A friend who works at the National Library sent me a tweet this morning asking if I’d consider using Trove’s new list feature for course reading lists.
The short answer is an emphatic yes. Currently, I use my Delicious account to share links with students by converting the feed for a tag or group of tags to JavaScript and embedding this in our Blackboard sites. It works really well. For next semester, I’ve also used Delicious to tag the books I’m putting on the unit reading list. So far, I’ve been tagging publisher records, book sites and Amazon records for titles, because at this point, my main driver for compiling the list is to get it to our liaison librarian before she goes on holidays this Friday – findability in the catalogue is secondary to sourceablity for purchase, so it makes sense to link to the sources. I’ve tagged everything with inn333reading and then added tags like libhasprint, libhasebook, libhasboth and libdoesnothave to create individual lists to send the librarian. Down the track, I’ll exchange the URLs I’ve bookmarked for catalogue record URLs to make the find and get process seamless.
I love the idea of creating the course reading list in Trove rather than Delicious because
- it provides students with alternative suggestions for sourcing the books, should they not be geographically located in Brisbane, or should the book be checked out (including commercial options, which I do think is useful)
- it exposes students to a key bibliographic database
- it exposes students to the idea of constructing resource guides (particularly important in this unit on information services, products and programs)
I also really like that, in addition to items within the database, I can add a non-Trove website to a Trove list – this means I can bookmark pretty much anything, including journal articles in databases by pasting in a static link to a journal article in an aggregator database. This means I can bring the whole semester’s reading together, no matter what the format (although notably, I can do this with Delicious, too).
To make this a robust tool for educators, I’d like to see some additions, including (in order of importance)
- a Firefox plugin that allows me to add web resources to Trove lists without having to go to Trove
- an rss feed for lists, both so students can subscribe to it and see when I add items, and so I can convert it to JavaScript and embed it in a course site
- a widget that allows lists to be embedded in another site (could just be recently added items, or first five, or a tag cloud)
- option to save searches within a list – for example, I’d like to be able to point students to a particular subject heading
- ability to export the list as a bibliography in preferred format (for example APA) – this might already be possible – did I miss it?
- the ability to tag a specific journal article (I know this is asking for a lot) directly from the search interface – that is, without using the workaround of opening a separate window, locating the article, copying the permalink/static URL, and pasting it back into Trove to add the item as a non-Trove website. I’m not even sure if this is possible. It may be for some platforms – perhaps the addition of volume and issue fields on the “add to list” screen would facilitate the passing of this data in a URL? Hmm. Actually probably not. So this is probably the impossible request, but I’m gonna make it anyway!
- [late addition] ability to sort lists, for example by material type and whether my designated library has the items (thanks Jenny for the suggestion!)
- an ISBN lookup browser plugin that lets me see a resource on Amazon, right click and select an option to add the related Trove book record to a Trove list (I know, I know – I’m lazy, but these kind of things save administrative time)
- I like the idea of being able to add websites that aren’t catalogued in Trove, but it could be cool if, as people add resources to lists in this way, they became part of the database. Maybe a program for power users who can add records to the database, or alternatively, a moderated process that allows records to be added?
Can you imagine the possibilities for collaborative development of subject guides? Many libraries buy the same resources as each other and then invest copious amounts of time in developing subject guides locally. What if all the ATN libraries, for example, got together and developed a core set of subject guides using Trove lists? And with a national curriculum on the way, Trove lists could be incredibly useful for curating resource sets to support the curriculum – including digitised primary resources. The ability to compile and share lists across collections epitomises the idea of the contents of Trove being a national collection, by facilitating meaningful grouping. I love the idea that the school librarian at a small town out west can curate their own collection of curriculum support materials, including books from the school library, websites and digitised resources from the nation’s greatest libraries. But even more appealing than the fact that they can do this, is the fact that they might not have to do it locally. Resources can be curated into lists once to support countless customers. If we can reduce duplication of efforts across those areas of our collections that are alike other libraries’ collections, that allow us more time to focus in on what’s unique and special about our collections.
I’ve started compiling a list for the unit I’m teaching next semester. There are only two items in it so far, but compare it to my Delicious list – the Trove list is certainly prettier, and I like the idea of using a library-built product rather than a proprietary product.
So I think the Trove lists idea is really promising, and I’ll look forward to seeing further developments. Expect to see more on this here as I keep playing with the functionality.
Yet another smart and useful tool from our National Library.
[Update: @katykat pointed out that OCLC’s WorldCat does lists, too: example. However, the OCLC lists functionality doesn’t seem to allow you to add websites, which means I’d need an rss feed for the list, and I’d have to splice that together with an rss feed for weblinks from my Delicious account. Bit messy.)
