"Over the last
15 years the amount of content offered by our industry is so
large it is a challenge for publishers to tell customers what
we have," says Paul Tucci, Senior Vice President of Global
Sales and Marketing. Speaking exclusively to ACCESS
he continued, "Gale has recently packaged different sorts of
information into Resource Centers through one interface.
Primary documents, journals, newspapers and reference works
are combined together to address what libraries have been
asking us to do: enhance the user experience."
Gale's Health
& Wellness Resource Center is a case in point. It
integrates such classic health reference sources as The
Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, the PDR Family Guide for
Nutrition and Health, Clinical Reference Systems
along with full text
content from hundreds of health journals, pamphlets and
newspaper articles in a single search interface. So a single
search query returns results from reference sources -
providing background and education - periodical sources, which
update the searcher on current medical thought and
breakthroughs, and pharmacy information for both prescription
and over-the-counter drugs. In one search, even the novice
user gets a complete report packaged in a simple, intuitive
framework.
The History
Resource Center: The Modern World offers a virtual library of
the resources needed to study world history at school and
university. It has good coverage of Asia starting with China's
Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and moving forward to communism in
China and revolutions in Southeast Asia. Integrated into the
Resource Center are 17 reference sources, 1,500 primary
documents, many available electronically for the first time,
500 maps, 1,000 images and statistics.
 Gale seeks
partnerships with Asian content providers
How does Gale
source non-US content? 'Gale is interested in partnering with
companies in Asia and elsewhere who own their own content'
commented Tucci. 'It's the only way for a North American
company to produce respected content that is not about North
America. We've seen during the past 20 years several countries
that have rapidly developed content for themselves. This is
the writing on the wall for US publishers: work with
indigenous content producers or focus entirely on what is
produced in your own country. An important byproduct of
working together is that it encourages a local content
industry to develop.'
Also recently
announced from Gale is OneFile. 'We created it in response to
demand from US consortia. They didn't want to select
databases. Instead they asked us for a single file covering
all disciplines' said Tucci. OneFile puts 16 million records
online in one interface. It has 20 years of backfiles, covers
more than 6,000 serials including 2,650 in full text.
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Paul Tucci, Senior
Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing
Microfilm still suitable for
delivering archival quality information
Given so many publications have
electronic editions, doesn't this spell the end of microfilm?
Tucci believes not: 'Many have predicted the downfall of
microfilm believing that everything will eventually be on the
internet. But our customers buy microfilm collections for
different reasons. First are the undisputed archival
properties of microfilm. Second is that it represents a pool
of research information, often rare and esoteric historical
collections, that will never be scanned. Nowadays, the
economics of microfilming mean that we have to look at unique
collections which on microfiche sell for large sums of money
to a very small pool of libraries with specialist interests.
What we do do is make the indices to microfilm collections
available electronically to speed up access.' A case in point
is the Sir Winston Churchill Collection of archival materials.
Tucci believes it will do well in Japan and a core group of
countries who can afford it.
But it's the Resource Center model
that most captures Tucci's imagination. 'We want to create and
sell a concept: turn resource data into information. Users
should be able to find a reference book, read an article, hear
a speech all from one source. We want data and information to
come alive so users get excited. A&I we've had since 1970.
It's time for a change. Gale is one of the companies that is
leading this
change.'
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