Reading Lists @ Glasgow

Access Reading Lists @ Glasgow

Reading Lists @ Glasgow is the University's online reading list system, it is an innovative way to ensure teaching resources required are accessible and available for your students.

The system provides direct access to electronic resources, including digitised readings, as well as live availability and location of physical stock in the Library. It ensures that online access is made available for essential texts where possible and adequate print copies are purchased for the High Demand Collection where no electronic version is available. Lists, once published, can be viewed by all online, or you have the option to make your list accessible only to University staff and students. Reading lists can be added as a resource within your course Moodle and detailed information is available about the use of resources on your lists.

Course Materials Policy

Course Materials - Policy and Support

The following policy was agreed at May 2022 Library Committee.

The Library will continue to support academics and students to ensure they have access to materials to support teaching.

The Library has committed to an e-preference model for teaching resources, i.e. purchasing only essential materials in electronic format where available, with a suitable model and format and financially achievable. This decision has been taken to support online and blended learning and the Institution’s Accessible & Inclusive Learning Policy.

Where essential texts are either not available in electronic format, or not suitable for purchase the Library will purchase print copies for the High Demand Collection.

Essential/core texts

Collaborative working between Academics, College Librarians and the Reading Lists @ Glasgow service will continue to be important in obtaining essential/core teaching materials. The following is recommended:

  • Academics should review reading lists to identify essential/core texts for course use.
  • Academics should investigate suitable existing electronic content in collaboration with College Librarians.
  • The Reading Lists @ Glasgow service will then look to obtain in electronic formats any essential texts not already available. This will apply to texts marked as Essential and Suggested for Student Purchase.
  • The procurement of course materials will include the purchase of e-book collections, individual e-books and the digitisation of chapters under the Copyright Licencing Agency’s digitisation licence when an e-book cannot be obtained.
  • Print will be purchased for the High Demand Collection, where no suitable electronic version is available.

Open Book Exams

Academics should advise the Reading Lists @ Glasgow service in advance when an e-book is required for an open book examination. Not all electronic books have unlimited access and further models may need to be investigated to support use in open book exams.

Further Reading

Due to the increase in budget to support blended and online learning, there are not enough resources to purchase further reading (Further/Background/Recommended) via the Library’s Course Materials budget. Academics are encouraged to utilise the Library’s existing collection of 1.4 million e-books and extensive print collection, supported by the continued investment in the multi-disciplinary eBook collection Academic Complete which now includes over 200k e-books for academic use.

Timescales

Reading lists and decisions on core texts need to be communicated to the Library as early as possible for sufficient time to process all requests. Some textbook requests can take several weeks due to complex negotiations on price and obtaining files. Additionally, to support the aims of the Accessible and Inclusive Learning Policy in ensuring course materials are made available to students with disabilities, reading lists should be communicated to the Reading Lists @ Glasgow service by the end of July for Semester 1 and the end of November for Semester 2. Lists received after the deadline will be processed as soon as possible but access to course materials cannot be guaranteed for the course start date.

Accessibility

Please inform the Reading Lists @ Glasgow service via library-readinglists@glasgow.ac.uk if there are students with disabilities studying on a course so we can provide any support required for access to reading lists and online resources. Please supply the list and/or information about essential resources as soon as possible as providing accessible material for students may require some time.

The reading lists software is supplied by Talis Education Ltd. Please see their web accessibility statement. Please report any accessibility issues for online resources to library-readinglists@glasgow.ac.uk.

How do I use it?

If you would like to create your own lists, please email library-readinglists@glasgow.ac.uk to be set up with access to the system.

Guidance on getting started and using the software is available from our Moodle site or from the guides:

The Library is also offering a list creation service where reading lists can be added to Reading Lists @ Glasgow on your behalf. To support the aims of the Accessible and Inclusive Learning Policy in ensuring course materials are made available to students with disabilities, reading lists should be communicated to the Reading Lists @ Glasgow service by the end of July for Semester 1 and the end of November for Semester 2. Lists received after the deadline will be processed as soon as possible but access to course materials cannot be guaranteed for the course start date 

If you would like to take advantage of this service, please send any reading lists to library-readinglists@glasgow.ac.uk. Please provide:

  1. Course title
  2. Course code (if known)
  3. Anticipated number of students, an estimate is fine
  4. Time period (semester 1/semester 2/semester year)

Clearly mark any essential/core texts so the Reading Lists @ Glasgow service can look to obtain in electronic formats any essential/core texts not already available. Print will be purchased for the High Demand Collection, where no electronic version is available.

Please highlight any book chapters or articles that you would like digitised.

For support, including help with list creation, contact library-readinglists@glasgow.ac.uk

How can I make sure books are in the High Demand Collection?

The Library has committed to an e-preference model for teaching resources, i.e. purchasing only essential materials in electronic format, where available and financially achievable.

Where essential texts are not available in suitable electronic format, Reading Lists @ Glasgow ensures that adequate copies of items are purchased for your course and assists in allocating material to the High Demand Collection. We will automatically move copies of any book titles which you have designated as Essential Reading or Suggested for Student Purchase to the High Demand Collection as a 24-hour loan (unless a 4-hour loan has been requested in the Notes for Library section).

We also run regular reports on the Library system to find in-demand titles not yet identified via Reading Lists @ Glasgow. We will then move copies to the High Demand Collection and consider the purchase of additional copies, as appropriate.

How do I request digitised copies of book chapters and articles?

The service is also the means by which the Library organises the digitisation of in-copyright book chapters and articles for course use. The Library provides this service under the terms of the Copyright Licensing Agency’s Higher Education Licence. This licence covers all scanning of extracts for course material done by the University. Simply add information about any chapter/article you wish digitised to the Note for Library field in your reading list.

Reading lists that are sent for review, the Library will endeavour to digitise any chapters listed against Essential items that are not available electronically. If no chapter information is provided for Essential items, the Library will conduct the necessary copyright checks and contact you to obtain details of any chapters you might want scanned.

More on digitisation of course materials is available via our Moodle site.