Thanks Carol,
That’s great Carol, if it works for me it’ll give me more time to remember all the things I’ve forgotten to search for. The British Newspapers freebee still works okay. Here’s the National Library Week freebee info page.
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/libraryweek
Looking at their About Us pages they seem to be in the process of setting up a system whereby you can do a google search and get results that you would normally only get from a logged in search of a Gale database and if you then click on the result and if you’re a member of a library which has subscribed to the database and if you’re registered you go more or less straight into the full Gale article, image or whatever.
People who don’t get access to results will be encouraged to join their local library while libraries that haven’t subscribed to the databases will have a good idea of local demand and hopefully subscribe accordingly. Sounds like good marketing strategy for Gale because the availability of their databases and what is in them becomes known to the wider google community. But the local library still has to find the funding to make it an ongoing proposition and that’s going to a problem for many.
Linking this to a freebee, such as the National Library Week one, would encourage many people to register and Gale, by monitoring the searches, would be able to inform individual libraries of what is in demand and the level of demand from people in their area. If that is the case you probably should encourage all your friends and every member of the household who can arrange a distinct email address to register and use furiously the database you most want while it is available.
I think I’ll register and see what happens.
Alan.
I always have too many books to remember so I carry index cards and scraps of paper--napkins, pieces of envelopes, newspaper margins etc. with titles written on them in my purse. It's like sorting through confetti when I try to find the right one!