Scopus™: The Product and Its Development

ABSTRACT

Scopus is a new all-science abstracting and indexing (A&I) database. It is the result of a two-year collaboration with librarians and researchers from all over the world. Scopus covers over 14,000 scientific, technical, medical and social science titles from 4,000 publishers. It offers new sorting and refining features so that researchers can easily find and access more than 27 million abstracts and citations stretching back to the mid-1960s.

This article recounts the development of Scopus from its inception in 2002 to its success in securing over 100 customers within weeks of its recent launch. The story is told by one of the librarians heavily involved in testing and shaping the product and by one of the Product Managers who built it.     

Developing Teaching Best Practice—Pedagogy,Preferences, and Professional Development

This column examines advances in public services internal and external to libraries. The focus is on how public services, such as instruction and education, programming, research consulting, and circulation evolve and impact users. The strength of the column is its broad, international focus and contributors are encouraged to explore issues and recent advances in public services relevant to their geographical region, as well as the larger, global audience. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at andrea.falcone@ucdenver.edu     

A Review of: “Going Beyond Google: The Invisible Web in Learning and Teaching. Devine,Jane and Egger-Sider,Francine.”

As technology rapidly changes, libraries remain go-to points for education and technology skill development. In academic health sciences libraries, trends suggest librarians provide more training on technology topics than ever before. While education and training have always been roles for librarians, providing technology training on new mobile devices and emerging systems requires class creation and training capabilities that are new to many librarians. To appeal to their users, many health sciences librarians are interested in developing technology-based classes. This column explores the question: what skills are necessary for developing and teaching technology in an academic health sciences library setting?     

Robert S. Fortner,Radio Morality and Culture: Britain,Canada, and the United States, 1919�1945

Three pioneer radio rating services contributed to the development of basic audience measurement concepts, which have become part of a standardized ratings vocabulary. Archibald Crossley gave to radio and, later TV measurement, its most basic term, rating. Claude E. Hooper made Hooperatings a part of the nation's vocabulary and contributed the available audience base and the average minute rating. Arthur Nielsen Sr., designed the first probability sample. In the long term, Nielsen's most important innovation was his projectable ratings. As a result, Nielsen championed CPM theory, which tied advertising prices to audience size. Nielsen also was the first to provide a wealth of analytical detail, such as reach, frequency, and audience flow.     

A brave new world?—Understanding U.S.-China coproductions: collaboration,conflicts, and obstacles

The unprecedented growth in U.S.-China film coproductions and Chinese companies’ high-profile investment in Hollywood studios and U.S. cinemas signal a shift in global power relationships and a reshaping of the global media structure. Combining textual and document analysis with interviews of policy makers and film professionals in China and Hollywood, this article explores the implications of U.S.-China coproduction for global communication. The article proposes three ways of understanding coproductions: as a market-driven and profit-seeking partnership, as a policy and power negotiation, and as a brave experimental adventure. This article contends that the current state of U.S.-China coproduction manifests the contradiction between desire and reality. Although coproductions have the potential to create a space for a new global culture, to develop innovative communication models, and to achieve a China-U.S. consensus, the fulfillment of these potentials will require a steadfast effort and the commitment of more than one generation of filmmakers from both China and the U.S.A. Nevertheless, a global culture and a reshaping of the global media structure are in the making.