SCOPUS at the University of Ottawa Canada Implementation

SCOPUS at the University of Ottawa, Canada Implementation and Perspectives Tony Horava Collection Coordinator

Agenda • • The University of Ottawa Library snapshot SCOPUS trial & assessment Promotion & teaching Student ambassador program SCOPUS strengths Collection development issues Suggestions for enhancements Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

University of Ottawa, Canada • North America’s premier bilingual (English-French) university • More than 300 programs in 10 faculties: Law, Medicine, Health Sciences, Engineering, Science, Social Sciences, Arts, Management, Education • Fall 2005: 33, 576 students – about 70% English, 30% French. • About 2, 000 international students • Tenth in Canada in total research funding (238 M revenue). 3, 587 academic staff • Affiliated with several teaching hospitals Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

Library snapshot • Four libraries- Arts and Sciences; Law; Health Sciences; Music • 150 staff including 34 librarians; bilingual service • Collection – 1. 9 M print books; 225, 000 ebooks; 7, 809 print journals; 11, 000 ejournals; 325+ research databases • Consortia: CRKN (Canadian Research Knowledge Network and OCUL (Ontario Council of University Libraries) • Collection budget – about 9. 3 M (2005 -06) • Opening hours generally 7 AM – 2 AM Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

SCOPUS trial & implementation • • • Participated in pre-release trial starting April 2004 Access made available via Trials page Full-text linking activated Promotion strategy and faculty involvement Assessment and decision-making process Duplication with other resources; cost issues; branding and teaching issues • Three year agreement beginning January 2005 Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

Promotion & teaching • • Subject liaison librarians – outreach to departments Information literacy & orientation sessions Web subject pages ‘What’s New” listing Individualized research assistance Reference Desk service Issue: how does one product stand above the crowd? Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

SCOPUS strengths • Depth of content: over 15, 000 journals indexed + book series, conference proceedings, OA journals • Multidisciplinary coverage: can be first stop for researchers in STM and other areas • Wide international coverage • Superior functionality: ease of searching and navigation ; tabbed results by journal, author, and year. Various limit options • Cited reference searching and citation tracking • Scirus: scientific information on the web, crosssearchable Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

‘Student Ambassadors’ program • Partnership approach with Elsevier • Intended to promote awareness & value of SCOPUS • A precedent in terms of service delivery & teaching; seen as an opportunity • Two Ph. D students hired, for seven month period • Librarian mentors appointed. Scopus account manager closely involved in program • Activities: outreach to faculty; campus publicity; participated in campus events; training sessions to students, faculty and library staff Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

Student ambassadors (cont’d) Search Sessions Users Searches June 2004 132 56 345 July 2005 350 159 1, 210 November 2005 1, 923 777 5, 987 March 2006 2, 512 903 7, 486 July 2006 1, 061 488 3, 470 Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

Student ambassadors (cont’d) • More extensive training needed to integrate in library environment; requires more hours per week. • Significant investment of time by mentors • Bilingual skills • Would prefer library science students • Program was successful for the library and the students. • Elsevier support was excellent Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

Collection development issues • How does the library assess & position SCOPUS in relation to other research databases? What is the value proposition? • The Google generation • Prioritization of limited resources • The dynamic link between content and functionality • Channeling patrons to key resources…. what is the best bang for the buck? • Consortial options Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006

Suggestions for enhancement • • Multilingual interface More content in Arts & Humanities Deeper backfile coverage Better information on Scopus’s relationship with other Elsevier databases…. what is covered? Cited references prior to 1996 Advanced Search not used; worth keeping? More browsable indexes (author index is extremely useful) ‘Cited By’ counts for Web material Presentation to IAMSLIC, Portland, Oct. 11, 2006