The Gale Group

| Main Menu |

(Note from the Washington State Library:  In order to participate in the Fall 1999 Washington State Databases Trial, each vendor was asked to address questions the Statewide Database Licensing Committee felt were most critical in order for library staff to evaluate products and vendors.  Please contact the vendor's representative, listed below, for additional information on this product.)

1. Describe the database product(s). Include information on subject scope, percentage of full-text, dates of coverage, target audience (including age ranges), and how often the contents are updated.

Health Reference Center

Health Reference Center is a multi-source reference center for health and wellness research. It provides access to the full text of health and wellness, family health, medicine, nursing, allied health, health administration, mental health, senior health, professional and refereed journals; plus a wide variety of personal health information sources. It includes indexing and abstracts to 189 health and medical periodicals (143 periodicals or 76% with full text) and more than 700 full text medical pamphlets as well over 2,000 full text topical overviews, full text referral information and selective indexing of articles from an additional 1500 general interest titles. Health Reference Center has a rolling backfile of the past 4 years of indexing, because of the dynamic nature of consumer health information. (Older consumer health information is often out of date and incorrect.) Health Reference Center contains information that is informative and understandable to the general consumer audience as well as to members of the health care professions. The audience for this database would include public and academic library patrons, high school students, families, and medical professionals. Health Reference Center is updated every business day.

Additionally, indexing and full text is available for the following reference books:

 

General Reference Center

General Reference Center indexes and abstracts approximately 415 (315 periodicals or 76% with full text) general interest titles as well as the most current 60 days of indexing to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In addition, it provides graded reviews of books, movies, theater, CD's, and restaurants as well as over 80,000 consumer evaluations and over 30,000 full text newspaper articles from Knight Ridder/Tribune News. Coverage extends from 1980 to date. The audience for this database would be high school, public and academic library patrons. General Reference Center is updated every business day. Additionally indexing and full text is provided of the following reference books:

 

General BusinessFile/ASAP

General BusinessFile/ASAP provides every type of information needed for business research including full text journals, magazines, investment reports, directory listings and newswire releases, as well as indexing of the current year of The Wall Street Journal, and the business and finance sections of The New York Times and the current six months of indexing of The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly. General BusinessFile ASAP includes Investext, which is a key resource for researchers who want the most up-to-date investment information. It contains indexing and the full text of company and industry research reports prepared by leading Wall Street firms, as well as regional and international brokerage and financial firms. Reports cover over 11,000 U.S. and international companies. Additionally, General BusinessFile ASAP provides directory information from Ward’s Business Directory to over 110,000 privately and publicly held companies, with the emphasis on hard-to-find private company information. Finally, it contains indexing of approximately 1000 business, management, and trade journals (including 460 periodicals or 46% with full text). Indexing extends from 1980 to the present. The audience for this database would be high school, public and academic library patrons.

 

Computer ASAP�

Computer ASAP� contains complete indexing to approximately 150 high-tech publications and full text to 103 journals (or 69%). Designed to answer questions on software, hardware, and peripheral equipment, it also provides information about high tech industries such as robotics and satellite communications. Product reviews, industry status reports, company profiles and more are all integrated in this one self-service database. Coverage includes the current year plus the past 3 years. The audience for this database would be high school, academic and public libraries. Computer ASAP� is updated every business day.

 

Biography Resource Center

Biography Resource Center –The new Biography Resource Center, the first product to benefit from the expanded resources of the Gale Group, is a comprehensive online biographical reference database designed to meet the needs of public and academic library patrons in the areas of literature, science, multicultural studies, business, entertainment, politics, sports, government, history, current events and the arts. You can search by name, nationality, place, date, occupation, gender, or ethnicity to access:

As this resource grows it will include subject and time period searching, more than 8,000 links to relevant Internet sites, digitized images and primary documents plus the ability to link to titles held in your library's collection. In the fall, BioRC will add 925,000 "thumbnail" biographies from the Marquis Complete Who's Who. That will bring the total number of biographies in this database to 1,140,000. This database contains some material from as far back as 1977, but most of the material comes from the year 1980 to present. Biography Resource Center is currently updated approximately every two to three months during its first year, and then will shift to monthly updates.

