[Eril-l] When is a Gale database just a sub-collection of another Gale database?

[Stephen Francoeur]

We're taking a fresh look at how we present our Gale databases to our users
on our website. As a public university in New York state, we have access to
a large collection of Gale databases that all public universities, public
schools, and public libraries have (via NOVELny). We have also expanded our
Gale collections at our university (CUNY) and have purchased a few
additional items for our college (Baruch). In reviewing the product page
from Gale that shows what databases we have access to, there are quite a
few that we've never added links to on our A-Z databases page because they
seemed like sub-collections of larger databases.

For example, we don't have a link to Gale OneFile: Computer Science or Gale
OneFile: Agriculture because we assume that there isn't any unique content
in those databases given that we also have Gale Academic OneFile, Business
Insights: Global, Gale OneFile: News, etc. Is this a mistake? I'm thinking
at the very least that we might want to activate in Alma every single one
of the electronic collections on the off chance there is unique content in
some of those smaller databases. What are other libraries with similarly
expansive Gale collections doing with presenting Gale databases on their
A-Z list? Is anyone else picking and choosing? Is anyone putting every
single Gale database they have on their A-Z list?

It's not just the OneFile collections that we find confusing. It's also the
Gale in Context series. Is there really any need to link to every single
one that we have access to? We've long spotlighted Gale in Context:
Opposing Viewpints on our A-Z list (as well as in our reference and
instructional settings) but what about all those other Gale in Context
databases Should we really be linking to all of them?

Since so many of these Gale databases all begin with "Gale" in their name,
our A-Z list is going to get really lopspided when you get down to the part
of the list for the Gs (we might have more then 25 different databases
beginning with the name "Gale...")

I realize I could detailed comparisons for the Gale databases in Alma to
find out for sure if there is any unique content in some of those lesser
known Gale databases, but I'm hoping instead that folks here may have
already worked through this issue.

Thanks for any thoughts you care to add.

Regards,
Stephen Francoeur
UX Librarian
Baruch College
New York, NUY

-- 
https://stephenfrancoeur.com
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