Browse Collection and Sort by Manuscript Number

We are excited to share that the Browse Collection and Sort by Manuscript Number features are now available in the following products:

• Archives of Sexuality and Gender
• Political Extremism and Radicalism
• Refugees, Relief, and Resettlement: Forced Migration and World War II

This is in addition to the products that these features were added to earlier in 2022:

• Indigenous Peoples of North America
• Women’s Studies Archive

This feature is a top-requested feature by both faculty and librarians, and we are pleased to support it across additional GPS products.

BROWSE COLLECTION

Available from each manuscript-based collection page, this feature enables researchers to browse a complete list of files in the order they were arranged by the source library.

What problem does this feature solve?

• This feature increases transparency of what exactly is included in a source collection, thereby improving its usability. Users no longer need to know what they’re looking for, and can browse a collection organically to make unexpected discoveries and connections.
• Advanced researchers are often familiar with the original source library collection, and it is important to digitally replicate the experience of browsing the physical archive. This not only allows for a “bird’s-eye view” of everything available in a collection, but is also a quick and easy access point to specific documents.
• This feature is also an effective teaching tool. By recreating the finding aid experience, instructors can use this feature to teach students how an archival collection is organized and how to navigate it for their own research.

SORT SEARCH RESULTS BY MANUSCRIPT NUMBER
Users have the option to sort their search results list by Manuscript Number, which is the order a collection was arranged by the source library.

What problem does this feature solve?

• Advanced researchers are often familiar with the original source library collection, and it is important to be able to work through a results list in the order the documents were arranged by the source library. This recreates the experience of working through the physical collection in the source library.

Advanced Search Enhancements: Descriptions, Search Tips, and Limiters

As part of our ongoing effort to make our resources more effective as teaching and learning tools, we collaborated with librarians and identified issues around:

Teaching users how to effectively search databases is challenging: time spent searching for content reduces time better spent reading and interrogating documents. In response to this feedback, the new Advanced Search design:

• Clearly describes exactly what the selected search field does.
• Provides useful tips for employing advanced methods, like Boolean and proximity operators.

As a result, Gale Primary Sources now have added features:

• Each search index is paired with a description that lets users know exactly what the index searches for within the content. This description dynamically updates as users select different indexes.
• Boolean search tips are embedded directly within the page itself, for ease of access. These tips were previously only available within the product help file.
• Search limiters feature tool tips to provide users with more information on how to use the limiters to further narrow a search.

Looking for help with searching in our products? Read our Search Options and Search Tips guides

Filter newspapers and periodicals by geographic location

Previous Advanced Search limiters for Country, State/Province, and City were only available in Advanced Search. With this release, they are also available as filters on the Browse Publications and Publication Search pages of all Gale Primary Sources products that have these features. As a result, researchers can use multiple access points to look for newspaper and periodical content.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)

On Friday, December 18, 2020, the current ECCO interface was retired and existing ECCO links have been automatically redirected to a new interface, making ECCO look and feel like the other Gale Primary Sources archives.

The new ECCO experience is the culmination of extensive user research, including a widely distributed survey and an extensive series of usability tests and Zoom interviews. In response to observations during testing, as well as direct feedback provided by power users, we are making several impactful changes and enhancements, with more to come in subsequent software releases.

Will the migration affect usage data?
Yes. Because ECCO is comprised of monograph content, usage will be calculated according to stricter criteria and may decline as a result.

Will customers’ existing links redirect?
Yes. All A-Z list links, MARC records, and bookmarks will automatically redirect to the new experience. While you are not required to update your links, we encourage you to do so, if possible. This applies to MARC records which, while intended to redirect, do not always anticipate every possible redirect scenario. So we encourage you to obtain new MARC for their catalogues if they are open to it.

Which legacy features will be retained in the new experience?

• Most legacy functionality will carry over. However, due to low usage, “Browse Works” will not be carried over
• The Library of Congress Subject Headings that are currently available in legacy ECCO will not be carried over for the December release, but will be added as part of a subsequent release

21 new Archives Unbound modules are now available

We have released 21 new Archives Unbound modules, including archives centered around Civil Rights, Pacifism, and Nuclear Disarmament. The new modules are:

