1. latrobe.edu.au CRICOS Provider 00115M
Linking Subject Coordinators with Reading
Lists @ La Trobe
Caroline Ondracek
Senior Coordinator, Curricular Services
La Trobe University Library
3 February 2017

2. 2La Trobe University
What I’ll cover
• Our approach and strategic directions
• How our service works
• Building relationships: linking subject coordinators to reading lists
• Results to date
• La Trobe’s history with TALIS Aspire
• Future directions

3. 3La Trobe University
Strategic directions: from the library from 2015 to 2017
• Outstanding student experience
• Brilliant basics
• We
• endeavour to improve access to the subjects and library resources
• train staff on how to create their own lists
• support academic staff by building reading lists
• provide feedback on the Reading Lists system to TALIS Aspire

4. 4La Trobe University
Two sides of the same coin
Content and Access
Learning and Teaching
• 2 teams building and
populating lists
• Training academic staff
• Solving troubleshooting
queries
• Answering student queries
• Sourcing materials
Image used under public domain.

5. 5La Trobe University
Reading Lists: how we manage them
Shared between two teams
Learning & Teaching team
• Building lists from scratch front end
• Train academic staff and students on how to use reading lists
• Curate resources for reading lists
• Solve minor technical problems
• Advocate for lists through liaison activities
About our team:
• Cross-campus (five campuses)
• Senior Learning Advisors (learning and teaching librarians)
• Learning Advisors (support Senior Learning Advisors)

6. 6La Trobe University
Reading Lists: how we manage them
Content and Access team- Librarians
• Populate the technical end of the list, including manage digitised content (TADC)
module, including processing digitisation requests
• Solve complex technical issues
• Source materials for lists
• Prepare items for high demand collections
About the team
• Cross-campus (three campuses)
• Perform other duties: interlibrary loans, maintaining print collections (including high
demand) and more

7. 7La Trobe University
How does it work?
• Content and Access team- Senior Coordinator
• Learning & Teaching team- Senior Coordinator
• Meet regularly to discuss
• issues and ongoing improvements
• distribution of work
• check details, i.e. digitisation calendar; solve technical issues;
• meet with our TALIS representative
• Development of High Demand and TALIS Working Group
• members of both teams; discuss and have the authority to make changes to
policy and procedure (very new group)
• Creation of the Gold Star Reading List service

8. 8La Trobe University
Creation of the Gold Star Reading List service
Checking the reading lists for the coming semesters
• Ensuring the link is in the LMS
• Comparing the Subject guide to the Reading list
• Contacting academic staff to offer support
• editing and building lists, OR
• training them to use TALIS
• Checking copies (print and electronic) of required readings
• Ordering materials for lists
• Link checking (in the list) to the electronic resources (e-Books; articles)

9. 9La Trobe University
Managing the Gold Star Reading List service
• Managed by two Learning Advisors
• meet regularly to discuss issues
• monitor work with other Learning advisors
• Use an University subject listing
• Liaise with Senior Learning Advisors,
about contact with academics
• Liaise with Content & Access teams

10. 10La Trobe University
How curricular services build the reading lists relationship with
academic staff
• Using key liaison skills and existing relationships
• Advocating for the benefits of having everything on a list- i.e. the library creates the
list; the copyright management of the list
• Building lists for academic staff (and working with gold star reading list service)
• Attending curriculum design meetings
• Attending school/department meetings
• Other liaison opportunities

11. 11La Trobe University
Curriculum design – library as a partner
• University Digital Learning Strategy to make 60% + subjects blended delivery
• Attending curriculum design meetings, we
• offer reading list creation
• advocate for reading lists
• curate resources, create assessment help guides
•
Benefits include
• more reading lists (through word of mouth)
• Leads to the creation of further liaison opportunities with academic staff
• building positive stories and goodwill for the library
• working as a partner in the curriculum design process

12. 12La Trobe University
Communicating the right message
• Regular communications to discipline email lists,
promoting reading lists (benefits)
• Quick responses to emails and troubleshooting
issues
• Using subject lists and checking reading lists
(hopefully) pre-empting the semester rush
• Utilising the Learning Advisor's talent and
dedication – creating and editing reading lists
• La Trobe 101 (staff orientation) Presentations
(3 to date)

13. 13La Trobe University
Online Support provided for academic staff
Easy access to Reading lists from the library homepage

14. 14La Trobe University
More support online: Teaching Support page
• Easy to follow videos (2x)
• FAQs
• Quick guide

15. 15La Trobe University
Video
http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/use-reading-lists/

