot edit the list when it is in Student View. Return to the editing view by clicking the blue Exit student view button.

Contact your Scholarly Services Librarian

Your Scholarly Services Librarian can help to improve your Reading Lists, by reviewing your list or providing analytics. Please contact your Scholarly Services Librarian for assistance.

Key things the Library can do when reviewing a reading list:

• Test links to resources.
• Look over the reference information for resources.
• Check the availability of library resources in a list.
• Investigate if physical items are available for purchase in an electronic format.
• Explore to see if the latest editions of a resource (preferably in an electronic format) are available to purchase.
• Add student notes, such as if an e-book has limited concurrent user.

Note

A review of your reading list can be requested when you go to publish by clicking on Review & Publish. Once the review is complete, the Library will inform you of any changes made to a list.

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