• Archives of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament: Annual Reports, Minutes and other Records, 1958-1972
• Archives of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament: Annual Reports, Minutes and other Records, 1973-1980, and pamphlets and serial items, 1958-1980
• Archives of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament: Annual Reports, Minutes and other Records, pamphlets and serial items, 1981-1985
• Archives of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament: Pamphlets and Serials, 1985-1990 and Bruce Kent's Speeches and Articles, 1981-1989
• Chinese Maritime Customs Service Publications
• Civil Rights and Social Activism in Alabama: The Papers of John LeFlore, 1926-1976 and Records of the Non-Partisan Voters League, 1956-1987
• FBI File on Eleanor Roosevelt
• FBI File on John L. Lewis
• FBI File on Owen Lattimore
• Norman Bethune Papers
• Origins of the Cold War
• Pacifism, Disarmament and International Relations - Archives of the Fellowship of Reconciliation: Minute Books and Committee Papers, 1915-1960
• Pacifism, Disarmament and International Relations - Archives of War Resisters' International: Minutes, Reports, and Publications, 1921-1974
• Press Conferences of the U.S. Secretaries of State, 1922-1974
• The Legal Battle for Civil Rights in Alabama: Vernon Z. Crawford Records, 1958-1978 Civil Rights Cases and Selections from the Blacksher, Menefee & Stein Records
• The Scopes Case
• U.S. Military Activities and Civil Rights: Integration of the University of Mississippi and the Use of Military Force, 1961-1963
• U.S. Military Activities and Civil Rights: The Little Rock Integration Crisis, 1957-1958
• U.S. Military Activities and Civil Rights: The Military Response to the March on Washington, 1963
• War, Peace, and Democracy in America: Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, 1940-1942
• War, Peace, and Democracy in America: Fight for Freedom, Inc. Records, c. 1940-1942

Gale Primary Sources cross-search enhancements

The cross-search has a new look! Designed specifically to improve the newspaper and periodical cross-search experience, these enhancements will be closely followed by the November 20, 2020 retirement of NewsVault, our older, newspaper-only cross-search interface.

Homepage

1. Banner: Reduced the height of the banner so that the options below are more visible. Added three concise bullet points to the banner which explains what the cross-search is and what you can do here. The intent is to help orient users who are coming to the product for the first time.
    
2. Product categories: Streamlined the list of product categories to three simple sections: ALL, NEWSPAPERS, and LEGAL STUDIES. This decision is based on feedback from customers who expressed that the previous categories were not the most intuitive, and that it was more important to isolate Historical Newspapers and the Making of Modern Law products.
    
3. Product list layout: Follows the design of the new Common Menu, featuring product icons and a short description about each product.
    
4. Ability to link out to the standalone product: Individual product titles are hyperlinked to the standalone experience, so users who want to delve into a specific product can get there quickly and easily from the cross-search.
    
5. Limit search by Date: Added the date limiter to the homepage. Because the date limiter is the most used search parameter, we moved it to the homepage for the convenience of our users. It is still available in Advanced Search, but users do not need to go there to limit their search by date.

Advanced Search

1. User’s product category selection retained from homepage: If a user selects the Newspapers or Legal Studies section on the homepage and then goes to Advanced Search, the application will remember that selection and apply it to their query in Advanced Search. The intent is to make the newspaper and MOML research workflows more seamless, requiring fewer steps from users by remembering the preference they set in the beginning of their workflow.
    
2. Advanced Search database menu: The database menu has moved! Previously hidden beneath the Advanced Search form and requiring an extra click to open, all available products are now listed in a clear, easy-to-read list on the left-hand side of the page. Like the homepage, it is organized by three categories: ALL, NEWSPAPERS, and LEGAL STUDIES.
    
3. Limit Search by Publication Country, Publication City/Province, and Publication State: We’ve added three new limiters to Advanced Search! Users now have the option to limit their search by a comprehensive list of countries, states/provinces, and cities. These are also available as filters in Search Results. In addition, we have configured this feature in the following products:
   • Amateur Newspapers from the American Antiquarian Society
   • American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society
   • British Library Newspapers
   • Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals
   • Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
   • Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection
   • Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Nichols Newspapers Collection

NOTE: this feature only applies to newspaper and periodical content. It does not apply to monographs and manuscripts.

“Related Resources”: Link out to related articles in Gale eBooks

For select Gale Primary Sources products, users now have the ability to view and link out to related articles in Gale eBooks. It uses a custom algorithm to determine which articles to display, by comparing full-text, subject, and title. When the user selects the article, they will go to the article page in Gale eBooks. This feature can be found in the “Related Resources” section of the Explore panel, and is now available in the following products:

• Archives of Sexuality and Gender
• Political Extremism and Radicalism
• Public Health Archives: Public Health in Modern America, 1890-1970
• Refugees, Relief, and Resettlement: Forced Migration and World War II
• Religions of America
• Women's Studies Archive
• COMING SOON! Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive

Slavery and Anti-Slavery moved to the GPS platform

We’re excited to share that Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive migrated to the Gale Primary Sources platform on Friday, November 20^th. Your current links now redirect automatically, and Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive is available exclusively in the new experience. 

