Overview
With two locations in India, the Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research (WeSchool) aims to provide superior instruction and innovative technological facilities to support the educational objectives of its 1,900 students and faculty. To meet the ever-growing needs of its researchers, faculty, and tech-savvy students, the Welingkar Institute’s library, known as the Learning Resource Centre, began subscribing to Business Source Premier, EBSCO’s full-text business research database which includes peer-reviewed journals, trade journals, case studies, company profiles, industry reports, and SWOT Analyses. In 2011, the library upgraded its subscription to Business Source Complete which, in addition to comprehensive full-text coverage, offers indexing and abstracts for the world’s most important scholarly business journals. Since then, use of the Business Source Complete database has noticeably increased, and the library has added EBSCO’s eBook Business Core Collection to its subscription.
With the depth of the content and vastness of its coverage, Business Source Complete is undoubtedly one of the best resources to assist our audience with their academic and research-related work or any professionals seeking to enrich their knowledge.
With the depth of the content and vastness of its coverage, Business Source Complete is undoubtedly one of the best resources to assist our audience with their academic and research-related work or any professionals seeking to enrich their knowledge.
Challenges
Prior to augmenting the content of its world-class Learning Resource Centre, Welingkar students and faculty could search the library’s OPAC to locate print and offline resources. According to Librarian Giridhar Kunkur, users needed quicker access to relevant business and management information.
To accommodate tech-savvy users and better support their research objectives, the institution sought to add more electronic resources to its library collection. “Considering the fact that our Institute is placing more importance on research activities, [we needed to] add more value to our resources and services,” Kunkur said.
Solutions
Once the subscription to EBSCO’s Business Source Premier began in the year 2009, the faculty and students were so pleased that, two years later, the Institute upgraded its subscription to Business Source Complete, which offered significantly more content, including a collection of Harvard Business School videos. Kunkur said the videos are valuable to both faculty and students because the concepts being taught are coming from renowned Harvard professors who are subject-matter experts.
“With the depth of the content and vastness of its coverage,” Kunkur said, “Business Source Complete is undoubtedly one of the best resources to assist our audience with their academic and research-related work or any professionals seeking to enrich their knowledge.”
Now, finding relevant content is easier than ever before. Business Source Complete and eBooks are accessed through the Institute’s interactive library portal called “infoWE.” Users can navigate to EBSCO’s resources by clicking the Full Text link under the Databases drop-down menu.
All students are required to attend an orientation session to become familiar with Business Source Complete and the institution’s other electronic resources. In addition, the library regularly issues monthly bulletins across seven verticals to keep students and faculty apprised of relevant content and resources related to their classroom learning. Each bulletin focuses on a specific topic and contains links to relevant articles, news, and videos.
“This initiative ensures that the library resources are well-connected to classroom teaching and learning plans,” Kunkur explained. “The topics are provided by the faculty based on what they teach and what they feel is relevant to students’ learning."
Benefits & Results
Since upgrading to Business Source Complete, the library has seen a marked increase in the database’s use. From 2011 to 2012, the number of searches increased by 18 percent, while the number of full-text downloads jumped an astounding 500 percent. Kunkur attributes the increases to not only the database’s improved visibility but also the quality of its content.
“The number of direct hits clearly shows active use of the database,” Kunkur said, adding that the library team also consults the database on a daily basis to answer academic and research-oriented queries.
To meet the increasing demand for eBooks in the area of business and management, the library recently decided to purchase the EBSCO eBook BusinessCore Collection, which includes more than 8,200 titles covering all disciplines of business, including leadership and management, marketing, project management, business communication, finance and accounting, human resources, sales and selling, mergers and acquisitions, green business, and strategic planning.
The library is proactively embedding links to relevant eBook titles in its monthly bulletins, and use of the collection is steadily increasing.
Due to the popularity of EBSCO’s Business Source Complete and the eBooks BusinessCore Collection on the Mumbai campus, these resources have been made available to the Welingkar Institute’s Bengaluru campus as well.