Opinion: Librarians Speak up About the Gale-Ingenta Partnership
It’s been more than a year now since Gale and Ingenta partnered to integrate Ingenta’s more than 6,000 scholarly and academic electronic journals within Gale’s InfoTrac® Web databases.The core benefit of the Gale and Ingenta partnership is to enable libraries to maximize usage of electronic content from both companies. Libraries are currently able to choose Gale’s InfoTrac OneFile™ Plus or Expanded Academic™ ASAP Plus. Their patrons benefit from:
• Single interface to search combined content
• Integrated result sets of InfoTrac® and Ingenta content
• Ability to access scholarly articles from up to 6,000 Ingenta academic and professional titles, based on the library’s subscriptions
• Ability to buy individual articles on digital format from Ingenta publishers where the library does not hold a subscription
Since the launch of the Gale/Ingenta partnership in January 2002 more than 300 libraries have upgraded their InfoTrac OneFile™ and/or Expanded Academic™ subscriptions to PLUS versions, allowing libraries to benefit from the integrated, combined Gale and Ingenta service.
So what is the impact of this partnership? Are libraries happy? To find out whether or not the Gale and Ingenta partnership is benefiting libraries and helping them maximize usage of electronic content faster and more effectively, Ingenta went directly to two academic libraries for their honest feedback. The following interviews offer a candid picture of each library’s initial hesitations about online services, what works best for them, as well as the overall cost and time saving benefits of working with Gale and Ingenta.
Interview #1: Beth Bernhardt, Electronic Journals and Document Delivery Librarian at University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Ms. Bernhardt shared University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s (UNCG) experience using Gale and Ingenta, since the onset of the partnership. She stated, “UNCG’s library was excited to activate the new solutions promptly, so our library patrons could search faster and better. As librarians, we are always looking for ways to help our users fine-tune and consolidate research capabilities.
In particular Ms. Bernhardt highlighted that Ingenta’s partnership with Gale enhances InfoTrac™, making it a more robust and academically-oriented tool given the expanded collection of academic journals and full-text articles now available. She added, “Students enjoy the seamless search capabilities. In general, undergraduates are mostly concerned with finding what they need fast – not perusing two databases is a plus. And since the search appears in the Ingenta file as well, they can download the full-text article or journal they need immediately.”
Faculty and students in particular enjoy that Ingenta indexes all types of journals that can be sent through UNCG’s Journal Finder tool, an electronic management system that gets them directly to what they need. Furthermore, Ingenta’s deposit account allows faculty to get much use out of Ingenta’s TOC service, which lists pay-per-view titles in UNCG’s Journal Finder. “From my perspective, Ingenta’s Library Statistics are especially helpful because I can really see what journals are being used and which ones we may want to consider adding to future collections. We are also able to track usage of pay-per-view articles. The Gale/Ingenta products are truly time-savers,” Ms. Bernhardt concluded.
For a comprehensive directory of UNCG’s library and complete services visit http://library.uncg.edu
Interview #2: Lorna Dorr, Reference Librarian at Western Carolina University
A former UnCover client, Western Carolina University’s Lorna Dorr expressed, “Western Carolina was stuck with the switch from UnCover to Ingenta, but we feel that Ingenta has worked conscientiously to create a seamless transition. There were some kinks to work out initially, but we are very pleased now with the overall solutions offered, including the Gale/Ingenta partnership.”
Ms. Dorr continued, “There is quite a lot I like about all the services offered, but I especially like that first-time users don’t necessarily need librarian intervention, which is an enormous time saver. Furthermore, we have a campus site license for Reveal which faculty particularly like. We implemented a cost-center to track faculty spending and really monitor our spending closely. Granted, at first we had more faculty interested, but now it seems to be getting the most use from graduate students in the Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Health Sciences, Medicine and Nursing Programs.”
According to Ms. Dorr undergraduates tend to use Gale’s products more, but they are able to see the Ingenta database. Also, the “NC Live link” to the state consortium is extremely easy to work with access to the administrative module.
“At Western Carolina we have a document delivery committee that with Ingenta’s services and monthly statistics, has been able to monitor database use, budgets, serials, collection development, as well as determine which journals are working and which are not. In these tight times, this is invaluable,” Ms. Dorr finished.
To learn more about Hunter Library at Western Carolina University and their research tools visit http://www.wcu.edu/library/.
More Benefits Available through the Gale/Ingenta Partnership:
• Did you know that with the full-text journal titles added from the Ingenta collection, Gale’s InfoTrac OneFile™ has expanded to more than 10,000 publications? Total periodical counts depend on the number of Ingenta subscriptions a library holds. However, a pay-per-view option allows users to buy individual digitised articles when the library doesn’t hold a subscription.
• Did you know libraries that activate Ingenta through Gale can request a free summary report detailing the usage behaviour of their patrons on a monthly basis through Ingenta’s standard usage statistics package? Data given includes usage of table of contents, abstracts and article downloads per journal, together with the numbers of visits and searches their patrons have undertaken during the period.
• Did you know Ingenta offers libraries free posters, helping to promote the understanding and use of Ingenta's services?
For more information on the Gale-Ingenta partnership, or to request free posters for your library, please email Amel.Abourachid@ingenta.com