SANDAL L . MILLER director
C AROLINE HOARD librarian , report content
A A R O N M U R R AY H E N S O N layout designer
additional libr ary staff :
Janet Bickel-Burton — evening librarian Gayle Freeman-Staggs — library intern Karen Leeseberg — outreach librarian Melissa Johnson — reference & digital services librarian Tracey Rinehart — library specialist Lesley Tsuchiya — reference librarian
CONTENTS 1 le t t er
2 a c c ess
3 resear c h
4 learnin g
5 res o ur c es
6 g r o w t h and t he f u t ure
1 A LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
fter looking at the record-breaking high numbers of students, faculty, staff, and alumni that the Business Library successfully assisted in 20132014, it is clear that the popularity of the Business Library at SMU’s Cox School of Business continues to rise. As part of SMU’s Second Century Celebration, 2013 was celebrated as the Year of the Library and 2014 is heralded as the Year of the Faculty. The university mission to “create, expand, and impart knowledge through teaching, research, and service, while shaping individuals to contribute to their communities and excel in their professions in an emerging global society” is at the core of the collaborative efforts of librarians and faculty at Cox. In fact, in 2013-2014 the Business Library reached nearly 6,000 students (an all-time high!) through outreach programs, instruction sessions, and research assistance ranging from class assignments to career & employment preparation. In addition to working with an extremely large number of library users the past year, the Business Library was engaged in a variety of other activities. In 2013-2014, after years of productive collaboration between business librarians and faculty, enthusiastic university approval was bestowed on the BBA capstone courses in both Strategy and Entrepreneurship as Information Literacy Proficiency courses in the University Curriculum, based on their required complex and in-depth library research assignments. This past year also saw The Kitt Investing and Trading Center
completing its first academic year with a full schedule of credit classes, research sessions, and hands-on training in using exclusive financial databases. In addition, a new initiative to reach Cox Executive MBA students resulted in the creation of library instruction videos embedded in the students’ online Blackboard course system, enabling point-of-need research assistance for this group of students with a limited on campus presence. Never the library to relax on its laurels, and filled with dedicated librarians who always seek new methods to reach users and disseminate information, the Business Library was awarded a Friends of the SMU Libraries grant that funded the digital scanning of copies of the Cox School of Business Working Papers and adding them to the SMU Digital Repository. The digitally scanned working papers, showcasing Cox faculty research excellence and productivity, can now be discovered and viewed worldwide by visitors to the SMU website. We reflect on a highly successful 2013-2014 year, and look forward to doing our part to fulfill SMU’s mission through our continued commitment of guiding student success with new outreach and instruction initiatives in 2014-2015. We can’t wait to see what the next year will bring!
sandal
l.
miller
2 ACCESS
T
he Business Library is a popular destination on campus and students are entering the library for reference assistance and as a place for research and studying. An extremely busy library, it is not uncommon for the facility to have every seat filled and all equipment in use at multiple times throughout the week. Operating in 11,335 square feet on the lower floor of the Maguire building, the library includes the Kitt Investing and Trading Center, a main computer area, group study area, quiet study area, two specialty study rooms, three regular (inside the library) study rooms, five hallway (outside the library) study rooms, two service desks, a copy center and library staff offices. During a typical week in the semester, the Business Library had on average 1,350 visits to the website, which was a 41% increase from the previous year. During the 2013-2014 year, the Business Library’s mobile website generated over 3,200 hits. Visitors to the website use it to access the research databases that the library offers to the SMU community, to reserve study rooms, to view hours for the library, and to register for library workshops.
The Business Library Research Guides are also a focal point of the website. The most popular guide in 2013-2014 was the Companies Research Guide with 8,513 views. The second most viewed guide was the Industries and Markets Research Guide. The Business Library expanded it’s web presence by creating a Blackboard page that students can access by logging onto Blackboard. Points of interest are the library workshops and online research guides. Receiving feedback that students prefer a variety of social media platforms to receive updates, the library created a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a LinkedIn group page that are regularly used during the year to promote library, Cox School of Business, and SMU news and events to followers.
F. Y . I . » » The Business Library has over
200,000 visits by students, faculty, staff, and alumni annually.
» » The Business Library’s Group
Presentation Room was reserved for use by students more than 1,000 times in 2013-14.
