August 31, 2018

Hi, 

Just as this is a time of transition into a new school year, it’s a time of transition with the statewide Gale contract. With the new contract, we have access to two new databases: LitFinder and Books & Authors. Additionally, the number of eBooks available statewide in Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) went from about 400 titles to 100. Older editions and those with low usage were culled, and a few new titles were added. Some teachers who use GVRL with their students may want to know about this change. (The new databases and the reduced list of GVRL eBooks are the only two changes associated with the new Gale contract.)   

GVRL Title Lists
Within GVRL, click on the More menu (three horizontal lines) to get to the title list. It will open to a page that lists all of the eBooks currently available through GVRL. This spreadsheet lists the same information, but the “by audience” tab may be helpful to you. A different spreadsheet lists the titles that were formally available. Notice the “no longer available” tab. 

Legacy Pricing
For those who will miss using some of the eBooks, you can contact Arthur Nelson (local Gale rep based out of Washington) or Lindsay Smith (rep based out of Gale’s Michigan office). You may be able to purchase access to some titles at a discounted rate called legacy pricing. Scroll to find their contact information on this page of the Gale support site for Oregon library staff.

Combined GVRL Instances
Remember that if you purchase GVRL titles for use in your school or district, you can ask a Gale rep to combine your GVRL instance with that of the statewide offerings so your students and staff only have to look in one place to find all of the GVRL eBooks.

Update GVRL MARC Records
If you added the MARC records for GVRL eBooks to your library catalog, you will want to refresh your list – remove records for eBooks we no longer have access to, and add records for new eBooks. Or, if there’s an easy way to identify all of the GVRL MARC records in your system, you could purge all of them, and then upload the records for the current titles. This support page explains how to download GVRL MARC records, and it has links to the current and former title lists. If you are having problems updating MARC records because your library has many of its own GVRL titles, you can reach out to Lauren Synowiec at Gale for help. 

NGK MARC Records
For those who also added to your library catalog the MARC records for eBooks from National Geographic Kids, know that a batch of records for new eBooks was added this month. You can download and add the newest records or all of them. Notice the instructions for Destiny users in the “All Files” section. Thanks again to Miranda Doyle for writing the instructions. 

If you have questions, please ask.  

Thanks,
Jen 

Jennifer Maurer
School Library Consultant
State Library of Oregon

Psst: Geolocation is coming soon to the Gale database links on OSLIS. That will make it possible to use the databases when away from school even if folks forget their login.