│By Megan Sullivan, Gale Primary Sources Product Manager│
We are thrilled to announce that on Friday, December 18, 2020, Gale will release an enhanced user experience for Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO). On this date, we will retire the current version of ECCO, and your library’s ECCO links will seamlessly redirect to the new experience.
The new ECCO interface is the culmination of extensive user research, including a widely distributed survey and a detailed series of usability tests. In response to observations during testing, as well as direct feedback provided by researchers, we are making several impactful changes and enhancements, with more to come in subsequent software releases. This includes the following:
Enhanced Advanced Search interface — As part of this update, we are launching a major upgrade to Advanced Search. This will, of course, apply to ECCO, but will also affect most Gale Primary Sources databases, as well as Gale Literature, Gale eBooks, Gale OneFile, Gale In Context, Gale Business: Entrepreneurship, and Gale Health and Wellness. This new Advanced Search interface will meet our researchers where they are by providing useful tips and information to help them get the most out of their search experience. This includes a detailed Search Tips section, as well as labels that describe each search field and limiter. Below is a prototype which shows a preview of what to expect:
Smarter search results — More filtering options in search results; Name and Subject Expansion, which looks for pseudonyms and synonyms of your search term; and access to our Topic Finder and Term Frequency textual analysis tools.
Streamlined user interface — The new UI will be consistent with other Gale products and will deliver an engaging experience that allows quick access to search tools, relevant content, and collaborative features like Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.
Secure product access — Guarantees the use of HTTPS protocol to ensure that data between a patron’s browser and Gale products is encrypted, and the right to privacy for library users is protected.
The new ECCO interface is available to preview from the “New Experience Available!” button, located in the top right corner of the current ECCO homepage. However, please note that the Advanced Search upgrade, as well as several other key enhancements, will not be available until the December 18 launch.
Want to read more about Eighteenth Century Collections Online? Try ‘Ice Cream Recipes in Gale’s Eighteenth Century Collections Online,’ or Lily’s piece about the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in the Eighteenth Century.