16. 16La Trobe University
How students get to their lists
• Link in the library block
• only one list able to be linked
• Integrated list in LMS (Moodle)
• List link in LMS/Subject guide

17. Background, results and statistics

18. 18La Trobe University
What have been the results at the end of 2015?
• Uptake of reading lists was very slow
• Lots of ill will/lack of support for the library because of the changes in the university
• Students unable to use lists or locate items in the library or obtain them (they were
unavailable)
• Lots of PDFs in the LMS
• In 2015, the Learning and Teaching Librarians took on the role of training academic
staff to build their list and assist with troubleshooting queries, reasons were to:
• support the newly formed reading lists team
• leverage the existing relationships that we have with academic staff to
assist them to get their lists created and ready for the semester

19. 19La Trobe University
What have been the results at the beginning of 2016?
• Gold Star Reading list service
• Development of High Demand & TALIS Reading List Working Group
• More uptake of reading lists (see statistics)
• Improved cross-team communication and collaboration between teams
• More academic staff requesting lists through word of mouth

20. 20La Trobe University
Statistics
When Active published reading lists
October 2016 720
November 2016 885
January 2017 900

21. 21La Trobe University
About our university subjects
• 5 campuses: Melbourne, Bendigo, Albury-Wodonga, Mildura and Shepparton
• 2 City campuses (Franklin and Collins Streets) + Sydney
• Subjects taught overseas e.g. Vietnam, China
• Online courses: Food & Nutrition, Nursing Science, Business Administration,
Management
• 36,278 no of students (2015 statistics)*
• Some 2017 Subject numbers:
• Semester 1 1303 subjects
• Semester 2 1328 subjects
• Summer 114 subjects
• Winter 32 subjects
• Other teaching periods
* University website: latrobe.edu.au/about/at-a-glance/facts-figures

22. 22La Trobe University
La Trobe’s evolution with TALIS Aspire
2014 Trialed TALIS Aspire – Reading Lists and TADC software alongside our eReserve
system
2015 Migrated to TALIS Aspire – Reading Lists & TADC software;
Migrated to ALMA Management System
Migrated to PRIMO discovery layer
University restructure
New library structure and new team responsible for reading lists
The new team responsible for
-training teaching staff in creating the lists, adding items etc.
-undertaking all the technical aspects, i.e. moving items to
restricted loans, digitising chapters etc.
Academic staff were largely expected to do their own lists*
Mid- 2015 Senior Learning Advisors (SLAs)- Learning and teaching Librarians
assisted in training academic staff
Development of “Academic Support for Reading Lists” document

23. 23La Trobe University
2016 Developed the crystal ball option (no roll-over for lists)- lists now have
permanent link
Preparation- Integration into LMS (Learning Management System)- soft
rollout- some issues
Senior Learning Advisors (SLAs) and Learning Advisors continued building lists
Gold Star Reading List Service commenced
2017 Continuation of the Gold Star Reading List Service
Further engagement of academic staff and creation of lists
Integration of lists, resolution of issues

24. Feedback, future directions and lessons learnt

25. 25La Trobe University
Lessons learnt from history…. Possible roadblocks to smooth
sailing to date
• Goodwill for the library and difficulty with lists (for academic staff)
• Academic staff only create/edit a list once every 6 months
• Academic staff aren’t clear on all resource types
• Integration and display issues
• Changes in management of teams
• Communications plans *missing*
• Better planning…?

26. 26La Trobe University
Feedback from academic staff + / -
“You’re doing a fantastic job on this….. Am I able to put the link on the course website?”
Education Academic
“It was great to see you today and many thanks for your help with the BNB reading
list….Thank you” Psychology Academic
“Awesome!” Occupational Therapy Lecturer
“I don’t want the library involved in my reading list… you always tell me I can’t have
some chapter because of copyright issue..” History/HUSS Academic
Feedback on the display of the list and the blue Online Resource button – many people
click on the title of the reading, rather than the blue Online Resource button. One
Educational Designer changed the wording under the readings to direct students to
“click the blue Online Resource button on the left” so as to make this clearer for
students.

27. 27La Trobe University
Evaluation of reading lists and Future directions
• Evaluation of Reading Lists- student usage and learning analytics
• Small report using analytics and google analytics
• New interface (TALIS) – more advanced analytics
• Integration in 2017 when display issues are resolved
• Continuation of the gold star reading list service
• More reading lists created for academic staff and students
• Further advocating for reading lists and copyright issues
• Improving the library (teaching support) webpage with more information

28. 28La Trobe University
Sharing reflections
Care to share…?

29. Thank you
latrobe.edu.au CRICOS Provider 00115M
Questions…?