» » The online room reservation
system had over 15,600 reservations take place within the 2013-2014 year, a 15% increase over the previous year.
» » In Texas, only the two largest
universities have more Bloomberg terminals than the Business Library at the SMU Cox School of Business.
» » There was a 140% increase in
business alumni (from 297 to 713) entering the library and using a library computer in 2013-2014.
» » In total, the Business Library’s
online research guides were viewed 28,533 times during the academic year.
3 RESEARCH
T
he Business Library is committed to serving
primarily the business school students and faculty while also assisting members of the SMU community with their business research needs. Word has gotten out regarding the high quality of the business librarians’ research skills, and as a result the Business Library answered 1147 reference questions in the 2013-2014 academic year, of which 770 (67%) were answered in-person.
This matches the Business Library’s survey results in which the majority of the respondents placed in-person reference as their first choice for point of contact with a librarian. Of those who asked for research assistance, 99% felt the assistance was “Helpful” or “Very Helpful,” an increase over the previous year and a near perfect score.
The librarians strive to provide service above and
beyond what students, faculty, and staff expect and to help them locate the information that they are looking for while educating them on how to find it for the next time. Statistics show librarians are reaching an overall increasing number of students, faculty, and staff with reference questions reaching a five year high. Students are not the only members of the Cox
School of Business who turn to the Business Library for reference assistance, as 103 reference questions were asked by 57 faculty members in the past year. This is a 13% increase over the previous year and five of the interactions were appointments, indicating more in-depth research requirements.
» » Reference questions were up 22% in 2013-2014.
» » The Business Library had
approximately 500 reference instances from the Graduate students, 280 from the undergraduate students, and 103 faculty instances. The remaining came from staff, alumni, or nonaffiliated persons.
Thank you for what I needed! I w future with addition
Wow - what an incredible resou so so much for all your help and g taking valuable time out of your a huge leg up.
r researching this and [helping me find] exactly will definitely get back in touch with you in the nal research needs. cox
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urce you guys are! Thank you so so so guidance. I can’t thank you enough for day to help me with my project. This is cox
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4 LEARNING
T
he Business Library supports the integration of information and technology into the curriculum by providing students, faculty, and staff access to course-specific in-class instruction sessions, open enrollment research workshops, and reference assistance from dedicated business librarians.
So highly attended are the library workshops and class presentations that almost 3,000 students (2,916) participated in librarianled classes or workshops during the 2013-2014 academic year. And the good news doesn’t end there, as students who attend a librarian-led presentation are more likely to seek reference assistance than those students who do not attend presentations, as well as being more likely to be in the library on a daily basis. The librarians of the Business Library strive to connect with all students who attend the Cox School of Business and as a result of the outreach activities of the business librarians, the BBA, MBA, and MS students attend orientations tailored to their educational, curricular, and research needs.
While orientations are a helpful starting point, course-specific, in-class instruction sessions are the focal point of the Business Library’s mission to ensure that students graduate with the skills they need to process information effectively in their jobs and everyday life. During the 20132014 academic year, librarians were invited presenters in 59 classes: 21 graduate level and 38 undergraduate level. Always adaptable, in the past year the business librarians improved the manner in which they reached EMBA students. Moving beyond just brochures and the occasional short presentation, the librarians produced videos accessible from the EMBA website and began to attend weekly EMBA lunches, armed with tablet computers so they could assist students on the spot by demonstrating resources and answering reference questions. As a direct result of the business librarians’ outreach efforts, this past year’s reference statistics clearly show that EMBAs
(a group that has traditionally used the library resources less than others) were assisted in far higher numbers than in previous years. In fact, EMBA’s asked 57 reference questions in 2013-2014- an increase of 375%! Hands-on library research workshops complement the inclass presentations. All incoming BBA students must take an introductory research workshop and while some courses require students to take certain library research workshops outside of the regular class time, many attend by choice. Expanded workshop offerings for graduate students were added this past year and as a result, graduate student attendance at research workshops increased 26% from the previous year. As one of the SMU Libraries, the Business Library strives to have a presence at larger campus events. The Outreach Librarian participated in a presentation about the SMU Libraries for SMUSA Development Day and this year the library was represented at the AARO table for incoming students, the CTE Symposium, the Fondren Welcome Back tent, SMU Family Weekend, and the Central University Libraries’ 7th Annual Cookout celebrating National Library Week at SMU.
