We’ve just added in an option for printing off a reading list:
n.b. the printed version is an plainly formatted version of the page and isn’t formatted in a citation style
Integration with Summon
For those of you who’ve added journal articles to MyReading from Summon, the recent upgrade has thrown a tiny spanner in the works — the new “Direct Linking” feature links directly from Summon to the article, and bypasses the link resolver page which has the “add this to MyReading” link.
So, I’ve decided to bring forward something that I’ve had on the development back burner for a few months now…
Adding Items Directly from Summon
This is currently being beta-tested, so you won’t necessarily see it when you use Summon yourself, but the aim is to add a “MyReading” button next to every result…
…clicking on the button brings the reference information across into MyReading…
…so that you can add it to a reading list…
At this point, the reference in the reading list is now linked to the result in Summon, which means we can bring in extra functionality, including:
- the abstract for the article
- the URL Summon uses for “Direct Linking”
- subject terms (which link back out to Summon)
For articles with DOIs, I’ve retrospectively linked them up to the corresponding Summon result, so you may find that abstracts and subject terms have appeared for some of the references on your lists — here’s an example
If you’d like to help test this new functionality, please get in touch (myreading@hud.ac.uk)!
Update: 29/Nov/2011
The “add from Summon” feature is still being beta tested, but should now be available to everyone who has been given editing rights on MyReading…
…the “add to MyReading” link currently only appears if you use the “search Summon” link from your My Lists page, but we’re hoping it will soon be available if you go to Summon directly.
UniTube
Support for adding UniTube off-air recordings has been added to MyReading, with two new item reference types:
- audio (UniTube) for radio broadcasts
- video (UniTube) for TV broadcasts
For more info, see the MyReading documentation on iPark.
If you include the embed code from UniTube (go to Options > Share > Embed Code), then the programme will play from within the reading list:
As well as off-air recordings, you could easily include other recordings, such as lecture captures:
Finally, here’s a couple of examples:
Project Update
A big update this time, as the pages and workflow for adding items to reading lists have been fully revamped.
As part of the change, we’re starting to add user documentation to iPark: ipark.hud.ac.uk/content/myreading
Adding Items to Lists
The changes include…
- all of the screens for adding new items have been revamped and given a common “look & feel”
- items don’t need to be added to a list straight away and will remain listed on your “My Lists” page until they’ve been added to a list…
- you can now add multiple items to multiple lists at the same time
- if you manage a large number of reading lists (50+), you can now select multiple “working lists”
- items you’ve recently added to lists now appear on your “My Lists” page…
The ability to queue references (so that you can add them to a list at a later date) will make it easier to add future support for importing items from reference management software.
List/Item History
You can now view a “history” for lists and items, so you can see details of all the changes made to them…
Exporting to EndNote
Just to complete the hat-trick, I’ve added an option to export a .RIS file to EndNote…
Unfortunately, I’ve never used EndNote, so I’ve no idea if this will actually work! If anyone could test a few references and report back, it’d be much appreciated 
Exporting in BibTeX Format
Following on from the previous blog post about Zotero, I’ve added experimental support for exporting individual references in BibTeX format.
The option can be found in the reference options popup menu:
If you’re able to test this, please provide feedback to let us know if it’s working or not!
Zotero support
One of the eventual aims is to allow easy exporting from reading lists to reference management software, and also to support using reference management software as the tool for creating new lists.
To test support for exporting references to Zotero, I’ve just added OpenURL COinS records to each reading list. At present, this is only for books and book chapters, but we’ll add support for other reference types in due course.
If you use Zotero, we’d be really grateful if you could test exporting book and book chapter references, and let us know:
- does it work?
- are there any issues/problems/bugs you can spot?
