Skip to Main Content

Resource Lists: A guide for staff

A toolkit for academic and professional services staff.

Discover

Co-create and review

Encourage students as learning partners to support you with the review of your list.  The Library recommends you review your list on an annual basis to allow for the inclusion of new material.

You may also need to check that you have the most recent edition of textbooks and core titles on the list.

You might also want to look at some of the data available within the reading list system and remove items where engagement has been low, or add annotations to encourage students to read it.

Other universities have tried this successfully (see links below).

Further information about co-creation of reading lists

Boyle, L.and Mitchell, D. (2016). 'Dusting Off The Reading List: Is it Fit for Purpose?', Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 4 (1), Available at: https://jpaap.napier.ac.uk/index.php/JPAAP/article/view/164/html

Thomas, D. (2020). Democracy, Diversity and Decolonisation: Staff-student partnerships in a reading list review.  Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views/Democracy-Diversity-and-Decolonisation

Audit your list

A good starting point is to critically evaluate your existing reading list against a range of criteria.

We have highlighted some useful tools below to help you get started.

If you are interested in analysing your reading list in depth, you can export it in various formats, including Excel.

Develop

Decolonising and diversifying the curriculum

The academic community is calling for change in this area, and diversifying recommended reading may lead greater student engagement.

If you are interested in diversifying your recommended reading or would like further help with identifying additional resources, we would be happy to discuss how we can help: just get in touch with your Faculty Librarian. You will also be playing a part in helping us to diversify the Library's collections.