Reading Lists

Or to take ARMS against a sea of Academics

Andra BloomfieldUniversity of Wales

Aberystwyth

What’s so important? Locations

Voyager (Aberystwyth OPAC) Modules (AStRA) Sentient Discover Blackboard Academics own lists

Destinations 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

Academics doing their own thing

June 1999 Module Reading lists

developed for AStRA Academics still doing their

own thing March 2003

Signed up with Sentient Discover

Academics still doing their own thing

March 2004 Group formed to look into

Reading Lists

June 2004 Decided to go ahead

with in-house system October 2004

ARMS went live January 2005

ARMS V2 released September 2005

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? 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

V 4.3.10 Yaz (a Z39.50 development tool)

V 1.21 Oracle

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

Accesses Per Module

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Number of Accesses

Feedback Won’t Use

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 Easy to use Good access for:

Students Library Bookshop

Nice to be able to search for things

Lets me maintain my own list

What Next? Bi-lingual Copying items between lists Reporting features Auto notification to academics

for lists not updated Upload pre-prepared lists

ARMSAndra Bloomfield

Management Information ServicesUniversity of Wales – Aberystwyth

adb@aber.ac.uk

http://arms.mis.aber.ac.uk