Posted January 29, 2016
by Kristin Fust, Product Manager, GVRL
“If it isn’t on Google, it doesn’t exist.” Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wale’s famous quote about Google rings true for many teachers, professors, and librarians. For years, educators mourned this trend, judging general website searches too limiting to support comprehensive research. But those concerns dissipate when quality content becomes accessible through Google. It’s a case of moving the proverbial mountain to Mohammed – putting authoritative content into the workflow of information seekers.
With Gale’s new partnership with Google, we’ve moved the popular GVRL eBook collection into user workflows – expanding access and enhancing resources for library users. The agreement makes it easier for people to find and use relevant, authoritative information.
The relationship with Google for Education has two immediate benefits for users that will simplify their access to the GVRL content you provide your patrons:
- Seamless user login, allowing users to sign in to their library’s GVRL resources using their Google account credentials (including Gmail)
- Integrated Google tools, so users can easily share and download articles with such tools as Drive and Docs.
There’s an app for that
A free application is now available to support patrons who want to access your GVRL collection. Using the Gale eBook Chrome App, users can access eBooks on the GVRL platform – quickly locating and using the resources both at the library and at home. And because it’s available on all devices, it’s easier than ever for patrons, students, teachers, faculty, and public library patrons to access GVRL eBooks from their tablets and mobile devices. The Gale eBook Chrome App is available for free download through the Chrome Web Store.
Integration begins here
With full integration into Google, your library users can now:
- Save individual articles to their Google Drive. No more emailing files to themselves or saving them to a local or portable drive. The content remains accessible from whatever device they use now or in the future.
- Save multiple articles to their Google Drive simultaneously. This will save time and allow them to quickly group information and transfer articles to access later.
- Find all saved articles in a Drive folder that is automatically created and named “Gale Virtual Reference Library,” so they know exactly where to find the content.
- Seamlessly log in using their existing Google credentials. (No need to create yet another user name and password.)
- Transfer document highlights, notes, and even translation, if they have used these tools within GVRL.
The award-winning GVRL platform is popular with patrons for providing HTML and PDF formats, enabling powerful cross-searches, and offering tools that highlight, annotate, cite, translate, print, share, email, read aloud, and download content. But that’s not all; learn more about how GVRL is optimized for research. No GVRL at your library yet? Request your free trial and check out the complete title list today.Nike
“And because it’s available on all devices, it’s easier than ever for patrons, students, teachers, faculty, and public library patrons to access GVRL eBooks from their tablets and mobile devices.” I tried, but the Chrome Web Store isn’t available through Chrome on my phone that runs Android Marshmallow (not to mention iPhones). What “mobile devices” are you referring to?