Lesson 5 - GALE VIRTUAL REFERENCE

Two cents' worth on my first attempt to GVRL from school.

FIRST CENT: my first attempt to access GVRL was frustratingly futile, even though I expected access to be quick and easy from school, more than from home.

I used my usual SDLN local library card login info thinking that was how I was supposed to log in to GVRL but, alas, that did not work. Is/will it always be this difficult to access? Is there a secret handshake I'm missing?

I even toggled between various Challenge screens to see if I had missed some info bit about a new way to access this database, but, as always in a pressure situation, I could not find any clues. I'm not saying the info didn't exist, just that I couldn't find any in this "pressure/stressed" setting.

I will try again, from school and/or from home.

SECOND CENT: One MORE thing that bothered me was the screen that came up after clicking the GALE icon link in the alphabetical list.

I could see CENGAGE Learning on a tab in the upper left and INFOTRAC in large font in the center on the page but NO MENTION of GALE or GVRL on this screen. It was pretty colored text (I like blue) on a clean white background but was I in the right place for GVRL? I had NO WAY OF KNOWING. I never like that kind of dissonance when I am researching.

Worse yet, I'm pretty confident that if students and teachers here ran into that screen or had problems logging in, that they would NEVER come back to this database. Never ever.

Eventually I discovered a similar screen (associated with the Written Tutorial info) THAT DID include the word GALE as well as the words "InfoTrac" and "Cengage." THEN I knew I was on the right trac. (Sorry for the pun.) That's a good thing. But this detour still didn't help me access the GVRL database.

Perhaps I am just an old fuddy duddy who is persnickety about consistency and details, but I think that the name GALE should be visible on that first page after the alphabetical list so users can be confident they are in the right sequence of screens.

I'm frustrated but I WILL try again later.