Tag Archives: Talis Aspire

Resource Lists workshops

We’re running two Resource Lists workshops next week for academic staff and course administrators.

By the end of the workshop, you’ll be able to use Talis Aspire to create your own resource lists. We’ll also explain how the Library is using Resource Lists to manage Course Collections and provide access to core reading materials for students.

Booking open

Booking is now open on MyEd for the following dates:

3 October

7 October

One-to-one and refresher training

We’re also happy to come to you and hold one-to-one or refresher sessions to fit around Course Organisers’ schedules: please contact Library.Learning@ed.ac.uk

More information about the Resource List services is available on our webpages:

Resource Lists webpages

Academic teaching staff: tell us about your Resource List (Talis Aspire) experience

Survey
Library Learning Services is running a survey aimed at academic teaching and support staff currently using Resource Lists @ Edinburgh (using Talis Aspire).

Big changes
In 2015/16 we introduced some big changes to the Resource Lists service which saw the Library, for the first time, use Resource Lists as a way to inform purchase of core materials, process e-reserve scan requests and identify books to move to Reserve and/or HUB Reserve.

Tell us what you think
We’d be grateful if you would take 10 minutes to complete the short survey.

Complete the survey: https://edinburgh.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/resource-lists-edinburgh-using-talis-aspire-academic

Your feedback will let us know how well we met your expectations and will help us improve for next year.

This survey is intended for teaching and support staff currently using Resource Lists for courses in Session 2015/16. However, if you registered to use the service, but never created or published a Resource List, we’d like to know why.

The survey will run Monday 28^th March – Friday 22nd April 2016.

Contact us
If you would like to arrange a demonstration, workshop or refresher session, or, if you have have question about the service, please email: Library.Learning@ed.ac.uk

Semester Two deadlines: 12th October and 9th November

I know, I know, Semester One has barely started and already we’re asking you to send us your Semester Two reading lists.

We have two deadlines:

Library creates Resource List, deadline: 12^th October 2015
Course Organiser creates Resource List, deadline: 9^th November 2015

Deadlines explained….

12^th October 2015 – Library creates Resource List

If you have a reading list that you would like the Library Learning Services team to convert into a beautifully formatted Resource List using Talis Aspire, then please send your list along with a completed Resource List Coversheet to IS.Helpline@ed.ac.uk by 12^th October.

The Resource List coversheet should be completed for each list submitted. The coversheet gives us all the information we need to prioritise and process you list, e-reserve scans and book recommendations.

When we’ve created your list we’ll send you a summary of the items on your list, books, journals and articles, with information on how many copies are held and at what libraries.

Clearly indicate on the reading list supplied which items you’d like scanned and we’ll pass on these to the e-reserve team.

Also, provided you have prioritised your list using, Essential, Recommended and Further reading and tell us the expected number of students, we’ll make any book recommendations for additional, or new copies, based on the ratios in the table below.

9^th November 2015 – Course organiser creates Resource List

Alternatively, you can use Talis Aspire to create your Resource List(s) yourself. There is a range of user guides to help you get started. If you’re not already registered to use Resource Lists, contact IS.Helpline@ed.ac.uk to request access.

If you publish the list by 9^th November, prioritise the items on your list and use ‘Note for Library’ to provide details of any e-reserve requests, we’ll review your list, pass on your e-reserve requests, check for number of copies, and, based on the ratios in the table below, pass on any book recommendations for additional or new copies.

Priority	Purchased	Moved to
Essential	1 copy per 20 students	HUB/Reserve
Recommended	1 copy per 40 students	Short Loan
Further Reading	Direct request required from Course Organiser – 1 copy purchased.	Standard Loan

Please note that in order to align services, the Resource Lists Semester Two deadlines are the same as the e-reserve deadlines

There’s more information on the Resource Lists @ Edinburgh service on the IS website.

If you have any questions or would like to arrange a short training session, please get in touch: Library.Learning@ed.ac.uk

Angela Laurins, Library Learning Services Manager

Resource List Survey Feedback

Library Learning services ran a survey from March 30^th – April 24^th asking registered Talis Aspire users for feedback on our Resource Lists @ Edinburgh service. We had some great responses and would like to thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and experience with us.

You said

The top perceived benefits of the service are that it:

makes it easier for students to access core materials
improves student experience
is easy to update and manage reading lists

You also told us that you liked the “open access, allowing other institutions and/or pre-arrival students to gain an understanding of the core readings in particular programmes or courses”.

