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Set Up Scopus
Why the student program?
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Scoop Day at NJIT, L-R: Armond Dirado, Sandra Power, Haymwantee Singh (ReferenceLibrarian), Mevan Siriwardane (SAM) |
This is where the student program comes in: Elsevier will sponsor one or two students to work with you for a semester (or two) to promote awareness of the library resources and services you offer – including Scopus.
Student activities
Student Ambassadors may carry out any number of the activities listed below. Students and librarians are also encouraged to come up with new ideas; each library and campus is different and activities can be customized
according to the needs of your institute.
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University of Ottawa SAms Sunida Awirothananon and Gursevak Kasbia manning a Scopus table |
- Setting up meetings with faculty, researchers and students to introduce Scopus and other library resources, as directed.
- Organizing small informal events on campus to generate awareness of library resources such as “Get the Scoop on Scopus days” where refreshments are served and users are encouraged to find out more about Scopus and other library resources.
- Arranging advertising, where possible, in student and faculty newspapers/newsletters.
- Distributing promotional material (user guides, pens etc) on campus on a regular basis.
- Eliciting feedback from users which can provide input for further product development.
- Assisting university librarians with other library activities, as directed.
Your library’s role
The bulk of the work involved in implementing this program at your institute will fall on Elsevier’s shoulders.
Therefore, the librarians’ involvement will be minimal. To make this a worthwhile experience for both your library
and institute, we request your assistance with the following activities:
- Student recruitment, interviewing and selection.
- Student training.
- Student activities planning (at start of program) and reporting (ongoing).
From our experience at other institutes that have participated in the Student Program, it is suggested that the Student Ambassador be partnered with a ‘librarian mentor’ who can help guide the student in terms of library practices & policies and also provide more information about other library resources and services, if necessary.
What do librarians think?
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”It's the synergy and the team spirit and the leg work that the SAMs [Student Ambassadors] provide to get us into the classroom or the office or places that we have no time to venture out to. They help open little doors for us so to speak because they have the time…I love my two SAMs. They are so energetic and bright and professional and respectful and enthusiastic...They have the right subject background too.”
Haymwantee Singh, Reference Librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
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| Warren Holder, Electronic Resources Co-ordinator at the University of Toronto Libraries |
“The University of Toronto Library entered into the Scopus Ambassador Programme (SAM) with trepidation - how could we allow a publisher to promote the use of their product on our campus? However, we were very aware of the fact that we spend literally millions of dollars on providing access to e-resources for our users and we know that many of them are oblivious to what is available to them. Our library does not market to our users. That is not our tradition.”
“Once Scopus assured us that the SAM's could promote the use of all of our e-resources, we decided to give it a try. It was a great experience. To be honest, a lot of the success of the programme comes down to the students hired as ambassadors. But this shouldn't be a surprise. Some were very self motivated and came up with ideas and approached faculty, grad students etc. on their own. Others
were more reticent and needed more guidance from me as the contact person.”
“Was it a success? I think so. Were there measurable results? We saw the use of Scopus increase
right after the SAM's started and that increase continued to grow. We also firmly believe that the SAM's were able to get the other e-resources in front of many students, faculty and staff but it is more difficult to quantify this. I personally witnessed students talking to the SAM's at events, unaware about Scopus, and being told for the first time about e-resources in their subject field that were brought to them by the library.”
“It became apparent by the end of our second year of SAM's that most users were now aware of Scopus and so we did not need to continue the programme. But would we consider another opportunity like this for another e-resource - absolutely.”
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| Stephanie Willen Brown, Electronic Resource Librarian, University of Connecticut |
“We hired two terrific graduate students, one in a social science and one in a natural science; this presents a nice balance for outreach. In February 2007, they taught four “citation searching” sessions to over 50 people, including their fellow graduate students, librarians, library staff, post-doctoral students, and faculty. They have provided general explanatory sessions to the entire UConn community (see promotional flyer at http://spirit.lib.uconn.edu/online/SearchSmarter.html), as well as individual class and departmental sessions. We plan to offer more lecture opportunities as well as hands-on training and personalized sessions for department colloquia.”
“We are very pleased with the results to date. All of us participating agree that while it is challenging to cover two complex products in a one-hour session, the broader focus gives the program more credibility. Our feedback has been quite positive, and early data suggests our usage is increasing dramatically for both. We will continue this program through the spring semester, and we are optimistic that we can continue it in Fall 2007 as well.”
What do the student ambassadors think?
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Emily Gusba, University of Western Ontario |
“I was initially drawn to the Student Ambassador program because I enjoy sharing my knowledge and teaching others, but surprisingly enough, the best thing about being a SAm is how much I have learned! Being a SAm greatly increased my knowledge about information retrieval, both through my Scopus training and through answering questions during presentations. Meeting new people and talking to them about different ways of searching has improved my own search abilities; and presenting Scopus has also promoted awareness of the Western Libraries in general! It has been awesome to see Scopus usage increase while I’ve been working as a SAm, especially since I think it is a wonderful tool to use.”
“As well as talking to students, I have focused on presenting Scopus to librarians, since they use databases all the time. In general, they have been a very receptive and interested audience, and I know they have shared their knowledge with the hundreds of students they help on a weekly basis. That makes me confident that as many people as possible at the University of Western Ontario are learning about Scopus.”
What is the outcome?
Number of Searches |
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Significant difference in usage. Elsevier conducted a study on the impact of the SAm program on each account’s number of users, depicted in the graph. The results showed a substantial increase in Scopus usage over a short period of time. The results are based on the total number of searches at six participating institutes over a six month period. The first month shows usage prior to the beginning of the SAm Program.
Interested in participating?
Is the Student Ambassador Program for you? We look forward to the opportunity to work with you on this in the coming months. After all, we know that Scopus represents a significant investment on your part and we want to make sure you get the most of this investment in the coming years. If you would like more information, have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact your Account Development Manager (ADM). We look forward to hearing from you soon!