In addition to the existing Gale Primary Sources functionality, there are also be some new options available for this archive:

• NEW! Related Resources feature: Legacy Slavery and Anti-Slavery collections include some older reference content, which will not be carried over: however, it has been replaced with something better: More Like This. This enables researchers to link out to related reference content in Gale eBooks. The feature is available in the document view Explore panel and is subscription-based, so users will only see links to reference content available to them through their library.
• Search by Collection: Between its four modules, Slavery and Anti-Slavery is comprised of dozens of rare and unique collections. However, legacy Slavery and Anti-Slavery does not allow the user the limit their search by a specific collection. This functionality is now available, and, like other collection-based GPS products, will feature the dynamic Explore Collections feature. 
• Cross-search ability: for the first time ever, Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive is available in the Gale Primary Sources cross-search, so researchers can compare their search results in one place with content from their institution’s other Gale archives.
• Gale Digital Scholar Lab availability: Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive is also available for the first time in the Gale Digital Scholar Lab, allowing researchers to apply natural language-processing tools to raw text data (OCR) from Gale Primary Sources in a single research platform.
• Enhanced product platform: the platform now has a modern look and feel, in-line with user expectations of modern websites. 
• Improved accessibility: maintained for web accessibility standards, the new user interface ensures access by users of all abilities.  
• Smarter search results: the user interface retains Advanced Search fields and limiters, but also include new search features, such as additional filtering options; Name and Subject Expansion, which looks for pseudonyms and synonyms of your search term; and access to our Topic Finder and Term Frequency textual analysis tools. 
• Streamlined user interface: consistent with other Gale products, the interface delivers an engaging experience that allows quick access to search tools, relevant content, and collaborative features like Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. 
• Secure product access: HTTPS guarantees data between a patron’s browser and Gale products is encrypted, and the right to privacy for library users is protected.  

The Gale Scholar landing page

A single point of access to Gale’s digital archives for Gale Scholar customers.

Customers will be able to choose from one of seven categories beneath the Gale Scholar banner: All Databases (which contains links to both the Gale Primary Sources cross-search and the Gale Digital Scholar Lab), Early Modern History, Nineteenth Century History, Contemporary Studies, Literature, Newspapers and Periodicals, and Legal Studies. Each category includes an identifying description, and a category will only appear if the customer has purchased archives that fall into that category. Once a category has been selected, customers can click an archive from the menu below the description to be taken directly into the desired archive.

How do customers access the Gale Scholar landing page?
The Gale Scholar landing page has been automatically added to the appropriate customer accounts. To access the page, use the following URL pattern and replace LOCATION ID with the your actual location ID: https://link.gale.com/apps/menu/gs?u=LOCATION_ID. 

How do I change the page’s default language (English) to Chinese?

The default language for the Gale Scholar landing page can be changed through Gale Admin by locating the customer’s account, clicking into General Preferences from the Preferences bar, and clicking the dropdown box for the default Gale Scholar language setting per the screenshot below:

Where did we get the Chinese translations?

Rather than using Google Translate or other translation tools, the Chinese translations were manually compiled by a native speaker in our China office. Although useful for a basic understanding of text, translation tools can include errors that would have made it difficult for our customers to navigate the landing page. It was therefore vital to secure accurate translations that will resonate with our Gale Scholar customers and not distract them from their research experience.

“Go To Page” feature for monographs

• What is the change?
  For monographs, we have added a “Go To Page” feature to the Explore panel. This page number is different from the sequence number in the image viewer, and corresponds to the actual page number noted within a book.
• What problem does it solve?
  Users often come to our products with a citation in hand and want to be able to jump to the page number specified in that citation. The sequence number in the image viewer does not typically match the actual page number, which prevents users from quickly getting to the content they need.

More metadata elements added to the top of the Document View

• What is the change?
  In addition to Title, Author, and Publication, we have included additional metadata elements at the top of the Document View. These elements vary by content type, and include metadata such as Date, Issue Number, and Manuscript Number.
• What problem does it solve?
  While the aforementioned metadata elements were always available from the Full Citation tab of the Explore panel, end users expressed frustration by the extra click to get to this information. With this change, the most important metadata is always visible, no matter which Explore panel section a user has opened.

Numbered search results

• What is the change?
  Search results will now appear in a numbered list.
• What problem does it solve?
  Many of our users view dozens of documents in a single session, and they need a simple way to keep track of where they are in their results list. Viewing search results in a numbered list helps users avoid losing their place during their current session and also helps them return to where they left off in subsequent sessions.