The Faculty of ACES:Arts, Computing, Engineering & Science

Teaching Summon Across Diverse Subjects

Sandy BuchananSheffield Hallam University

ACES: The Duck-Billed Platypus of Faculties

Engineering

Mathematics

Computing

Art

Design

Journalism & PR

Media

© Urville Djasim

Engineering, IT & Mathematics

• Well-supplied with online resources on Summon

• Always had lots of ebooks & ejournals

• From this summer, also BSI & ASTM standards

• So vast bulk of what they want can be found on Summon

• Induction class for first years

• Some groups get extra classes on evaluation & referencing

• Final years get more on search skills and other resources

• Post-grads get both, plus help with referencing and advanced reading skills

• Practical, hands-on students

• Don't do that much academic research until final year

• But use more esoteric material before then, eg standards, market research

Art & Design

• Many key resources print-only

• So suffer a bit on Summon

• had to add journal records

• Also big browsers• So can benefit more

from library tours

• Art search terms rather nebulous, so a lot of irrelevant results

• So sometimes better off on subject-specific databases instead

• But do very well on reference ebooks

• Summon simple Wikipedia alternative

• Inductions for all first years

• Tend to see other students in one-to-ones

• Also very practical students

• Also not much academic research before final year

• Also interested in business information

• But a lot more focus on creativity and inspiration

• So no set exercises: do their own thing!

Journalism, PR & Media

• Sheer breadth of possible research means have to look outside Summon for some material

• Also, some key resources don't work well on Summon

• eg, newspapers via Nexis UK

• Induction for first years

• 4 long sessions for second years

• 1 on Summon • 2 on other resources,

1 on referencing• Lots of worksheets to

guide them through the different resources

• Odd subject out• Much more a

traditional social science

• Much more academic research, much earlier on

• Very broad focus: might want to research almost anything

Teaching Summon

• Students need very little help understanding Summon• Even supposedly 'non-technical' students such as Art &

Design

• Spend much less time on demos• Students learn for themselves, and from each other

• Avoids teaching fatigue• Makes it easier to share teaching• Don't need to be familiar with arcane subject databases or

search terms

Journals• Dominate Summon search results

– So excellent chance to introduce them– Refine Your Search also gives a chance to introduce Peer

Review

• However, many students won't make much use of journals for 2 or 3 years – is it the right time to introduce them?– what about discussing other resource types?

• Searching for journal articles Versus searching for journals– Art & Journalism still show postgrads how to find key

journals– Engineering & Computing don't- can find plenty of articles

through Library Search– But need to know what to do when link resolver fails

Summon as launchpad

Summon as Launchpad

• Good starting point for introducing universal search features• eg, Advanced Search, Facets, Boolean, Catalogue

Records

• Many students don't do much research before final year• So helps to start from a familiar place

• Students won't have Summon when they leave• so emphasises search as a transferable skill that can be

used elsewhere

• BUT Summon sometimes also used as a contrast with other resources

• And some features better elsewhere, eg citation searching or very complex search syntax

Summon and other information sources

o All first-year inductions focus on Library Search

o However, some subjects still need resources outside Library Search

o But less and less the case with Engineering

Sausages

© Timo Newton-Syms© Peter Pearson

"Academic Google"• Lumps all sorts of materials together

– Blurs important differences between types of material– But can filter easily– And not as if other databases and catalogues don't do this

• Great while it works– But can leave students at sea when links and resources fail

• As conglomeration of many different resources, oddities and inconsistencies can result– eg, book and ebook editions sometimes share an entry,

sometimes not– eg, British Standards currently classed as ebooks, not

standards– Students need to know how the other resources work to

understand how Library Search works

Further InformationPlease contact:

Claire Abson: Information Specialistemail: C.Abson@shu.ac.uk

Sandy Buchanan: Information Advisoremail: A.Buchanan@shu.ac.uk