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Lynette Lewis and Alison Foster are your Technical Support Executives. We are committed to help you get the best use from your databases. This includes helping you with set up and accessibility of your products through your website and your LMS. We're your first point of contact with anything technical. Please contact us via email at [email protected] |
There are different ways to access your Gale Resources; whether it be via a link to each individual product, or via a more general link to the e Gale Product Platform when all products can be accessed via one link, or a cross searchable platform such as Powersearch.
This video outlines various ways you can set up access to your Gale resources and the advantages of using each access point
The Gale Support Page is a freely accessible page to help get the most from your investment with no-cost support. Hundreds of choices include everything from direct URLs, MARC records, database icons, promotional and instructional materials and technical support documents.
Access via the following link:
https://support.gale.com/
Enter your location ID to customise the page to your Institution
Please email Lynette Lewis for your Location ID
Watch a video Navigating the Gale Support Page
The Gale Support Page
The Gale Support Page is a freely accessible page to help get the most from your investment with no-cost support. Hundreds of choices include everything from direct URLs, MARC records, database icons, promotional and instructional materials, and technical support documents.
Access via the following link:
https://support.gale.com/
Enter your location ID to customize the page to your Institution. This also customizes the MARC records to your Institution.
Please email Lynette Lewis for your Location ID
Why add MARC records to your catalogue?
It enables another way that your resources can be discovered.
What MARC records can you get from The Gale Support Page
In Context – MARC records to topics portals
Gale Health and Wellness- MARC records to topics portals
Individual Newspaper archives – Single record to the Newspaper
Gale eBooks and Gale Directories– MARC records to the individual eBook titles
Archives Unbound – MARC records to each collection
Gale single collections of Historical Newspapers – Single MARC record covering the title and number of issues in the collection
Gale Literature
Literature Resource Centre
Gale Literature Criticism Series
Something About the Author
Dictionary of Literary Biography
British Literary Manuscripts
The Gale Admin Page
Gale Admin - the Gale OneFile series of databases – MARC to periodical titles. These MARC records can be set up to be delivered via email each month.
MARC records for Archive collections
Purchased MARC Records through OCLC – Most Archive collections
This video outlines how to access complimentary MARC records for your Gale products.
Generating statistics for your Gale products
Statistics are very important as they help justify your ROI and help understand what products are being used and how they are being used.
We have various report options you can use to gather statistics
An overview of what reports can be access can be found here
Types of Reports
Gale standard reports - Gale reports can be accessed through the Gale Usage Reports portal available through Gale Admin and the Gale Usage Dashboard.
COUNTER 4 and COUNTER 5 compliant reports - These can be accessed through the Gale Usage Reports Portal available through Gale Admin. You can also schedule reports to be automatically emailed monthly to selected email addresses for the Gale Admin Reports Portal
Both reports portals can be access via The Gale Support Page
Additional ways to access reports for Gale Products
SUSHI (Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) Reports -Allows the automated retrieval of the COUNTER usage reports into local systems. SUSHI COUNTER 4 and SUSHI COUNTER 5 reports are available for Gale products
JUSP (Journal Usage Statistics Portal) Reports -JUSP provides a single gateway for them to access their usage statistics from participating publishers. Participating libraries need to contact CAVAL JUSP service for access.
Gale Admin Reports portal
Please email Lynette Lewis for your Username and password
Use this portal if you need to run COUNTER compliant reports use this website, or if you would like to schedule recurring reports to be emailed to you. This portal is updated daily.
Gale Usage Dashboard
Same username and password as the Gale Admin Reports Portal. Please email Lynette Lewis for your Username and password
You can also get your statistics from the Gale Usage Dashboad which is is web based and provides quick, visual access to your product usage. This website also gives you comparison data from one year to another and the most used search terms. It provides graphs as well a speadsheet outlining usage.
The video below walks you through using the Gale Usagage Dashboard and how to schedule monthly reports using the Gale Admin Reports Portal
Gale has introduced experience and design enhancements to assist accessibility across its portfolio of products on the main Gale platform including Gale OneFile, Gale In Context, and Gale Literature
The enhancements help to unify the platform experience, improve the user experience and accessibility at article level for the user.
Our accessibility tools help those, who may otherwise; not feel comfortable using online products. These features include:
Gale's Electronic Accessibility Policy is available on the Gale Support Page
The following video outlines some of our accessibility tools available on our databases
A search engine, like Google, uses computer algorithms to search the Internet and find websites that match the keywords you enter.
Gale databases and archives have highly organized information due to the metadata in the back end of the product that allows you to find information with high relevance to search terms. Robust metadata tools allow you to narrow efficiently by dozens of categories.
