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Online Reading Lists: a guide for Academic Staff

A guide to using the Talis Online Reading Lists system for academic staff

1. Publish your list

Whenever you make any edits to your online reading list, don't forget to click 'Publish' in the message which appears at the top of the list if there are unpublished changes on your reading list. Publishing your list will make any changes visible to your students, and notify the Library if new resources have been added to the list. New resources will be checked against current stock and online availability, and your Academic Liaison Librarian will contact you if there are any queries.

Pop up 'Unpublished changes' message with the Publish button on the right.

If you have added any new, essential items, please do contact your Academic Liaison Librarian with information on essential items so that they can be prioritised for checking and ordering.

2. Sharing your list on Blackboard (updated for Ultra courses)

Your new Blackboard Ultra course template will include a 'Reading List' link. Once you are logged into Blackboard, click on this link to check that Blackboard has correctly matched your existing on line reading list. 

Course sections on Blackboard Ultra showing the Reading List link

If you would like to change the embedded list, click the 'Embed a different list' button, and either choose a new list from the suggested options, or search for a list by title/module code.

If you use multiple reading lists for one module, we recommend the following:

  1. Click the purple plus (+) icon above the existing 'Reading List' link and click 'Create'.
  2. Choose 'Learning Module' from the 'Course Content Items' on the right.
  3. Name the new Learning Module 'Reading Lists', set to Visible, and click 'Save'.
  4. Click on the title of your new 'Reading Lists' Learning Module to expand, and click on the purple plus (+) icon within the folder area.
  5. Click 'Content Market' and select the ‘Insert Online Reading List (Talis)’ tile.
  6. Choose from the suggested lists or search by title - click 'Embed List' to choose a list.

To add more lists, repeat steps 5-8. You can then hide or delete the default 'Online Reading List (Talis)' entry which came with the template.

Watch this video on Sharing multiple reading lists in your Blackboard Ultra course

You can add links to a section of a reading list in any content area/folder/learning module in your Blackboard course e.g. Learning Materials. You might want to release the weekly readings alongside any worksheets or discussion topics in this folder. 

  1. Click on the name of the folder/learning module to expand it, and click the purple plus (+) icon where you would like the reading list section to appear.
  2. Choose 'Content Market' and select the ‘Insert Online Reading List (Talis)’ tile.
  3. If the list has not been suggested, use the search bar to find the list by title or module code. Then choose the 'Select Section' button on the right hand side of the page.
  4. Find the section you need, and click 'Embed Section'. The section will appear as a link, and when students click on the link they will see the reading list section within Blackboard.

To add more sections, repeat steps 1-4 wherever required.

Watch this video on Sharing reading list sections in your Blackboard Ultra course

To release sections week by week, share your reading list sections as shown in the previous tab, and then use the Blackboard Ultra release conditions options to set available dates to release this reading list sections to students.

It is also possible to embed a reading list or a section of a list in an Ultra Document.

  1. When editing the content in an Ultra document click on the 'Insert Content' + icon on the right of the toolbar.
  2. Choose 'Content Market' and select the ‘Insert Online Reading List (Talis)’ tile.
  3. If the correct list has not been suggested, use the search bar to find the list by title or module code.
  4. Next to the relevant list click on the 'Select section' or 'Embed list' button to link to a specific section or the whole list. If embedding a section find the section you need, and click 'Embed section'. 
  5. Edit the Display Name as required and click 'Insert'.
  6. Your selected section/list will now be embedded and you can continue to add other text and content around it.
Watch this video on Sharing your reading list in a Blackboard Ultra document