Advanced Tools in Gale eResources (Webinar Notes)

Advanced Tools in Gale eResources to Support Academic Librarians

Webinar Highlights

from Matt LaBrake

Takeaways

•New Tool: Term Clusters for InfoTrac Resources

•Bookmarking (Permalinks): How to share information from Gale eResources with others

•Gale Training Resources: On Demand Tutorials, Live Webinar Calendar, Recorded Webinar Archive, Supporting Documents

Term Clusters

Term Clusters visually organize results based on frequently occurring terms, allowing users to hone in on targeted topics, envision connections between topics, and create new paths of inquiry. These visual search results allow users to discover the context of their search term and uncover hidden connections.

Why use Term Clusters?

• When a search provides a large number of results, users can click the link from the left hand sidebar into term clusters. Then users can use the inner and outer rings to hone in on more specific sets of results.

• Viewing a term cluster allows users to visualize research connections they may not have considered. For example, after running a term cluster, a user may uncover multiple topics on the inner and outer rings that can be compared to one another.

• When users have a broad idea of a topic they want to investigate or are having trouble coming up with a research topic, they can click the term clusters search from the gold toolbar. After entering a general term, users will be presented with a term cluster that provides a wealth of potential topics.

Term Clusters

• Example Topic: “Invasive Species”

• The inner rings represent popular topics related to your search

• The outer rings feature topics related to the inner rings and narrow your focus

• As users click around a Term Cluster, results on the right are updated

• The term cluster is also a heat map – darker reds and oranges are more popular terms than yellows and greens.

• “Asian Carp” would be a particularly good topic as we know there is a lot of information available 

Bookmarking in Gale eResources (Permalinks)

A Bookmark is a stable link that will take you back to the page you created the link on. The link in the

address bar is NOT stable and you cannot use this to direct others.

There are 4 places you can create bookmarks in Gale

Where can I create Bookmarks?

The Article Level

Where can I create Bookmarks?

The Publication Page

Where can I create Bookmarks?

The Search Results Level

Where can I create Bookmarks?

The Saved Documents Page

Gale Training Resources

• On Demand Tutorials

• http://solutions.cengage.com/gale-training/on-demand-tutorials

• Training Webinar Calendar

• http://solutions.cengage.com/gale-training/webinars/

• Recorded Webinars

• http://solutions.cengage.com/gale-training/webinar/recorded/

• Documents and Tools

• http://solutions.cengage.com/gale-training/materials/

• (Scavenger Hunts, Search Examples, Exercises, Tip Sheets, Lesson Plans)