…you can leave comments here or you can send an email to myreading@hud.ac.uk
There are a couple of limitations with using COinS that we’re aware of:
- it doesn’t support exporting notes
- it doesn’t support exporting URLs
Project Update
Most of the development work since the last blog post has been in the background, but there’s a couple of cosmetic changes to the interface…
Reference Options
We’ve got plans for a variety of item options (e.g. bookmarking, exporting, reporting a problem, etc) and I’d been pondering where these should go. As a few people have commented that the “add note” icon wasn’t obvious, I’ve removed it and replaced it with a blue “options” icon (which might be equally as unobvious!)…
…clicking on the icon reveals a pop-up menu listing a couple of options (with more options to be added later on)…
Managing Notes
As well as being able to add and remove notes via the new pop-up options menu, I’ve also added it to the “item options” bar that appears if you have permission to edit a list…
MyReading Stats
Finally, just for a bit of fun, I’ve added a live “MyReading Stats” section to the blog and to the MyReading home page
Project Update
Just a little update this time, but hopefully one that you’ll find useful!
Editing Items
This has been on my list of “tweaks to do” for ages but, as it wasn’t a showstopper, I’ve only just gotten around to coding it…
When you edit an item within a list, the item should now refresh automatically without you needing to manually reload the page, so you can see your changes immediately.
IDEA #3: Automated alerts
Proposed by Lisa Colton on 04/Oct/2011
Summary
The software should automatically generate suitable alerts for staff.
Lisa Says…
An alert of some sort for when you have put something on a list that needs new copies, or to be scanned in as a chapter, to confirm that these have been ordered/arranged/noticed.
(Lisa Colton, School of Music Humanities & Media)
Dave Says…
Very good suggestions and something that we’re hoping will be at least partly ready by the end of 2011
One of the design goals for the software is that we should automate as much of it as possible, so alerts would be generated automatically (rather than by a member of staff doing it manually).
The current plans are…
1) When an academic adds a new item to a reading list, the software will check if it’s something we currently have (e.g. a book that’s in stock in the library) or if it’s something we need to buy. The relevance the academic has given the item (e.g. essential, background reading, etc) comes into play here and influences how many copies the library ideally needs to stock to support the module. Under certain circumstances, copies will be ordered automatically from our book supplier, otherwise the relevant Subject Librarian will be alerted and a suitable number of copies will be ordered manually.
If it’s technically possible (and this is a bit of an unknown at the moment), what we’d like to happen is for the software to keep the academic in the loop so that they know when copies have been ordered and also when they’ve arrived.
We’re planning to work with our primary book supplier so that when you add a book to a reading list, we’ll be able to tell you straight away whether or not the book is in print (if it isn’t, we might struggle to buy copies) and whether or not it’s the latest edition of the title.
2) When you add an item that’s a candidate for scanning under the terms of the CLA licence, the plan is to have a tick box so you can flag up items that you’d like to be scanned and attached as a PDF to the item on the list.
It’s of vital importance that we continue to ensure that we’re never in breach of the CLA licence terms, as the financial penalty to the university would be considerable. Therefore, the intention is that the library will continue to manage this process.
So, the aim is to have a workflow in place so that you can check the status of any CLA scanning request and also that you’ll be alerted once the PDF scan has been attached to the item on the list.
3) Again, working with our primary book supplier, we’re hoping to have automated alerts so that you’ll be notified when new editions of books on your lists have been published. The intention is to have a workflow in place so that you can easily kick start the process of replacing a book on your list with a newer edition, and for the library to purchase a suitable number of copies.
Apologies for the length of the reply, but there’s a lot of things we’d like to do when it comes to alerting!
(Dave Pattern, Library Systems Manager)
Development Difficulty – N/A
This is something we’ve always planned to build into the software. However, now is a good opportunity for you to suggest other alerts you’d like to see implemented in the software! Also, would you want the alerts as emails or as some other format?
Who Benefits?
Academic staff and Library staff.
Have Your Say!
If you have any thoughts about this idea, please leave a comment using the form below
If you have any idea of your own that you’ve like to put to the vote, please send an email to myreading@hud.ac.uk with the details!