Literature Resource Center

Literature Resource Center – Designed for high school, undergraduate and graduate libraries, this database delivers biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors and their works, including authors of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, history and journalism. This database provides users access to several sources including Contemporary Authors Online�, Dictionary of Literary Biography and Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. In addition, Gale’s Literature Resource Center provides access to the full-text of 34 literary journals, including over 55,000 essays. In-depth coverage is provided on the 2500 most-studied authors in high school and undergraduate curricula, including biographies, bibliographies, recommended reading lists, and over 25,000 full-text critical essays on their works. Also included are links to 2,500 author-related websites, selected and evaluated for reference and critical information by Gale editors. Information is organized in an easy-to-access format, and authors are classified to provide users the ability to compare and contrast writers who focus on similar themes. Users may also purchase Macmillan Library Reference Databases (Twayne's World/US/English Authors or Scribner's Writers series) in conjunction with the Literature Resource Center. Data for all Macmillan databases is fully integrated with the Literature Resource Center. Additionally, subscribers to Chadwyck-Healey's Literature Online can link directly to the full-text of an author's works from within the LRC and vice versa. These are just a few of the features and benefits to this database. This database has materials ranging from 1980 to date, but presently the majority of the materials come from the late 1980s and forward. Literature Resource Center is updated quarterly.

K-12 Databases

InfoTrac Kids Edition is a perfect way to introduce K-6 students to the process of research. This database gives children easy access to magazines, reference books and newspaper articles selected just for their age group. The database includes 35 indexed, abstracted and full text periodicals selected to reflect the preferences of the K-6 librarians. Additionally, the database includes hundreds of full text newspaper articles from Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, 300+ full color Rand McNally maps, and the following full text reference books: Information Please Almanac (Atlas and Yearbook), Information Please Environmental Almanac, Information Please Sports Almanac, and The Reader's Companion to American History. InfoTrac Kids Edition provides information back to 1995

InfoTrac Junior Edition is designed especially for junior high and middle schools. It features the titles most critical to their libraries and the curriculum as identified by school librarians. InfoTrac Junior Edition provides indexing and abstracts of 60 journals with full text of 50 (or 83%) titles. InfoTrac Junior Edition provides information back to 1995. Additionally, the databases includes full text newspaper articles from the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, 300+ full color Rand McNally maps, and the following full text reference books:

Additionally, work is in progress to add the following reference titles to InfoTrac Junior Edition:

InfoTrac Student Edition is a one-stop, multi-source general reference solution designed especially for secondary school libraries. It features the titles most critical to their libraries and the curriculum as identified by school librarians. InfoTrac Student Edition provides indexing and abstracts of 230 journals with full text of 185 titles (or 80%). Backfile indexing extends to 1985. Additionally, the database includes full text newspaper articles from the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service and 300+ full color Rand McNally maps. In addition, indexing and full text is provided of the following reference books:

 
DISCovering Databases

The following databases have some periodical content, but are made of much more original material as well as excerpts from other reference sources. The Gale Group is proud to present the DISCovering database series described below.

DISCovering Authors Modules offers fast and easy access to biographical, bibliographical, and critical information on 1,260 of the most studied authors from ancient times to the present. The database represents scores of nations, cultures, time periods, and genres, including entries on such authors as Muhammad, Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, and Amy Tan. Authors included in this product are some of the most-studied novelists, poets, dramatists, with special emphasis on multicultural and popular and genre fiction.

For each author, there are two types of entries: Biography and Criticism. There are one biography and several criticism documents for each author. Each biography contains links to the related criticism documents, while each criticism document contains a link to the author biography.

Each Biography contains:

Each critical essay contains:

DISCovering Authors - Most-Studied offers fast and easy access to biographical, bibliographical, and critical information on 392 of the most studied authors from ancient times to the present.

