| By Gale Staff |
Through the Gale ecosystem, students have access to more than 100 databases, putting an extraordinary range of compelling research at their fingertips across a multitude of disciplines. To take full advantage of those resources, students need to understand how to use the tools at their disposal. Often, this means turning to campus librarians to help them build their research skills to work effectively with these digital platforms.
To support your library staff, our Academic Outreach and Engagement (AOE) Team developed the Gale Student Orientation Toolkit to introduce students to our suite of databases—and how to leverage them for their research. This ensures that your institution gets the best possible return on your investment, improving student outcomes and campus-wide buy-in while minimizing the legwork for your team.
As you prepare to welcome students back to campus, let’s take a look at how the Student Orientation Toolkit can help students engage with Gale’s full range of research capabilities.
Bridging the Gap in Research Readiness
As the school year gets underway, the number of research instruction sessions can quickly outpace your team’s bandwidth. Even within a single program like first-year writing, librarians may be called on to support dozens of sections. The Student Orientation Toolkit’s collection of product tutorials and interactive activities extends your reach and positions staff to move toward more strategic collaboration, such as tailoring resource recommendations to specific course goals or assignments.
Moreover, students arrive on campus with varied research experience. Some are familiar with subscription databases; others have relied solely on open web sources. The Gale Student Orientation Toolkit is a comprehensive guide to help all students level up their capabilities to become more effective researchers.
The Toolkit comprises customizable, ACRL-aligned resources, which include:
- Editable slide decks that introduce research support tools like the Topic Finder search function, on-page highlighting and note-taking, and a citation generator adaptable to APA, Chicago, Harvard, and MLA styles.
- Tutorials, tip sheets, and annotated examples that show students how to find, evaluate, and organize sources.
- Ready-made walk-throughs that model research tasks and build platform fluency.
Because its materials are easy to repurpose, the Toolkit helps librarians ensure broad adoption and implementation across campus. Faculty members have the flexibility to incorporate core materials into their own teaching style or format with ample opportunity to collaborate with campus librarians.
Support Online and Asynchronous Students
Without direct interaction with librarians or a dedicated orientation, students completing courses online or asynchronously may never realize the full scope of their library’s digital holdings or how to use them.
With access to the Gale Student Orientation Toolkit, instructors can embed helpful content directly into assignment workflows—such as tips on how to evaluate primary sources, or send an article to Google Drive. This context helps students understand the tools at their disposal to help achieve their academic goals without requiring additional intervention from your library team.
For librarians and faculty, the Toolkit also includes guidance for accessing the Gale Usage Dashboard and the Scholarly iQ Portal, two tools that provide detailed analytics on student engagement with databases and platform features. You can use this data to identify underutilized resources and adapt instruction accordingly.
Keep Gale Top-of-Mind with Downloadable Marketing Assets
As Gale continues to roll out updated interfaces and products, such as the upcoming release of Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) Part III, the Student Orientation Toolkit provides library staff with the marketing materials they need to coordinate outreach across departments and platforms.
This includes faculty-facing email templates for products like Gale Research Complete. Supporting materials to build campus awareness and buy-in include pre-populated messaging that can be easily tailored to show instructors how to integrate database content into university courses. Banners, flyers, and social media graphics can further broaden student awareness on campus resources.
Meet Your Academic Engagement Partners at Gale
Eager to explore further strategies to increase campus engagement with Gale resources? The Gale Academic Engagement Team includes seasoned experts, knowledgeable and experienced in collaborating with academic librarians to integrate databases, primary sources, and eBook content into research and coursework instruction.
- Kaila Dollard’s background in education as a college teaching assistant and an elementary school teacher gives her unique insights into partnering with colleges and universities. Kaila graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Bachelor of Science in elementary education and has her master’s in history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
- Lakedria Fuller brings more than seven years of diverse experience in higher education, spanning roles in student services, recruitment, and marketing. Lakedria holds a bachelor’s degree in business (marketing) from Auburn University and a master’s degree in liberal arts (history) from Auburn University at Montgomery.
- Rachael Hinojosa brings a strong foundation in critical analysis and research, with a bachelor’s degree in classical language and literature from the University of Michigan.
- Kayla Murphy possesses a strong passion for education, with three years of experience in higher education and a background as an English teacher. She holds a degree in English education from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and has international teaching experience in the Philippines and Germany.
- Anne Nagrant has more than 10 years of experience at Gale and serves as an officer in our corporate Toastmasters club. Drawing on her cross-cultural experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer, an educator in historical museums, and a student at the University of Michigan, Anne understands that every library’s needs are unique.
- Becky Sowers started working at Gale during the inception of the AOE Team and won the very first Trainer of the Year award. She has a bachelor’s degree in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University and a master’s degree in social work in business from the University of Southern California. She also worked as an academic advisor for business students at Virginia Commonwealth University.
- Sara Tarpley, a member of the Global Academic Leadership Team, has been at Gale for more than 20 years, partnering with customers in various roles, including training, product development, marketing, and sales. Sara holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and has a master’s degree in instructional design and organizational development from Oakland University.
From instructional design and platform training to performance analytics and self-directed marketing tools, Gale’s ecosystem is designed to help Academic libraries extend the impact of their digital resources. To explore more of our support tools beyond the Student Orientation Toolkit, visit support.gale.com/highered.
Not a Gale subscriber yet? Connect with your local representative to learn how Gale’s collection of more than 100 databases can support research and teaching on your campus.