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Elsevier’s Student Ambassador Programs Involve Students in Outreach
Rachel Walker
Involving students in conducting on-campus outreach to promote e-resources to library users and researchers can bring substantial results. Participating students can benefit from learning more about how libraries and publishing processes operate, and librarians can benefit from support provided by participating students.
Elsevier recognizes librarians face substantial challenges in getting word to researchers about e-resources available through libraries. To support librarians, students and other researchers, Elsevier has recently been running two student ambassador programs: one focusing on Scopus, and another focusing on conducting research and getting published in the materials science and engineering field.
The first Scopus Student Ambassador Program ran April to June 2004, at universities trialing Scopus. One to two students per university participated. Participants included the University of Toronto (two students), American University of Beirut (two students), Strasbourg University (one student), Lausanne University (one student) and New Jersey Institute of Technology (one student). The Materials Science and Engineering Student Ambassador Program started in the UK in 2003, and continued in fall 2004 via involving students during meetings of the Materials Research Society and American Society for Mechanical Engineers and librarian-organized sessions with other groups.
For understanding of how these programs have worked and their outcomes, Library Connect interviewed three participating students: Rachael Walker, a biomedical science postgraduate student at Liverpool University in the UK, and Steven Chalouhi and Eyad El-Dahouk, neuroscience medical students at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Interview excerpts follow.
Student ambassadors Steven Chalouhi and Eyad
El-Dahouk train students on Scopus at the American
University of Beirut in Lebanon.
Librarians at institutes trialing Scopus may contact their Elsevier Account Managers to discuss the Scopus Student Ambassador Program. Anyone wishing to discuss the Materials Science and Engineering Student Ambassador Program may contact Senior Marketing Manager Clare Marl at c.marl@elsevier.com
Library Connect: How did your ambassador programs get started?
Rachael Walker: To get our Materials Science and Engineering Student Ambassador Program going, eight Ph.D. students from the UK attended an Elsevier focus group in 2003, to enable us to find out more about students’ research needs and how Elsevier could further support writers of the future.
Steven Chalouhi and Eyad El-Dahouk: Following interviews with AUB librarians Ms. Aida Farha and Ms. Hilda Nassar, we were hired on a part-time basis and provided with orientation to our duties as assistants in the Saab Medical Library. Also we received online training – led by an Elsevier representative – to orient us to Scopus. Then we started working for the library and organizing on-campus promotional events to generate interest in Scopus.
LC: How did you inform other students about your programs?
Walker: Following the focus group, I provided fellow students here in the UK with a "Post-Grad Toolkit." [See page 9.] This small publication contains useful information about how to search for journal papers using ScienceDirect and look up scientific information on Scirus. The toolkit also gives guidance on how to write and publish research findings. For example, the toolkit gives information on Elsevier’s Author Gateway at http://authors.elsevier.com.
Chalouhi and El-Dahouk: We employed numerous and occasionally entertaining methods of getting students to participate in training sessions which we led. We advertised Scopus by distributing posters, brochures and stickers on the AUB campus, and by putting information in university publications. We then led Scopus hands-on demos and awareness programs almost daily from April until June 2004.
LC: How did students benefit from your assistance and the programs?
– Hilda Nassar, Medical Librarian, Saab Medical Library, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
Walker: The Materials Science and Engineering Student Ambassador Program has allowed students to identify where to get help with their research from within and outside a university. It has supplied advice on research strategies involved in writing papers. And it has employed me, allowing me to get experience in marketing.
Chalouhi and El-Dahouk: During our seminars, many questions were asked and hands raised, all showing interest in mastering research techniques. Several participants arrived with a critical approach and questioned the difference between Scopus and other databases. We still see these same participants using Scopus in AUB computer labs. Some thesis defenses given during our Student Ambassador Program cited Scopus as the number one reference. We feel we’ve made a difference by helping our fellow students conduct research more easily yet thoroughly.
LC: How have the student ambassador programs affected you?
Walker: Following my time as a student rep for Elsevier, I can more capably help people out with information searches. And, I have used what I learnt to help organize workshops – for a regional medical conference – on how to write and get published.
Chalouhi and El-Dahouk: When first invited by our medical librarians to take part in the Scopus ambassador program, we thought we understood the future. But now, after the program, we view medicine as a discipline requiring patience, time, hard work and determination, and a flexible state of mind. New changes and developments can occur daily and it takes work to stay on top of available resources.
The Elsevier Materials Science & Engineering POST-GRAD TOOLKIT, updated in 2004, offers tips on writing, staying up-to-date with peers' publications and using the Web for research. 
- For free copies of the toolkit in Chinese Simplified or Chinese Traditional, email dl.chng@elsevier.com
- For free copies of the toolkit in English, email s.belcher@elsevier.com
