Resource/reading list management

systems

Magical mystery tour

Gary Brewerton, Project Manager for LORLS (Loughborough Online Reading List System)

“Climb aboard”• Prior to 2000 we used the course reading module of

our Library Management System (LMS) to provide reading lists for our users

• This had many limitations:– Only listed material on the Library catalogue– Searching was by module/academic name– Sorting of list was very peculiar (by title)– Only Library staff could edit the lists

Departure from Loughborough• Started discussing an online

reading list system in February 1999 to overcome the limitation of the LMS

• Started development in March 2000

• Went live in July 2000!

Points of interest• Whilst developing our system we were approached

by our then LMS supplier (Talis) about participating in a joint project

• As we were launching our system, Blackwells’ started promoting their own online reading list service directly to academics

• Still later we became aware of another system called ReadingListDirect

“Are we nearly there yet?”• Talis develop TalisList• ReadingListDirect renamed Sentient DISCOVER• Our system is made available as open source and

finally given a name: LORLS (Loughborough Online Reading List System)

• In 2004 JIBS hosted a workshop on “Resource/Reading List Software - The Reality” which featured all three of the above systems

Stop over• In 2007 we decided to re-

develop LORLS• Key considerations were:

– Greater flexibility (e.g. support changes to institutional structure)

– Better interface design (e.g. drag and drop re-ranking)

– Embedding of additional content (e.g. library holdings, book covers)

Arrival• Talis launch Talis Aspire (CE) to replace TalisList• Sentient DISCOVER becomes LearnBuild/LibraryLink• New developments such as Telstar (integrating

reference manage software with Moodle) and List8D (Kent’s award winning Dev8D concept)

• Emergence of ex-student reading lists websites to sell/rent books

• LORLS v6 now available for download

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Image credits• Bus

– http://www.openclipart.org/detail/2218/bus-by-drunken_dunk

• Bus stop– http://www.openclipart.org/detail/22592/funny-bus-stop-

by-milovanderlinden