List Promotion

The most popular means of list promotion was the Resource List tool on Learn. Other popular means included promoting the resource list(s) in lectures and seminars, and including a reference to the list in the course handbook.

Additional tools you’ve been using to promote lists to students included:

posting the link up on a private Facebook group for their course,
emailing the link out to students prior to the start of the course,
and placing it on the new course descriptors on EUCLID instead of the previous list of readings.

We asked: ‘Do you expect ALL of the items on your resource list to be made available by the Library, either online or in print?’

Your response to this was mostly affirmative with course organisers expecting if not all the materials to be made available, then the majority or at least the essential/key items. We are very glad that this is something we should now be able to provide via the Beta service in 15/16. (More information on this new service can be found on our website)

Continued Support / More demonstrations

You thought we could perhaps provide more demonstrations and continued support.

Over the summer period we are running a targeted series of workshops and demonstrations, both out at Schools when requested by departments, and also in at the Main Library for interested individuals.

The next two events are now bookable via MyEd:

Wed 8th July 10-12pm, Main Library, Room 1.12

Thurs 9th July 2-4pm Main Library, Room 1.08

We’re also looking into the possibility of running short webinars for course organisers unable to attend face-to-face workshops.

Our Library Learning Services team provides support via email, phone, and in-person year-round for Resource Lists @ Edinburgh. Additionally if you or anyone in your department would like to arrange a one-to-one or school workshop session/demonstration, please contact us via IS.Helpline@ed.ac.uk

Guides

A few of you were unaware of where to find our user guides, and some suggested that we could provide additional guidance in particular areas.

We have contacted those of you who were unaware of our guidance materials which include our web page, blog, PDF guides, and video tutorials.

We have also created some additional guidance to fill the gaps that were highlighted. In particular, Sharing Editing Rights with a Colleague (PDF) and Bookmarking a Chapter or Part (PDF).

Our web pages and user guides are regularly updated and we encourage course organisers, students, or anyone using the service to contact us and advise if there is something we have overlooked or could improve.

Interface and Usability

A few of you had suggestions around the interface, presentation, and usability of Talis Aspire. One of the reasons we have been enjoying working with Talis Aspire to provide the Resource List service is that they are continuing to develop and improve the platform and encourage feedback and suggestions from us their customers. We forward on all suggestions for improvement or requests for new features in the system to the Talis development team.

If you have any additional comments or ideas as to how you feel the service could be improved, please drop us a line via IS.Helpline@ed.ac.uk

Follow @ResourceListsEd

Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant

New for 2015/16: Use Resource Lists (Talis Aspire) to manage e-reserve, course (print reserve) & book recommendations

For session 2015/16 the Library is making it easier to request core teaching materials. We are Beta testing using Resource Lists @ Edinburgh (Talis Aspire) as a single contact point for processing e-reserve requests, course (print) reserve and book recommendations.

Please note, if you don’t want to provide the extra information via resource lists, you can continue to publish your lists and make e-reserve requests and book recommendations in the usual way.

The options described below are for Course Organisers who want to manage requests for e-reserve scans, course (print) reserve and book recommendations via their resource list(s).

There are two options for ALL Course Organisers creating NEW resource lists for session 2015/16:

Option 1. Create the resource list yourself using Talis Aspire, include the additional information requested by the Library and publish your list by *7th August*. The Library will process any e-reserve requests, course (print) reserve and book recommendations.

Option 2. Send your reading lists to the Library by *13th July*, provide the additional information requested and the Library will process any e-reserve requests, course (print) reserve and book recommendations and hand the list back to you to publish.

Existing Talis Aspire users are asked to review and republish their lists by *7th August* and to use ‘Note for Library’ on Talis Aspire to provide the additional information required by the Library. The Library will process any new e-reserve requests, course (print) reserve and book recommendations.

NB: Deadlines are for Semester One resource lists. We will circulate further deadlines for Semester two in due course.

Guidance on how to manage new and existing resource lists (using Talis Aspire) and the information required by the Library to process any e-reserve requests, course (print) reserve and book recommendations is provided on the website: http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information-services/research-teaching-staff/resource-lists/using-resource-lists/overview

Continue reading →

Resource List Video Tutorials

Resource Lists @ Edinburgh now have a series of short video tutorials!

Taking on board feedback received at workshops, demonstrations, one on one catchups, and email correspondence, we have attempted to address some of the most frequent questions we receive by creating these short videos.