What you'll find in DISCovering Most-Studied Authors

This comprehensive guide to bio-bibliographical information as well as criticism represents scores of nations, cultures, time periods, and genres, including entries on such authors as Muhammad, Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, and Amy Tan. The authors included are some of the most-studied novelists, poets, dramatists, with special emphasis on multicultural and popular and genre fiction.

For each author, there are two types of entries: Biography and Criticism. There are one biography and several criticism documents for each author. Each biography contains linksto the related criticism documents, while each criticism document contain a link to theauthor biography.

Each author biography contains:

Each critical essay contains:

DISCovering Biography is your source for information on 2,000 of the most frequently studied individuals from ancient times to the present. Included are renowned personalities from all areas of the world and fields of endeavor. Our editors have consulted high school and college reading lists, as well as an advisory to identify the individuals and groups most frequently studied in high school and college courses. Students will be thrilled to discover a range of fascinating current people, including sports figures like Grant Hill, music groups such as R.E.M. and high-profile movie stars like Meg Ryan.

The DISCovering Biography database has been fully indexed to meet the needs of students and general readers, offering searches by name, occupation, birth and death dates and places, nationality, ethnicity, gender, awards, and subject terms, as well as a range of advanced search criteria. DISCovering Biography also offers opportunities to jump directly to related entries through the use of hypertext links within the entries.

Each DISCovering Biography entry consists of two sections

The basic Biography contains:

The "Life and Times" section contains:

DISCovering Multicultural America is a thoroughly integrated multimedia reference source that offers information on the culture, history and current status of America's largest and most often studied ethnic groups:

DISCovering Multicultural America provides information on people, significant documents, timeline events, landmarks, organizations, essays, periodical articles and glossary terms. The information can be accessed through a number of search paths, as well as retrieved through more than 22,000 intuitive hypertext links.  What you'll find in DISCovering Multicultural America:

DISCovering Science offers a wealth of information covering:

as well as coverage of the environment, earth sciences and more! Here's what you'll discover in DISCovering Science

DISCovering U.S. History offers a glimpse into the lives of people, events, and social movements that have shaped America. Engaging essays cover such diverse topics as:

Here's what you'll discover in DISCovering U.S. History. 

You'll use DISCovering U.S. History to access a wealth of information including in-depth essays; full-text biographies of notable people; an interactive timeline of events; individual state histories; and historic documents. DISCovering U.S. History offers a variety of search paths to help you track down the information you need.

DISCovering World History will help you study the people, events, and social movements that have shaped the world in which we live. You'll explore the history of the world through fascinating articles covering:

You'll use DISCovering World History to locate a wealth of information including more than 1,800 in-depth essays; more then 1,700 full-text biographies of notable people; and interactive timeline of more than 20,000 world events; more than 200 individual country histories; and more than 100 historic documents. Track down the information you need through a variety of user-friendly search paths, or link from one article to the next using DISCovering World History's hypertext links.

Here's what you'll discover in DISCovering World History:

2. What are the hardware and software requirements for using all the features of the product?

World Wide Web access to InfoTrac Web using Graphic User Interfaces like Netscape Navigator 3.0 or higher and Microsoft Internet Explorer Web Browsers 3.0 or higher as well as character-based browsers like Lynx is available. Web access is available on every computer that supports a graphical Web client. This includes Windows, Macintosh and UNIX-based operating systems. The InfoTrac Basic interface supports older versions of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer such as Netscape 1.0. For Windows based web browsers an 80486 or better PC is recommended to handle the graphical portion of the documents. The InfoTrac Web server provides retrieved documents in "compound document" format. Both ASCII text and images are delivered to the web browser. The "compound document" format facilitates speeding delivery of the articles to the desktop while providing the full editorial content of the original publication. Web browsers with Adobe Acrobat Reader installed as a helper application can retrieve, view, and print fully bitmapped PDF (300/600 dpi) journal articles. A modem speed of 28.8 BPS is the minimum modem speed for acceptable delivery of ASCII text and compound documents. For optimal response time and performance a fractional T-1 line is estimated as necessary for fully bitmapped page delivery.

