Best Practice

Best Practice Guide

What is the purpose of your reading list?  Do your students share the same understanding?  Academics may view reading lists as a starting point, offering “guidance to good quality reading,” (Siddall and Rose, 2014, p. 61).  Students may consider the list to contain all the reading that is required of them and not stray beyond it.  The purpose of your reading list and expectations of students can be outlined in the ‘description’ box within your Leganto list.

Structure and annotate your list to guide your students - Use a structure which supports teaching and learning on your module – essential and further reading; themes; weekly reading.  Use annotations to indicate why the resources are useful and what you want the students to do with them e.g. chapter 5 provides a good introduction to note-taking; this author is a key expert and you may find her other works of interest too. A lack of guidance can lead students to adopt an ‘all or nothing’ reading strategy.

Use your reading list to help students learn how to search for information Think scaffolding rather than spoon-feeding.  Recommended reading introduces students to finding and using information from trusted sources, but consider extension activities which require students to find resources for themselves. In your Leganto reading list, link to the relevant Library Subject Resources page or your preferred databases – remember to annotate, to indicate what you expect of your students.  Your expectations will probably vary between levels of study.

Include the key journals required for your module This will help encourage students to identify articles within quality academic journals.  It is also vital to communicate your module journal needs to the Library, via Leganto, to ensure those needs are considered in the annual subscription review.

Review your lists - keep up to date – the Reading List Policy asks you to review your lists annually.  The Library will help you keep up to date with the latest editions, but will need you to consider the currency and relevance of the texts that you recommend.  Are there new publications available?  How is the list influenced by your own “preferences and allegiances and reading journeys”? (Stokes and Martin, p. 121).  The Library will provide analytical data on usage of reading list resources which should help you determine which items to keep on your list. 

 

Adding book chapters and articles to reading lists in Leganto

 You don’t need to scan any book chapters or articles yourself as the University holds a Copyright Licencing Agency (CLA) HE licence that allows for limited copying and scanning, provided the Library manages this process.

 Placing a PDF of a chapter or article directly into Canvas is not permitted and it’s easy to request a scan. Just add all the details of the chapter or article you require to your reading list in Leganto and the Library Digitisation Team will make every effort to source a scan and add a link.  Each scan can then be viewed and downloaded by students registered on the relevant module.

 NB please add as many relevant details as possible when you add a chapter or journal article to your reading list in Leganto - this helps the Library Digitisation Team to source the correct scan.

 Our CLA licence permits us to scan up to:

  • 1 chapter (or 10%) of a book
  • 1 journal article per journal issue

 Please see the Digitisation Service webpage for more details on requesting chapters and articles.  

 

Take care when adding websites

Always check terms and conditions of use before adding websites to your reading lists as content on websites is subject to the same copyright regulations as any published work. 

  • You should not copy or upload material from web pages unless this is permitted – this includes text, images, videos or music
  • Provide links to webpages (preferably to the homepage) rather than extracting and embedding materials
  • If you suspect that material is infringing copyright, or are not sure as to its origins, then you should not link to it

 

…does the Reading List Policy limit the number of items on a list? (5 essential items, 25 further reading.)  Research shows that students find long lists overwhelming or very daunting (Brewerton, 2014).  Items need to have a purpose for being on the list.  Also, reading lists need to be affordable, with the items on them readily available.

…do I have to complete my reading list in advance of teaching?  You are asked to adhere to reading list update deadlines to help ensure the timely provision of resources for your students.  Student satisfaction is important to all of us.  Give the Library time to acquire your reading list items and your students are less likely to find getting them is “typically frustrating and sometimes very stressful,” (Bevan, 2012).  See the Reading List Policy for advice on topical reading.

…should I include my weekly readings the Leganto reading list?  If you wish to give weekly readings to your students, include them in Leganto, to keep all your reading recommendations in one location.  You can request digitisation (scanning) of articles and chapters from within Leganto.  The Library will keep editions up to date and details in the lists should be accurate - 32% of reading list items in a survey were found to be inaccurate (Siddal and Rose, 2014, p. 64).

...shouldn’t I put additional lists in Canvas?  Again, keep all module reading in one location, in Leganto.  The Library can acquire the items and students can access the items.  In a University of Northampton survey, 78% of academics “recommended  additional reading which was not on their reading lists and therefore unlikely to be stocked in the Library” (Cameron and Siddal, 2017, p. 48).

…is important to recommend reading that is available online?  Electronic books and journal articles are, in general, available to students without restriction, on or off campus.  Print books have to be collected from campus and are available for a limited time, if requested by other students.  Consider digitisation of a chapter from print books, to increase access.  Electronic texts can also offer increased accessibility for students with additional needs.

…list journal articles in Leganto, why not upload the pdfs in Canvas? ‘Republishing’ the pdf in Canvas is usually a breach of copyright.  This applies to journal article pdfs from University subscriptions or from elsewhere.  See your copyright responsibilities here.  If we don’t have the ejournal, request digitisation of the article.  We get more accurate journal usage statistics for our annual review if students click through to the online article.

…consider reading recommendations across your course?  Look at the breadth of resources across modules and also whether resources are appropriate to each level of study.

…reference research from your Faculty? Can this help your research inform your teaching?

…ask for support from the Skills for Learning team?  They can help you to help build on your reading list and develop student skills in information access, retrieval, evaluation and use.

References

  • Bevan, N. (2012) ‘Preliminary to reading’, Times Higher Education, (2038), p. 28.
  • Brewerton, G. (2014) ‘Implications of student and lecturer qualitative views on reading lists: a case study at Loughborough University, UK’, New Review of Academic Librarianship, 20(1), pp. 78-90.
  • Cameron, C. and Siddall, G. (2017) ‘Opening lines of communication: book ordering and reading lists, the academics view’, New Review of Academic Librarianship, 23(1), pp. 42-59.
  • McGuinn, K., Stone, G., Sharman, A. and Davison, E. (2017) ‘Student reading lists: evaluating the student experience at the University of Huddersfield’, Electronic Library, 35(2), pp. 322-332.
  • Siddall, G. and Rose, H. (2014) ‘Reading lists - time for a reality check? An investigation into the use of reading lists as a pedagogical tool to support the development of information skills amongst Foundation Degree students’, Library & Information Research, 38(118), pp. 52-73.
  • Stokes, P. and Martin, L. (2008) ‘Reading lists: a study of tutor and student perceptions, expectations and realities’, Studies in Higher Education, 33(2), pp. 113-125.

Dos and Don'ts

  • Review your reading lists, adding and removing items as required. New items will need to be moved to the relevant section i.e. book resources under the ‘books’ section, or lists can be amended if a week by week or thematic structure is more appropriate.
  • Tag items in your reading list as Essential, Further or Topical. All items should be tagged including websites.
  • Add any collaborators to your list (module teams etc)
  • Add in any resources that have not been carried over from Canvas/eVision
  • Send your list to the Library using the ‘Send List’ button at the top of the screen
  • ‘Publish’ your list using the ‘three dot’ menu
  • Lock your list
  • Duplicate your list
  • Delete your list
  • Alter any course association settings
  • Change the title of your list
  • Select ‘set complete’ on any of your citations

Policies

You can view the Reading List Policy by clicking here: University of Wolverhampton Reading List Policy (pdf)

You can view the Collection Management and Development Policy by clicking here: University of Wolverhampton - Collection Management and Development Policy (pdf)