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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.
Gale Product Menu
Gale Power Search Platform
Gale Literature
Gale Primary Sources
Gale Research Complete
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 [email protected] for your Location ID
Watch a video Navigating the Gale Support Page
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
A useful glossary of the types of reports that can be run and what they count can be accessed from the following page https://support.gale.com/doc/usageglossary-technical
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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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
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 [email protected] for your Location ID
Why add MARC records to your catalogue?
MARC records are important because they enable another access point to aid discoverability of your Gale resources.
They provide a seamless access point from a search of the catalogue to the direct page of the database – either via a topic search of a search of a journal title
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
Gale eBooks – MARC records to the individual eBook titles
Gale Literature
Literature Resource Centre
Gale In Context: Literature
Gale Primary Source Archives
National Geographic Virtual Library
National Geographic Kids
Smithsonian and Air and Space Magazine
Individual Historical Newspaper Archives
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.
This video outlines how to access complimentary MARC records for your Gale products.
Gale’s platforms aim to support users with visual, hearing, mobility or cognitive impairments, and any users accessing via keyboard-only inputs or assistive technologies.
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. It’s important to have a unified user experience across all platforms. Over the past few years our agile team has worked hard to unify our platforms so your experience and functionality of a platform such as Academic Onefile will be similar to that of an In Context database product, or a Gale eBook.
Our accessibility tools help those, who may otherwise; not feel comfortable using online products. These features include:
Predictive search (search assist) to see recommended search terms
Transcripts and closed captions of video and audio content.
Access alt text for images: where provided by the publishers
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 Databases don't like sentences
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 [email protected] if 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.
Making your Gale resources more discoverable
You can have great online resources, but if your public can’t find them, or don’t know you have them, then they are of little value.
You invest a lot of money to provide free resources and access for your patrons. That’s what the public library is all about. But unlike books, online resources are not visible on a bookshelf for the public to browse. You need to invest time and thought into making them discoverable.
This Tech Talk looks at ideas that may help to make your suite of Gale database more discoverable to your public.
There are right of wrong answers – these are suggestions that may of not be useful to your library. Think of them as a series of questions to ask yourself as a checklist to ensure your online databases are discoverable.
Inside the Library
Put yourself in the shoes of a library patron. Walk into the library and sit down at a public computer.
This page is the starting point for all the questions about accessing online resources in the library
Do you have physical marketing materials to help advertise or show people how the use your products?
This marketing may be posters or bookmarks beside the library computers.
Marc Records
Do you have MARC records in your catalogue so if people search the catalogue, they will be able to link directly to the database or topics pages of the database from the catalogue
Now take a look at your staff computers – especially the reference desk computer
Accessing the library from home
It is important that people can navigate around without asking in the library. The user must rely on the discoverability 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
Questions to access yourself about remote access
The Library Website
People need to be able to find stuff on your website form home without help. If they can’t find it, they won’t use your website.
Are things discoverable on your website?
Is everything in a logical place so people visiting are comfortable navigating around?
How many clicks does it take to access your products?
How far do your have to scroll down the page to find resources?
What are the products listed under. Do your users understand what the name you have used to access your databases means?
Do you have consistent naming conventions for your Gale products?
Do you have an A-Z listing or do you have your products listed in subject specific areas?
Do you have database icons or widgets to help display products?
Websites to help you promote your Gale Databases
The Gale Support Hub for NSW Public Libraries
https://www.gale.com/intl/anz-nsw-public-libraries
Marketing materials
Technical Support documents and webinars
Training webinars
The Gale Support Page
https://support.gale.com
The Gale support page can provide materials to assist you in setting up you gale databases.
Widgets
database icons
MARC records
How to guides
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