3. Is remote access included for the subscription price?  If there are additional charges or requirements in order to offer remote access, please describe.   What methods of remote access are supported?

Yes, remote access is included for the subscription price with no additional charges.

For remote access for Web users, access is controlled by utilization of the Gale Group’s Remote Patron Authentication program. Options for use can be set by the library. If the IP Address of the host is not found on InfoTrac Servers and a "proxy server" is not utilized InfoTrac Web will ask for the Patron Library ID number or password. InfoTrac then passes that number or password in an http packet to the Library designated server for validation. The server would validate the patron and return the status to InfoTrac. Validation of library barcode numbers can be against a patron barcode file or by barcode pattern recognition. Authenticated patrons would be approved for access and non-authenticated patrons would be denied. In special cases the Gale Group will authenticate patrons on the InfoTrac Web authentication server.

Smaller Libraries with dial-up access from in-library PC’s whose IP addresses are assigned by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) can utilize Gale Group’s Dial-up Authentication Service. This service incorporates "Cookies" and alleviates the need for patrons to enter passwords for access to InfoTrac.

4. Please discuss any methods or assistance you offer regarding remote access patron verification and authentication.

Gale Group will designate a Sales Application Engineer who has extensive experience in the preparation of CGI scripts for remote access patron verification and authentication. In addition, our Sales Application Engineers have experience in implementation of remote access utilizing OPAC patron files. This individual will work directly with the Libraries technical personnel in remote patron access implementation.

5. What end user delivery options, such as printing, emailing or faxing results, are available beyond just viewing results on the computer monitor?

The InfoTrac Web interface provides end users with the capability to print, email and download citations and articles. " Once articles are retrieved for viewing users have the option to "Reformat" (display article in full record format) for printing using the Web Browser printing capabilities or download the item using the Web Browser File "Save as." command. Additionally, the complete article of each item can be emailed to a user’s email address. Users can also select to mark multiple records, which can be printed, downloaded and/or emailed with a single request.

6. What customer training is provided, and at what cost? 

The Gale Group is committed to providing excellence in training for Washington libraries. When setting up training, The Gale Group attempts to reach as many people as possible by conducting them on-site and regionally. The number of sessions varies from system to system and is dependent upon meeting the needs of the system. The Gale Group will provide a maximum of 6 sessions coordinated by the Washington State Library. The sessions should be held in regions that will accommodate the most people. Each session lasts approximately two (2) hours. The maximum class size is 50 and the optimum is 30 or fewer participants, depending on the capacity of the training facility. When multiple training sessions take place at a single location, up to three (3) sessions may be planned for a given day. When setting up sessions for entire states, The Gale Group tries to target specific sessions to specific user groups (public, academic, etc). There is no charge for this service.

Libraries can also contact the training or customer content support staff at any time through the Gale Group’s 800 number to receive additional help on their system functionality.

Training materials include a user guide and Point of Use materials. Libraries are welcome to five (5) printed copies and an electronic version that they can locally reproduce and make as many copies of these materials as they like. There is no charge for training materials.

Optimally, training sessions require a high speed direct link to the Internet, Netscape 3.0 and a PC with projection capabilities. If computer lab facilities are available, participants may structure training to include hands-on use of the databases. The Gale Group will work with sites and existing capabilities to develop the best training possible.

Customer Content Support

In addition to training, The Gale Group provides Customer Content Support. This group is responsible for taking inbound phone calls and e-mail from customers who need assistance using the product. Consultations include specific search strategies and tips for maximizing use of The Gale Group’s InfoTrac databases. Their operating hours at present are: 6 am to 5 pm Pacific Time or 9 am to 8 pm Eastern Time.

This group can be reached at: 800-227-8431
E-mail address is [email protected]  

7. What customer and technical support is provided, including hours of operation. 

The Gale Group provides technical assistance and customer support 24 hours a day/seven days a week. In September 1999 we plan to have operating hours 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Technical assistance is available by calling 800/227-8431 and selecting option 4. The Department fax number is 800-676-2345. After hours, users are given the option to leave a message for a call back within one business day or leave a "critical" message and a technician will be paged automatically. In addition, the after hours recording is changed to reflect any system problems and inform the customer when the system will be operational again.

