| By Megan Sullivan |
We’re thrilled to announce that on Friday, December 18, 2020, Gale will release an enhanced user experience for Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO). On this date, we will retire the current version of ECCO, and your library’s ECCO links will seamlessly redirect to the new experience.
The new ECCO interface is the culmination of extensive user research, including a widely distributed survey and a detailed series of usability tests. In response to observations during testing as well as direct feedback provided by researchers, we’re making several impactful changes and enhancements—with more to come in subsequent software releases. This includes:
An enhanced Advanced Search interface — As part of this update, we’re launching a major upgrade to Advanced Search. This will, of course, apply to ECCO, but will also affect most Gale Primary Sources databases as well as Gale Literature, Gale eBooks, Gale OneFile, Gale In Context, Gale Business: Entrepreneurship, and Gale Health and Wellness. The new Advanced Search interface will meet our researchers where they are by providing useful tips and information to help them get the most out of their search experience. This includes a detailed Search Tips section, as well as labels and tool tips that describe each search field and limiter. Below is a prototype that shows a preview of what to expect:
Note: This is a prototype; there may be subtle differences in the final product.
Improved accessibility — Maintained for web accessibility standards, will ensure access by users of all abilities.
Smarter search results — More filtering options in search results; Name and Subject Expansion, which will look for pseudonyms and synonyms of your search term; and access to our Topic Finder and Term Frequency textual analysis tools.
A streamlined user interface — Consistent with other Gale products, will deliver an engaging experience that allows quick access to search tools; relevant content; and collaborative features, like Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.
Secure product access — Will guarantee the use of HTTPS protocol to ensure that data between a patron’s browser and Gale products is encrypted and the right to privacy for library users is protected.
The new ECCO experience is available to preview from the New Experience Available! button, located in the top right corner of the current ECCO home page. Please note that the Advanced Search upgrade, as well as several other key enhancements, won’t be available until the December 18 launch.
Meet the Author
Megan Sullivan is a product manager and works on the Gale Primary Sources line of products. She holds a Master of Science in Information with a concentration in Archives and Records Management and has worked and volunteered at several academic libraries. Before moving to her role in product management, Megan was a cataloger in Gale’s Metadata Standards and Services department. In her spare time, she likes to read historical fiction, travel to new places, and spend time with family and friends.