I just heard of AccessMyLibrary for the first time today as I was listening to NPR on the way to work. The announcer read off that the program I was listening to was sponsored by “The Gale Group” bringing me access to information libraries “use” via AccessMyLibrary. Well of course that caught my attention. He didn’t say access to information “in” my library. Just information that libraries “use”. I’m pretty sure he said use not “trust” as listed in the tag line below, but I could be wrong. So I decided to look it up. The site is linked below.
AccessMyLibrary – News, Research, and Information that Libraries Trust
Apparently, it is a site through which registered users can authenticate to GALE content their libraries have purchased if their library has also registered. The attempt is to funnel Internet researchers to GALE content. It’s pretty smart, but very commercial. The pages are riddled with advertising. And it isn’t clear to me from the FAQ on the site if people have to pay for the service or not?
Have any libraries out there signed up for this? And, if so, what are your impressions?
Filed under: Information Management, Libraries, Web
Hi Rhonda – Thanks for the post about AccessMyLibrary.com. Although I’m not a librarian, I am the Product Manager for the site, so I thought a response here might be germane: to answer one of the questions above, the site is free to both end users and to current Gale customers who have purchased certain electronic products. Direct access is provided to over 30 million full-text periodical articles primarily sourced from our InfoTrac line of products, and, for library authenticated users, to all other Gale products offered by their library. We support the site through advertising, which, I agree, can be a bit aggressive at times.
We’re currently working on a re-design / re-conceptualization of the site, and would love to get feedback from you and your colleagues on the current and future direction of the service. We have some ideas about how AccessMyLibrary can help libraries acquire new patrons and market effectively for libraries in general.
Feel free to send me a note via e-mail. Or, feel free to respond via comment and we can have our dialogue right here.
Cheers,
–Eric
AccessMyLibrary.com | Web Product Manager
Eric,
Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the clarification. So, for example, we subscribe to some Historic Newspaper databases from GALE. How could our students use this product? And just to be clear, no unaffiliated users would be able to access our products?
Also, how does the authentication work on your site. What is the “three step” process that patrons take?
I think the idea is pretty clever, despite the commercialization, which I do think is a bit problematic.
Rhonda
Thanks for the info …
she helped me … I’m so to speak here
began to further review
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