E-mail address is as follows:
Technical Support: [email protected]  

Upon award of contract the Gale Group will assign a Sales Application/Support Engineer to handle technical support service specifically for Washington libraries.

Customer Search Assistance and Content Support

In addition to training and technical support, the Gale Group also provides ongoing database assistance through our Content Support Department. Our Content Support department consists of a staff of professional librarians who are experts at searching our databases. They are available to assist our customers with any questions that might arise regarding the search functionality and content of our databases.

This group can be reached at 800-227-8431
Email address is [email protected]

8. Describe the statistics you provide, and discuss whether your statistical reporting complies with guidelines developed by the International Coalition of Library Consortia which may be found at www.library.yale.edu/consortia/webstats.html .

The Gale Group has been providing usage statistics since libraries first began using InfoTrac databases over the Internet in 1993. Since that time the usage reports have continued to evolve to meet the needs of our customers. The current reports are described below. A new report is now available that provides usage reports tailored by the library to meet their reporting requirements. Libraries can connect to the InfoTrac Web Administrative module and access, aggregate, and manipulate statistics on demand.

Statistical reports provide customers with monthly use of each database for each location, including number of logins, total connect time, average login time, number of searches, hits, marked citations, emailed and printed citations and full text. The journal list report shows the number of on-screen views and retrievals, with a breakout of full text retrievals

Libraries can select the level of reporting including:

Older usage reports

Statistical reports are generated on a monthly basis, or on demand, and E-mailed to the library in either ASCII, Flat file, or Postscript formats. The library can choose to receive one aggregate report for a number of sites and also can have individual usage reports sent to each library with the InfoTrac service. Libraries now have the option of selecting the dates to be included in the report Statistics currently reported are:

The reports list each database subscribed to by the library and/or location receiving the statistics. The reports show the number of Sessions, On-Screen Views and Retrievals (e.g. local printing, email, PDF download.)

The journal list report shows the number of on-screen views and retrievals, with a breakout of full text retrievals

The Gale Group currently complies in large part with the "ICOLC: Guidelines for statistical measures of usage of web-based indexed, abstracted, and full text resources". Product Development has recently completed a thorough review of the "Guidelines" and programming changes are being made to incorporate the missing elements. These elements are scheduled to be available October/November 1999 timeframe.

9. Describe your pricing structure or formula for the product. If there are additional costs for retrieving full text, describe the pricing for this service.   

The Gale Group will work with Washington libraries to provide significantly discounted pricing for its products based on population or FTE characteristics and access needs of participating libraries.

10. What is the minimum participation level (however you care to define it) that would be needed to allow participating libraries to receive a discount? What is the minimum discount for a group buy? Please clarify how you would treat existing library customers with regard to a group buy.

The minimum participation level needed for participating libraries to receive a discount would be two (2) libraries. Based upon the number of participating libraries the Gale Group will develop customized pricing which will include a substantial discount of at least 20% below list price. The Gale Group would prorate back credits for existing subscriptions to the databases offered in this response to individual libraries on a case by case basis.

11.  Please provide name and contact information (toll-free telephone number, e-mail address, hours, etc.) should libraries wish to make further inquires.  

For academic and public libraries:

Lew Maurer, Regional Sales Manager
1-800-877-4253 ext. 1987
[email protected]

Hours: 8 am – 5 pm Pacific Time

Frank Buen, Account Manager
1-800-877-4253 ext. 1944
[email protected]

Hours: 7:30 am - 4:00 pm Pacific Time


For school libraries:

Susan Loop, Regional Sales Manager
1-800-877-4253 ext. 1925
[email protected] 

Hours: 8 am – 5 pm Pacific Time

Darris Lynk, Account Manager
1-800-877-4253 ext. 1623
[email protected] 

Hours: 7 am – 4 pm Pacific Time

| Main Menu |