Create a search strategy
First create a general search strategy. This is very general because your search strategy is dependent on how much time you have. It is a very different situation if you are on a refence desk with 5 minutes to help a patron with a reference question, to a search strategy if you are undertaking in-depth research.
Think about what is being asked - What are you researching? What question(s) are you trying to answer?
Identify key concepts and subject terms -
What are the key areas of your research topic or question Think in broad terms. Brainstorm synonyms and related subject terms These will be the keywords used when you search within the databases.
Also take into account in archive products the era and language used when the article was written.
Break your topic into concepts (subjects). These concepts will form the building blocks of your search strategy.
Remember
Select relevant databases and resources. - This is all about knowing your resources.
Do you need a subject specific database coving a particular area of time in history.
Databases are different because they are written in present day language using present day metadata and subject headings.
Archives are written in a certain time in history using the language of that era
Combine search terms – know how your gale databases and archives work.
Do you need to use Boolean operators to refine your search or can this be done through a simple search?
How does the simple search and advanced search options operate in your databases and archives?
Do you have visual tools help refine your search?
Execute and refine your search; once again know how to refine your search using the option available to you through your databases and archives
Review and refine search as required
Do your information sources seem relevant? You may be required to do more research within different databases, using different search terms.
Analysing your search results - Are you getting too many results?
Use Boolean operators – AND & NOT – Both Boolean operators limit search results, so you get a smaller, more specific results list by searching with keywords that are connected with AND or NOT.
Are there subject terms in your previous results that may help you refine your search?
Analyzing related subject terms will help you refine your search by giving you different keywords to use.
Use the Subject Terms or Thesaurus features in the databases to find related search terms. Different related keywords may help you limit your results.
Are you not getting enough information?
Use the Boolean operator – OR – it expands search results by combining similar terms – Get more results by connecting keywords with OR.
Are there subject terms in your previous results that may help you refine your search?
Analyzing related subject terms will help you refine your search by giving you different keywords to use. If you are not finding enough information, different keywords may yield more results.
Use the Subject Terms or Thesaurus features in the databases to find related search terms. Different related keywords may help you increase your results
The Homepage search or Basic search
The first search that you come to on the Gale platforms allows you to perform a broad search across the Entire Document – full-text, Document Title, Subject, and expands to synonyms of your search term. Once you have performed your search; there are limiters to help narrow your results.
Advanced Search
Allows you to customize your search and target relevant results:
It includes
Subject Guide Search
The subject guide search offers the ability to narrow a single topic by subdivisions, and to view narrower and broader related topics.
Visual Search Tools - Topic Finder
The Topic Finder is a visual tool that takes the titles, subjects, and approximately the first 100 words from a subset of your top results and feeds them into an algorithm
This enables you to visually see the connections between topics and create new research paths.
The Topic Finder is good to use if you’re having trouble coming up with a research topic, when you have an idea for a topic and want to investigate related topics, or when you want to narrow your search results
The following video outlines some general tips for effective searching across Gale databases and archives
The Gale eBook platform includes a customisation portal that allows library administrators to tailor the Gale eBook platform homepage, grouping and highlighting titles based on the Institution’s needs.
Existing collections can be re-arranged and new collections can be added.
To access our new customization features, Librarians will be able to log into the Gale eBook platform using their Gale Admin credentials and customize their collection to suit the Institution’s needs.
Please contact Lynette Lewis is you don’t know your Gale Admin login.
Select titles that appear on the homepage.
Admin users have the ability to re-order eBooks within each Collection. So, the most relevant titles are displayed first.
Change the order of the subjects on the homepage.
Want “Business” to proceed “Art”? Done! It’s as easy as dragging and dropping Collections into your preferred order.
Add custom collections.
Create categories or groupings of titles to support your users’ needs You might want to add a collection of climate change topcs as well as science topics
Add titles to new custom collections.
Once you create a new Collection, you’re only a couple clicks away from adding additional titles.
Search within custom collections.
Previously users could only search within the Gale default collections.
Enable/disable collections.
Disabling a collection will hide it from the homepage but it will not remove the titles from the account. This will help to accommodate time-sensitive collections
Hide default Gale collections.
If desired, hide default Gale collections to showcase only the collections desired. Note, however, that hiding a collection does not remove the ebooks from your account
Custom Gale eBook collections collections can be linked anywhere, including library websites, course pages, and LibGuides.
The Library Website
Where are your products positioned on your library website
Think of your library website as a piece of architecture like a house.