F. Y . I .
» » Of surveyed students, 80%
indicating that they attended a Business Library instruction session.
» » A BBA student to librarian
after attending a workshop, “I have to admit that this is the first orientation session where I actually learned something.”
»“I » learned more from you in
one hour than I did in 3 years working at a company that had Bloomberg.” MBA student attendee at a librarian-taught Bloomberg Basics workshop.
» » Over 900 Cox students (280
graduate students and 625 undergraduates) attended a topicbased one-hour research session during 2013-2014.
» » While the primary audience for
the research workshops are SMU students, this year 26 SMU staff and Cox alumni took advantage of library research workshops.
» » 31 tours were given in The Kitt
Investing and Trading Center for 122 individuals including potential students, families attending graduation, and new employees.
» » 43 classes in 2011-12 and 59 in
2013-14 – an increase of 37% in just two years.
5 RESOURCES
E
lectronic resources provided via the Business Library website are carefully selected to support the academic disciplines taught in the Cox School of Business and range from financial information on companies to international economic issues affecting the global economy. The Business Library, working collaboratively with Cox School of Business faculty and across SMU Libraries, added access to the Cost of Living Index, ReferenceUSA, and digital access to the Dallas Business Journal and its Book of Lists in 2013-2014. This brought the total number of databases to 25 that the Business Library is responsible for providing access to. Ensuring appropriate resources are available to support faculty research is an important objective of the Business Library. As such, librarians work collaboratively with faculty to appropriate new resources, whether in print or electronic format, to best assist their research endeavors.
The Business Library had the opportunity to expand SMU’s business book collection this year, and almost $3,000 was spent on acquiring new books across all business disciplines, many of which are available in electronic format.
» » In ranking the most useful
databases on the annual survey, 57% of students ranked company and industry databases as their first choice for business research, followed by business news and journal articles databases with 36%. Financial or Investment data databases closely tailed with 34%.
» » Many students are enhancing their résumés and financial knowledge by completing certifications that are available through Bloomberg and Morningstar Direct.
6 GROWTH AND THE FUTURE
I
n the summer of 2013, the Business Library was awarded a Friends of the SMU Libraries grant that funded digitally scanning copies of the Cox School of Business Working Papers and add them to the SMU Digital Repository. The digitally scanned working papers can now be discovered and viewed worldwide by visitors to the SMU website.
Melissa Johnson, Reference & Digital Services Librarian, was elected chair of the Reference & Information Services Round Table of the Texas Library Association. During her leadership, she spearheaded the project to update the group’s name from Reference Round Table to the present one to reflect current practices in librarianship. She is also in the process of planning programs that will cover open access resources and innovative uses of technology and social media in reference and information services for the annual Texas Library Association conference in April 2015. Collaboration with the faculty is resulting in a successful BBA Information Literacy curriculum that is being implemented in stages into the new SMU University Curriculum (general education requirements) for two information literacy focused courses (IL-tags).
Students taking certain courses in the various disciplines (e.g., management, finance, and marketing) are introduced to applicable resources for each subject area that are necessary to complete required research assignments. In the past year, enthusiastic IL-tag approval was given to the capstone courses in Strategy and Entrepreneurship. Approval of these courses ensures that almost all BBA students will earn both of their IL-tags, one for their subject major and one for the capstone, in their Business School courses. Next year, the focus will be on creating course research guides for each business subject area in the core curriculum. The Business Library also recently won a Friends of the Library Grant to purchase phone and mobile device chargers as an added student service. The chargers will be implemented during the 2014-2015 academic school year. A new research guide is being created to support the new Master of Science in Business Analytics. This
new guide will debut in Fall 2014. And finally, citation education will get an overhaul for the 2014-2015 academic year as a new online course/workshop will be created for the students. This online workshop will be made available through the library’s research guides.
contact info :
Business Library SMU Cox School of Business PO Box 750333 Dallas, TX 72725-0333 Front Desk: 214-768-4107 Reference: 214-768-4496 Fax: 214-768-1884 E-mail: AskABICLibrarian@cox.smu.edu