Four videos have been created including:

– How to install the bookmarklet tool in Internet Explorer

– How to install the bookmarklet tool in Firefox

– How to create and add bookmarks to your Resource List

– How to Edit and Publish your Resource List

Continue reading →

Action required: Update your bookmark tool

Talis Aspire have launched an updated bookmark tool that will work with both HTTP and HTTPS websites.

Background

In reaction to a number of security issues that occurred last year, many websites have slowly been changing from a HTTP address to a HTTPS address. Moving websites to a HTTPS address increases security by adding a ‘secure certificate’ to the site.

However, the addition of this secure certificate has been clashing with the Talis Aspire bookmark tool and may have been preventing it from working on some of the sites that you regularly use. (The bookmark tool is the button that appears on your browser bookmarks bar which is used for adding resources to lists).

What do I have to do?

When Talis Aspire detects that it is being used on a HTTPS website a pop-up window will let you know that a newer version of the bookmarklet is available and provide instructions on how to install it. Please install the newer version of the bookmark tool when prompted.

The current bookmarklet will still work on HTTP websites; however, we would recommend you update the bookmarklet tool. Talis Aspire have made it even easier to do this.

Adding or updating the bookmarklet tool is a quick process. Go to http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/ and then to the ‘My bookmarks’ tab. On the right of the page is an ‘install bookmark button’, click on this and Talis Aspire will detect which browser you’re using and walk you through adding the bookmark tool.

More information on how to make the most of Resource Lists can be found on the Resource Lists using Talis Aspire webpage and the ResourceLists@Edinburgh Blog.

Follow @ResourceListsEd

Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant

Hands-on sessions and your feedback

In June we ran two hands-on sessions introducing Resource Lists @ Edinburgh using Talis Aspire. After each session we asked for feedback, and you gave it!

“I very much wish I’d had this when I was a student!! As it is I can see a number of ways it would be useful to have as a librarian. Excellent session in all respects, I thoroughly enjoyed it! 🙂 ”

“I would have preferred to work through the tasks on my own – the system is very easy (and the handout was very clear!) – and then come in for more of an advanced trouble shooting Q&A style event.”

“Really enjoyed the session. Very informative.”

It is very important to us as we develop Resource Lists as a tool to hear back from you, so we really do appreciate all of your feedback. We have also taken the suggestion of a more advanced troubleshooting session under consideration, this would indeed be good to do once we have more people using the service.

In the meantime we are also happy to arrange alternative training sessions for individuals or small groups.

Missed out on the June sessions? That’s okay we’re running two more in July!

The sessions focus on introducing Resource Lists @ Edinburgh using Talis Aspire, and all sessions are bookable via MyEd.

Sessions begin with an Introduction to the Resource List system followed by a hands-on workshop where attendees are able to try out the system and start creating their own Resource Lists with the support and guidance of Library Staff.

The sessions are open to all Course Organisers, Programme Directors, College/School IT staff or Admin staff and Library staff who may create lists on behalf of others.

Dates/Times/Venue

Tue 22^nd July 2014: 10am-12noon, Main Library, George Square, Training Rm 1.12

Wed 30^th July 2014: 2-4pm, Main Library, George Square, Training Rm 1.08

Before you attend

When you register for the session, you will be sent an email inviting you to register to use Talis Aspire. Please follow the link in the email to accept the invitation. This will give you access to the Resource List system.

If you can’t make these dates

If you are interested in Resource Lists @ Edinburgh but can’t attend on these dates, please get in touch. We are happy to arrange alternative training sessions for individuals or small groups.

More information is available on the Resource Lists using Talis Aspire webpage and the ResourceLists@Edinburgh Blog.

Follow @ResourceListsEd
//

Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant

Bookmarking E-Reserve Articles/Chapters

The process of linking E-reserve articles hosted on a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) such as Learn or Moodle on your resource list is fairly simple. Remember, if at any stage you feel you require assistance by all means get in touch with us at Library.learning@ed.ac.uk

When creating a bookmark link to an E-reserve article within any VLE, it’s important to provide that clear guidance is provided to students. In order to read an article provided in any of the University’s virtual learning environments, a student needs to be:

a) enrolled into that specific class and
b) logged into the environment.

