January 13, 2010

Hi,

When you log in to Gale through OSLIS, the common menu of databases now displays in a new order.  To see the common menu, access  PowerSearch or click on Change Databases, an option towards the top of many of the Gale database interfaces.  For a related visual, open the attachment.

The databases are divided into Cross-Searchable Products (the biggest chunk) and Additional Products.  Beyond those two divisions, the databases used to be in a random order.  Now, the first grouping of Cross-Searchable Products represents the databases designed for K12 users (Student Resource Center Gold thru Junior Reference Collection).  Note that because Kids InfoBits is not yet cross-searchable it is the top database in the section at the bottom called Additional Products.

The second grouping of Cross-Searchable Products represents other databases that are not made for K12 but would be useful to students and educators (Gale Virtual Reference Library thru LegalTrac). 

The final grouping in that category is all of the collections in alphabetical order (Agriculture Collection thru Psychology Collection).  To make collections, Gale pulled periodical and some reference content that is already found in General and/or Academic OneFile and bundled the information by popular subject areas so users would get more focused search results for those topics.

The bottom section on the page is Additional Products and represents the few databases in our statewide package which are not yet cross-searchable.  Kids InfoBits, Health & Wellness Resource Center, and a few other databases display in this section. 

Notice that you see InfoTrac Junior Edition and InfoTrac Student Edition in both sections:  Cross-Searchable Products and Additional Products.  The versions in the top section utilize an interface geared towards older students and adults.  The versions at the bottom of the page use a K12 interface geared towards younger students.  InfoTrac Junior Edition search results will be the same regardless of which interface you use, and the same is true for InfoTrac Student Edition.

For more information about the K12 databases, consult the comparison and relationships documents found at the very bottom of the educator versions of the Find Information pages on OSLIS.
     http://elementary.educator.oslis.org/find-information
     http://secondary.educator.oslis.org/find-information

Thanks,
Jen

Jennifer Maurer
School Library Consultant
Library Development
Oregon State Library
250 Winter Street NE
Salem, OR 97301-3950
503-378-5011
jennifer.maurer@state.or.us