Thanks for the heads up on this feature!
It’s quite obvious at first glance that in terms of education, the Trove list (once it’s grown) is going to absolutely beat the Delicious list as the student’s favourite. Pretty is good, but the main thing that stood out for me was the material description (well, they were both Book in this case, but I’m assuming they’ll have Article, Website etc if they are those things) and for me as a student, that’d give me a good idea of what I could get my hands on now, what I’d have to wait for, what I’d need a good day or two to read or what I could read in a lunch break, and so on.
I think a really good feature building on this functionality (I know you’re not working on Trove itself, but maybe it’s feedback your NLA friend might like) would be ability to filter by material description then? So if I’m said student, I have 20 minutes til a meeting and want to get some reading done, I can instantly pull up a list of the articles or websites within your list so I don’t waste time scrolling through all the books to find something.
hey jenny, great suggestion about filtering by material type. also, a filter that allowed users to display only those books that are at their library would be useful, too. i’ll add both of these to the list of enhancements i’ve made in the post.
also, didn’t mean to be trite when i said it’s ‘pretty’ – pretty to me is both an aesthetic and functional thing. i actually find ‘unpretty’ tools really hard to use. the best thing about the trove lists is that they’re made for this express purpose, whereas with delicious, i’m forcing a proprietary tool to do something i want it to, but that it’s not necessarily designed for. that’s what is going to make trove lists so useful.
i should also add that i think these lists are going to be really useful for my research, too…
i think i’ll start out by creating one related to my research methodology for my phd. man, i wish there already was one…
Another great post! Thanks for sharing.
Fab post Katie. I’m going to see how we could use it too!
Thanks for highlighting Trove lists and for all the suggestions, Kate.
Whilst we’re thinking about these, here’s an example of a list which contains as list elements, search results, rss feeds and even another list: http://trove.nla.gov.au/list?id=1064
There are currently some problems with some urls we hope to fix soon (urls containing an ampersand), and we also hope to make it easy to add newspaper articles to lists very soon.
Kent Fitch
Trove Team
kent! that’s full of win. so in theory, i could embed a trove search in a url, alla http://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=digital+inclusion and add it as a web page…
i like it (though it would be even better if it was labeled as a search results list, rather than a web page). it’ll definitely do for now.
ps. don’t mean to sound demanding with my requests for extra functionality etc – i can just see a whole lot of potential here.
Sure, Kate, you can add http://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=digital+inclusion to a list but it makes me slightly nervous because _I think_ the good thing about lists is they use humans to select the content, not algorithms on dodgy / horribly incomprehensive/ haphazardly-applied library (and other) metadata.
It would be nice if a search on “digital inclusion” found the “right stuff”, and maybe one day, “Digital Inclusion” will be a widely applied tag, and it will. Or our systems will distil the context and intent of the search (as Google’s are starting to do). But in the meantime, this search misses stuff it probably “should” find, such as:
Digital divide : civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide / Pippa Norris http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/26610386
Social consequences of Internet use : access, involvement, and interaction / James E. Katz and Ronald E. Rice http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33246408
inequality.com : power, poverty and the digital divide / Kieron O’Hara and David Stevens http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34473404
The Internet in everyday life / edited by Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33467010
Nattering on the net : women, power and cyberspace / Dale Spender http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33157365
The communication superhighway : social and economic change in the digital age / Greg Hearn, Tom Mandeville and David Anthony http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/7789403
…
I know this search is just an example, but I fret that the “state of library accessible metadata” is such that searching is just hard and haphazard. I guess I see lists as a cop-out for our algorithms, as one way (along side tagging and commenting) of encouraging humans to make things a lot better. At least until we are searching all the full text and until algorithms are as good as humans in understanding intent, subject experts, professionals and lay, add incalculable value to our naive search engines!
And thanks for all your great ideas and “demands”; we love getting suggestions, criticisms, reality checks, real-world usage requirements…
Kent
hmm, you’re right… i guess what i’m thinking about is whether these lists could be a fully fledged replacement for subject guides. and i’m thinking that when we produce them locally, we add subject headings to guides (well, sometimes). so yeah, my example probably wasn’t a great one – a subject heading search is more what i would be thinking of using. but you’re right – our data’s crap not always great and stuff would be missed.
i wouldn’t like to see lists made up of search links, but perhaps as a supplement to hand picked resources…
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I’m developing a subject guide for pre-service teacher education students, for use when they go out on professional practice. I hope to be able to expand on the lists features and incorporate in my guide.
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