Good afternoon all, the Collection Services team wanted to make sure all staff are aware that there are two eResources that the Library will not be renewing for next fiscal year: Gale In Context: Elementary and Gale eBooks. Access to both eResources will end on June 30, 2025.
Gale in Context: Elementary is a general eResource for elementary age students that has had declining use for several years. We measure statistics in total items requested and in last fiscal year, we had a total of 11 total item requests. This current fiscal year, through April 2025, has a total of 3 total item requests.The renewal cost for fiscal year 2026 would have been $7,491.
We have been renewing it because we felt it was important to have a wide range of databases for the elementary age student, but can no longer continue to have a product with such low usage. There are other eResources available to elementary age students, such as World Book Kids, World Book Student, Explora Elementary, National Geographic Kids, and PowerKnowledge Science (Earth & Space, Life Science, and Physical Science).
The Gale eBook collection has higher usage, but the titles are older and out of date. For example, titles such as Encyclopedia of Africa and Artificial Intelligence are dated from 2002 and 2005. The Library has not been updating the resource, since purchasing new eBooks for the collection is very expensive. We have to pay a high platform fee for Gale just to host the eBooks each year: the price for fiscal year 2026 would have been $10,468.
The Library still has access to the EBSCO eBook collection, which include both fiction and non-fiction titles for all ages and we have two online encyclopedia resources: Funk & Walls New World Encyclopedia and World Book. Many other eResources pull journal articles, magazine articles, and newspaper articles for research.
If there is a customer who is concerned over the loss of a particular eBook title, please let Collection Services know and we will explore if there are alternative digital options. We will be indicating on the eResources web page that access to these resources will end on June 30.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Thank you,
Carol Schrey
Director of Collection Services
Central Services
77 Boone Hills Drive, Saint Peters, MO 63376
P: 636-441-2300 ext. 1565
[email protected]
