Support for teaching

Good reading lists are critical to student success and we can help you to create dynamic topical electronic lists which are embedded directly into Blackboard. We do this using UWLReadingLists software.

• View our UWL Reading Lists Guide for academics - September 2024 (.docx, 31.69kb) for more information.

To learn how to create an electronic reading list, please contact your subject librarian.

As well as supporting students in finding material for their courses, your subject librarian is also here to support you in discovering useful sources to develop your teaching and for your research. You can book a time to meet with your subject librarian who can advise on using our information tools, search strategies, locating information and evaluation. If we don’t have what you need here, we will get it for you via our Inter-Library Loan Service. We can also offer advice and information on open access publishing.

• Look through our document on copyright advice and FAQs: copyright library page (docx, 37.6kb).

Your subject librarian will run teaching for your students at each level of their study, L3 to L7 within a relevant module. The teaching will cover search strategies, search tools, evaluation techniques and referencing which will all be tailored to the subject area and level of study. The learning outcomes will be appropriate to the level of study and will build through the course to support the students becoming independent learners. The classes can be taught as lectures, tutorials, within lab classes or as embedded videos. We can also help design assessments which develop students’ critical thinking and research skills.

1. Firstly, please register with the CLA
 See instructions about how to register with the CLA

2. If you already have a CLA account, please log-in and complete the form.
 Complete the digitsation form 

• You place a request through the online form
• The Library makes the required checks to make sure it is covered by our licence and that we don’t already have it available electronically
• If the request is approved, the item is scanned and a link is added to the reading list for the module
• If the request is rejected, you will be contacted with an explanation

The CLA licence permits making digital copies from most material published in the UK and 17 other countries. To see if a particular book or journal is covered by the licence, please check the CLA’s Check Permissions tool.

The general rule is one whole chapter from a book or one whole article from a journal issue, or 10% of the whole (whichever is the greater).

There are a number of exclusions, including:

• Items excluded by the CLA licence. Please see the list of excluded categories and works
• Items already available electronically to UWL e.g. e-journals or e-books

We will make these checks for you when we receive your request.

 The Library operates this service, and will be responsible for approving or rejecting your requests, scanning the documents, and adding the links to the module reading lists.

Scans can only be added to module reading lists which have been scanned by Library staff who are the Designated Persons registered with the CLA.

Please allow up to 20 working days for your request to be processed. 

We aim to be as quick as possible, but this will depend on demand and the availability of the requested material.

We will contact you annually to check whether you still require the material. If you don't, we will archive the link.

We will also contact you if the CLA have informed us that the material scanned is no longer part of the CLA licence and so the link has expired.

We are able to provide scans for material which isn’t held here if we can get a Copyright-Fee Paid scan from the British Library.

If the material is available as an e-book, we may decide to purchase the full e-book instead if this would be more cost effective.

We may only scan your personal copy of a book if you are prepared to donate this to Library stock.

The CLA Co-ordinator will make sure that scanned extracts comply fully with the terms and conditions of the CLA Licence. Please contact us to discuss this.

Scans can only be added to Blackboard via the Digitisation Service to ensure we are abiding by the CLA licence.

• All UWL staff can borrow from the Library – your account is created automatically and your ID card is your Library card. You will need this to borrow books.  
• Staff can borrow up to 15 items at a time and all items will be renewed automatically unless requested by another student or staff member.  

Find out more about your Library account, borrowing and renewals.

As well as a generic induction for new students, we are always happy to come along to a class near the beginning of the term to introduce ourselves and make sure students know what the Library can do. This can be very helpful for returning students if we have made changes to LibSearch or services in the library. To arrange this, please contact your subject librarian.

Each school/college or subject area has a library guide which explains key library resources and services for the subject areas. These subject guides are the key place to find the details of the databases being recommended to search.

University of West London holds an ERAplus licence from the Educational Recording Agency (ERA).

This licence permits the use of the Box of Broadcasts (BoB) electronic resource. This allows the recording of broadcasts to be made for non-commercial educational use at UWL.

BoB enables you to record TV and radio programmes that are scheduled to be broadcast over the next seven days as well as retrieving programmes from the previous thirty days. It also stores all recorded programmes in its ever-expanding archive for others to access. For support using BoB you can contact your subject librarian.

See our Box of Broadcasts page for more information or to make an off air recording.