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    360 KB: Subscribing to Gale Virtual Reference Library

    • Product: 360 KB

    How do we subscribe to titles in Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)?

    Because your library may not subscribe to all the titles in the Gale Virtual Reference Library (database code EFU), you may need to indicate in the Client Center which titles you do subscribe to.

    To make these changes, you may either ask for our assistance, or select titles manually.

     


    Subscribe to Titles with Assistance from Serials Solutions

    To work with our Support Team to select your GVRL titles, please take the following steps.

    Please note that we are unable to predict how long it will take us to update your GVRL subscription because we don't know how many different libraries will ask us to do this. Therefore, if you are willing to do this yourself and you (or another staff person at your library) is experienced using Microsoft Excel, we suggest you use the manual procedure below.

    1. From Gale's website, download a .csv list of the GVRL titles that you subscribe to.
      1. From http://support.gale.com click on the link "MARC records".
      2. Enter your Gale Location ID and you will be able to download your list as a .csv file.
        • Additional notes from Gale we have received in the past:
          • On the page where it asks you to "Select the titles you wish to merge," just scroll to the bottom and click Merge Selected Records. The "Bundles" drop-down in the MARC Records tool may be populated with a prompt to "Select Bundle." To get the full listing, leave this set to "Select Bundle." 
    2. Save the .csv file to your local computer. 
    3. Using the Contact Us menu (near the top of this page), send us a request to select the titles for you, attaching the Gale .csv file to your request.
    4. We will re-subscribe those GVRL titles to your library's Client Center profile.

     


    Subscribe to Titles Manually

    To manually update your library's subscribed titles in the GVRL database, please use these instructions:

    1. Use the Gale eBooks MARC Records tool to download a .csv list of the GVRL titles that you subscribe to. On the page where it asks you to "Select the titles you wish to merge," just scroll to the bottom and click Merge Selected Records. The "Bundles" drop-down in the MARC Records tool may be populated with a prompt to "Select Bundle." To get the full listing, leave this set to "Select Bundle." 
    2. Save the .csv file to your local computer. 
    3. Open the .csv file in Excel. (Make sure you are not in the Read-Only or Compatibility modes.) Select the second column (which contains the ISBNs), right click. and then select Format Cells... Choose Category: Number, and change the decimal places to "0":

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    4. Use the Offline Date and Status Editor to download the data for "Not Tracked" titles in GVRL by following these directions. Open the file in Excel as described in the instructions, except format the ISBN column as General instead of Text.
    5. Use the VLOOKUP function in Excel (in a new column) to compare the Client Center file with the Gale file you downloaded in Step 1 above. Use the ISBN as the data point to match:
      • In the Client Center file, select the ISBN column, right click and then Format Cells. Choose Number, and change the decimal places to "0", like you did in Step 1 above. If you do not do this step, the VLOOKUP will not work.
      • In a new column, begin your formula. Use either the formulas tab or enter the formula manually. Use the ISBN as the data point to match (lookup_value):

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      • Use the ISBN column as the column to look up in the Gale .csv file you downloaded (table_array):

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      • After you have completed the formula as shown (col_index_num = 1, range_lookup = FALSE) ...

        Image


        ... use the fill handle to apply the formula to all titles. Double-click it and it will apply to the entire column:

        Image

         
      • Name the column that you did the VLOOKUP on "Lookup" for easier reference later.
      • Copy all of the VLOOKUP cells (CTRL+C, or else right click and then Copy), then right click and select Paste Special, then choose Values:

        Image
         
    6. Select the header row, then click Filter (under the Data tab):

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    7. Click on the filter for the "Lookup" column, and deselect the "#N/A" values.
    8. Enter Subscribed under the status column, and double-click the fill handle to apply that value to all of the filtered cells in this column:

      Image
       
    9. Un-filter the data. You will see that the "#N/A" values will remain as "Not Tracked" and the rows that returned a value are "Subscribed":

      Image
       
    10. Delete the entire column that had the VLOOKUP values.
    11. Follow the instructions here (from Step 2 above) to save and upload the file.

     



    • Date Created: 9-Feb-2014
    • Last Edited Date: 20-Feb-2014
    • Old Article Number: 8662