Below is an example of the information that needs to be provided for student’s accessing an article in LEARN, we recommend adding this text somewhere towards the top of your resource list. :

Learn Chapters/Articles
– Please note that some articles/chapters are provided for you on LEARN. Ensure that you are logged into LEARN before attempting to read the article. If you are not enrolled for this course on LEARN you will not be able to access the article.
– Click on the blue ‘Online Resource’ button to go directly to the article.
– If the book is available in the Library you can find more information by clicking on the
title of the book in red text.

We also recommend adding the below text in the Student Note for any bookmarked resource that will be provided as an E-reserve item via a VLE.

Please note this article/chapter has been provided for you on LEARN.

When creating a bookmark for an E-reserve article or book chapter please select the item type as ‘document’. This will ensure that Library Learning Staff can quickly and easily identify E-reserve items and also allows students to filter by item type if they want to focus on E-reserve articles.

Creating a bookmark for an E-Reserve item

1. Bookmark from the Library catalogue the book your E-reserve article/chapter will be taken
from and add this to your list.

2. In the ‘Note for student’ section include the page/chapter details of the E-reserve item and
the following text, “Please note this article/chapter has been provided for you on LEARN.” (swap out LEARN for whichever platform being used by your School).

3. In the ‘Note for library’ section include the following text, “E-Reserve – When URL is available please edit the metadata and add ‘Web Address’ ‘ and enter the E-reserve URL for the chapter/article. Ensure that the ‘Online Resource’ button is ticked.”

4. Once E-reserve provide you with the URL for your article/chapter, go back in and edit the metadata of your bookmark.

5. Click on the drop down box ‘Add field’, select ‘Web address’ and ‘Add’.

6. Cut and paste the E-reserve URL into the web address, then save (remembering to tick the ‘online resource’ box).

The ‘Note for Student’ will be visible on the saved draft of your list and to students once the list has been published. However, the ‘Note for library’ will only be visible in ‘Edit’ mode and to the Library Learning Services team.

Additional guides and information can be found on the Resource Lists using Talis Aspire webpage and the ResourceLists@Edinburgh Blog.

We are also running four ‘Hands-on’ introductory sessions to Resource Lists @ Edinburgh this June & July. Sessions are bookable via MyEd.

Follow @ResourceListsEd
//

Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant

Promoting great lists

The sources of knowledge: Understanding and analysing research literature [SV1-FLEX]
Created by Dr Peter Allison FRGS
Senior Lecturer Values and Experiential Learning / Depute Director of Postgraduate Studies

What initially caught our attention about Peter’s list was his note at the top encouraging students to contact the course organiser with any materials that may be particularly useful for inclusion with the list, in particular web pages or YouTube clips. These have been collected towards the bottom of the list in the section ‘Useful Websites’ and, by the number of resources in this section, it looks to have been quite successful in promoting self-study and engagement with students.

Another way Peter’s list has encouraged skills learning is his use of resources. In the section ‘Session One’ instead of simply linking directly to a journal article, Peter has instead opted to provide a resource link to the University Library Catalogue and then in the Student Note has directed students to search for the article themselves. Peter has also used the Student Note to provide information on where to find help on how to search if they have difficulty with this task.

The list has a very focused purpose, each section has a study note explaining what it contains and who it may be relevant to, and many of the resources have student notes describing the resource and including instructions on how the student is to use it, e.g. “Please read Chapters Six and Seven of this book and bring notes to the workshop this week”.

Peter has also made use of Talis Aspire’s ability to link and embed YouTube clips, adding a number of these to the list, including upbeat and engaging clips such as ‘Conspiracies, Mind Control and Falsifiability‘.

Many of the resources themselves are quite interesting and eye-catching:
– Statistics without tears: a primer for non-mathematicians – Rowntree, Derek 2000
– How to read journal articles in the social sciences: a very practical guide for students – Shon, Phillip C. 2012 Book Essential Read and take notes on: Chapter 1: Serial Killers and Book Reports

Peter’s list was created as part of the research courses for all postgraduate students at the School of Education, covering approximately 650 students. According to the Dashboard this list was successfully viewed 1937 times with 1810 total clicks and 28 notations.

If you are interested in creating your own Resource List more information is available on the Resource Lists using Talis Aspire webpage and the ResourceLists@Edinburgh Blog.

We are also running four ‘Hands-on’ introductory sessions to Resource Lists @ Edinburgh this June & July. Sessions are bookable via MyEd.

Follow @ResourceListsEd
//

Stephanie Farley

Library Learning Services Assistant

Booking open

One-to-one and refresher training

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