Find Your New Favorite Book with Gale!
Help patrons find their new favorite books with our Gale’s Books & Authors database. This fun reader advisory tool offers a way to explore endless combinations of books, authors, genres and topics. It can help people of all ages make informed reading choices, build book clubs, and ultimately increase circulation. Books & Authors has easy-to-use menus and a nice visual search technology.
From the home page, patrons can browse by: Title, Author, Genre, Who What When Where, Expert Picks, or Award Winners. (Note: Home and Help buttons are anchored at the top of the screen so patrons can access Home and Help no matter where they are on the website.)
Browse Titles:
- Search by title (starts with or contains), narrow down by alphabet.
- Advanced search – limit by author, title, genre, sub-genre, character name, or full text.
- Filter by fiction or non-fiction or find books for adults, young adults or children
- When you click on a book – you get:
- Information about the book including main characters, genre, sub-genre, setting, subject, time period, and recommended similar titles.
- Information about the author.
- Book reviews and read-alike books.
- Ability to print and email lists.
Browse by Author – An author search is easily done by typing in the name or scrolling through the author list alphabetically.
Browse by Genre – Patrons can browse genre categories easily from this page. Fiction and non-fiction are separated by tabs with sub-categories listed under each tab.
Who, What, Where, When – An innovative way to look for a book is the WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN page. Patrons can browse by Character, Subject, Location and Time Period. They can then select any combination of up to three fields (who what where or when), and view a diagram of the results on the right. When patrons click on the intersecting area, they will get a list of books that match their interests. Love it!
Expert picks – Patrons can browse recommended reading lists created by librarians and subject experts. They can scroll through the lists alphabetically and then click on the item to get a list.
Award winners – Patrons can scroll through a list of award winners to get a list of books that have won awards or have been bestsellers.
Reading Room – Patrons have the option to sign up for an account in Books & Authors. This allows them to create and save book lists in their own personal Reading Room. In the Reading Room, patrons can: save and modify reading lists; write reviews and rate the books they have read; create a Marked List – a collection of lists the patrons makes (i.e. author lists, favorite genres, etc. ) and create and manage their profile.
Overall, Gale’s Books & Authors is a powerful, easy-to-use database that can help patrons and staff discover some great books!
Lisa DeLucia, Upper St. Clair Library