Transcript Reading Lists

Reading Lists
Or to take ARMS
against a sea of Academics
Andra Bloomfield
University of Wales
Aberystwyth
What’s so important?

Locations

Voyager (Aberystwyth OPAC)

Modules (AStRA)

Sentient Discover

Blackboard

Academics own lists
Destinations

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Library
Students
Academics
Module web pages
Bookshops
What’s so important?

Locations






Voyager
Modules (AStRA)
Sentient Discover
Blackboard
Academics own lists
Destinations





Library
Students
Academics
Module web pages
Bookshops
A Brief History

Pre 1999
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

Academics doing their
own thing
June 1999


Module Reading lists
developed for AStRA
Academics still doing
their own thing





ARMS V2 released
September 2005


ARMS went live
January 2005


Decided to go ahead
with in-house system
October 2004

March 2003
Signed up with Sentient
Discover

Academics still doing
their own thing
March 2004

Group formed to look
into Reading Lists
June 2004
ARMS V3 due for
release
The Future

Academics still doing
their own thing?
(AStRA – Aberystwyth Student Records
and Admissions system)
What is this ARMS?
What is this ARMS?
What is this ARMS?

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Each Module has one or more reading lists
Each Academic can have one or more
reading lists
Main reading lists available to all
All other reading lists assigned private or
public status
 Private to owner
 Private to students taking that module
What is this ARMS?

Items can be added to a list
 Manually
 Searched for
Voyager OPAC
 National Library of Wales OPAC
 Global Books in Print
Items on a list can be
 Ordered for the library
 Have their loan status changed


What is this ARMS?
What is this ARMS?

Items can be added to a list
 Manually
 Searched for




Voyager OPAC
National Library of Wales OPAC
Global Books in Print
Items on a list can be
 Ordered for the library
 Have their loan status changed
What is this ARMS?
What is this ARMS?

PHP

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Yaz (a Z39.50 development tool)


V 1.21
Oracle

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V 4.3.10
V 8i
Sun Sparc V240

Solaris 9
Usage

Over the past 9
months, of the
2485 Module
Reading lists
within ARMS


99% have been
accessed at least
once
Over 50% have
been accessed
13 times or more
Feedback

Won’t Use




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
Doesn’t do everything
Too complicated
Too much work
My Students won’t
use it
Spoon feeding!
Why should I? The
departmental
secretary does it

Will Use

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Easy to use
Good access for:
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Students
Library
Bookshop
Nice to be able to
search for things
Lets me maintain
my own list
What Next?
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Bi-lingual
Copying items between lists
Reporting features
Auto notification to academics
for lists not updated
Upload pre-prepared lists
ARMS
Andra Bloomfield
Management Information Services
University of Wales – Aberystwyth
[email protected]
http://arms.mis.aber.ac.uk