Situated at the heart of Singapore Management Universities (SMU)’s city campus, SMU Libraries offer its services through two physical libraries – Li Ka Shing Library and Kwa Geok Choo Law Library – as well as virtually through various web based services. The Libraries are the centre for academic and professional knowledge resources and services that support the research and learning needs of the SMU community.

SMU Libraries facilitate knowledge creation, discovery through its electronic search platform and access to a wide array of research resources on and off campus. Its collection includes over 460,000 printed and electronic books, 80,000 print and electronic journals, 170 electronic databases, 22,000 SMU research publications in its Institutional Repository (InK), including Electronic Theses and Dissertations and an Oral History Collection.

Since its inception, SMU Libraries have been active in the digital landscape, developing a wide range of digital services. Being digital ready, the Libraries adapted swiftly to the COVID situation by leveraging digital services and resources already in place while enhancing digital services to actively connect with its users. 

Proactive chat service – “Ask Library”

A proactive chat service - “Ask Library”, which highlights the availability of online help more visibly has been implemented. The chat service tab slides out after detecting that a user has been on the library website for more than 5 minutes. This chat service which was previously available only on weekdays, has now been extended to weekends since the start of the circuit breaker.

The chat hours are as follows:

• Weekdays: 8:30am to 10pm
• Saturday: 10 am to 9pm
• Sunday: 1pm to 9pm

This is part of a pilot programme utilising Student Assistants for first-level queries in order to provide additional support to users. At the same time, Student Assistants are exposed to frontline service and can acquire new skills during this time.

Online Research Consultations, Workshops and Resources

During this period, Research Librarians continue to conduct research consultations and workshops online to ensure that users can get the same level of research help even when the physical libraries are closed. For example, Research Librarians collaborating with the School of Information Systems’ on COR1305 Spreadsheet Modelling and Analytics Course shifted from face-to-face meetings to virtual meetings since February to continue working with the student teams.
 

To address the need for current and reliable information resources during this time of uncertainty, the Libraries also created and constantly updates the COVID-19 Academic Resources guide to share newly available research and information on the virus with SMU community.

Last not but not least, to ensure that the hardware and software could support its digital offerings, the Libraries worked with database vendors to ensure that Research Librarians could continue to support students that require data from key databases that are usually only available onsite in the Investment Studio of the Li Ka Shing Library.  

Says University Librarian, Bethany Wilkes who recently joined SMU Libraries on 30 March, “It has been an exciting onboarding process. I was immediately impressed with the community’s enthusiasm for the Libraries and the Libraries’ staff’s dedication, enthusiasm, and flexibility. My hope is that SMU Libraries will be integral to the University and advance the University’s initiatives through active collaboration, innovation, and the provision of high-quality services to make meaningful impact. The Libraries will be agile and anticipatory and continue to foster and strengthen partnerships that leverage synergies to maximise impact on student success and the creation and visibility of cutting-edge research. I also hope for the Libraries’ spaces, both physical and digital, to be areas where inspiring things happen to cultivate entrepreneurialism, interdisciplinarity, and creation of knowledge.”

With its vision and quality digital offerings, it was no wonder that SMU Libraries was named Emerald Library’s #LibraryoftheWeek recently.