The Front door is your homepage and walking through the rooms of your house are like navigating parts of your website.
You design your house so it is accessible with doors, windows, rooms, storage – basically so you can easily move around and everything is in a logical order.
This is how you should look at your website.
Ask yourself
The Challenge
Some institutions may not have control of their website and where things are placed, in particular websites run by the council where the library is competing with council real estate
Some things to ask when looking at your website
Other things to consider
Do you have database icons to help display products?
Do you have a widget on the homepage so people can do a quick search of all Gale products
Database icons and widget can be found on the Gale Support page
Is access set up so library users can access your products remotely?
Important in the last 2 years where library access was restricted to remote access only. So important that people could navigate around without asking in the library. Remote learning means the user has no reference staff to help with an reference questions. The user must rely on the accessibility of your website/library catalogue and ability to find what they need.
Is the library Catalogue integrated into your website or do you have 2 separate sites?
The Library Management System
Some Institution use the library catalogue as their main library website, some have the catalogue integrated within a website and some have 2 separate sites – the library website and the library catalogue
If you use 2 separate sites, it is important that you make sure links are updated on both sites and that each site links back to the other
Your library catalogue also has re-estate on the homepage. Do you have links to your online resources form the home page?
Do you have a widget on your homepage?
Marc Records
Do you have MARC records in your catalogue so if people search the catalogue, they will be able to link directly to topics, periodicals and eBooks directly form the catalogue
Important for products like Archives Unbound. The title of this archive means nothing, but it contains over 400 individual archive collections. BY putting the MARC records for each collection through the catalogue, allows each archive to be more findable
Discovery layers and Discovery services
A discovery layer adds another layer to your library website, enabling online products and the library catalogue to be cross-searched.
It also adds another layer on indexing
Do you have access to the Discovery Layers back end or Admin set up?
Make sure your Gale products are set up and are visible and retrievable via your discovery layer
The Gale Support page has information about setting up Gale products on a discovery layer
Learning Management System
LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) Certification provides a standard for integrating with an LMS. It's what allows the LMS and Gale products to properly exchange authentication information and allow access to the products from within the LMS.
Library resources that began as reference materials ideally had to be able to be integrated into the LMS
Social Media
Many Institutions now use social media to advertise programs and events being run by the library.
These platforms are usually independent of the library website and catalogue
Things to consider
Do you use social media to drive traffic back to your website?
Do you use social media to advertise what resources are available on your website?
The Gale Support Page
The Gale support page can provide materials to assist you in setting up you gale databases.
Widgets
database icons
MARC records
How to guides
Instructions for setting up LMS integration
Short Descriptions of products to add to your website
Social media plays a huge role in the ability to reach a wide audience in this digital day and age. Social media channels allow Libraries to advertise events and raise awareness of the wide range of information and services they offer. It is a is a simple web 2.0 platform which allows sharing and two way communication.
Social media also allow libraries, that may otherwise be challenged by webpage restrictions and controls (ie ownership) to post events and library services more easily than via a more conventional website.
The Gale Support Page
The Gale Support Page is a freely accessible page to help get the most from your investment with no-cost support.
The Marketing materials section of the Gale Support Page contains ready-to-use and customizable materials to help promote usage of your Gale resources. Materials include images to use on digital signage and social media platforms.
Within the Marketing section of the Gale Support site, you can find social media images to use for Facebook, WeChat, Instagram, Twitter (now called X), and LinkedIn platforms.
We also have images suitable for Digital Displays
This section is divided by
The following video outlines some of our accessibility tools available on our databases:
LibGuides are a content management and information sharing system used to "curate knowledge and share information by creating online guides on any topic, subject, courses…" (Springshare 10 May 2021).
Libguides provide the following types of guides:
A-Z Database List
The LibGuides A-Z Database List provides a central repository to list your library’s research databases and archives
Subject Guides
The Libguide Subject Guide: provides guides that are focused on a specific subject area
Vendor Guides
Libguides can be narrowed to specific vendors
What Gale can offer to help set up your Libguides
The following Gale resources are useful to help set up your Gale resources on Libguides
The Gale Support Page
https://support.gale.com
Configure this page to your Institutions Location ID in order to download the Libguides files relevant to the Gale products your Institution has access to
The Gale Libguides Page
https://gale.libguides.com/home
Provides examples of what can be included in a Libguides page
Provides instruction for uploading files
It does not configure the files to you Institutions Location ID
Gale Video Hub
https://www.gale.com/intl/anz-video-hub
Provides short videos that can be added to your Libguides page
Watch a video on setting up your Gale resources on Libguides
