Gale Delivers Vital Insights into Library Activity with Gale Engage Launch

By STS News Desk On Nov 14, 2019

Gale Delivers Vital Insights into Library Activity with Gale Engage Launch

Provides Public Libraries with a 360-Degree View of Library Activity, Centralizing Data, Enabling More Efficient Outreach and Engagement

Gale, a Cengage company, is helping public libraries engage more effectively with their patrons and communities. Gale Engage, a new cloud-based solution launched by the company, helps libraries become smarter, more impactful and efficient with patron outreach and engagement. Developed in partnership with Deziner Software, LLC, Gale Engage provides a 360-degree view of library activity across branches, enabling staff to analyze data, personalize marketing outreach and increase engagement with their communities.

Gale Engage is ILS-agnostic and uses data from common library sources to develop groups, enabling library staff to more easily segment audiences and target email communications, driving more meaningful and engaging interactions. The dashboard provides visuals of key performance indicators and metrics, helping libraries measure their effectiveness.

View a video of Gale Engage beta customers discussing how their library will benefit from the solution.

Gale Engage was created to improve the ability for public libraries to aggregate data, understand patron lifecycles and keep satisfaction high. By analyzing data synthesized across various library systems, libraries can gain a more comprehensive view into how patrons interact with library resources and services. Ready-to-use data visualizations, aggregate patron groupings (based on transaction history and engagement with library services) and integrated marketing features empower users to personalize outreach and work more efficiently.

“Gale Engage‘s data aggregation and reporting capabilities help us streamline complex and time-consuming tasks,” said Misty Jones, director of library services at San Diego Public Library. “The dashboards allow us to track different types of patron activity, see trends and understand how we compare to other libraries around the country. For the first time ever, we have all our data in one place and can understand, more holistically, how our patrons are engaging with the library.”

Gale Engage provides:

Data Synthesis: Upload disparate data files from various vendors (i.e. SirsiDynix, RBdigital and others) and system data. Customized scripts take raw data and visually display cohesive metrics.
Customizable Dashboard & Visual Reporting: Ready-to-use visualizations allow users to view trends and key performance indicators to design goals around data, manage reports more efficiently and make better decisions. The dashboard also aligns circulation to IMLS benchmark data, enabling library staff to see performance against the greater library field.
Patron Groups: Cardholders are categorized into groups based on their interests—with automatic and custom tagging options—allowing for more relevant communications.
Email Targeting: Email campaigns can be easily managed by connecting Gale Engage to an email marketing system like MailChimp, or by exporting lists of patron groups for use through the library’s preferred email tool.
Social Media Management: Post to multiple library social media accounts for Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest as well as track key metrics, directly from the Gale Engage dashboard.
Privacy by Design: Gale Engage is compliant with relevant field practices and uses end-to-end encryption to protect patron privacy and personally identifiable information (PII).

“Public libraries are constantly changing to meet community needs and demand more effective ways to connect with and better serve their patrons,” said Paul Gazzolo, senior vice president and general manager at Gale. “Gale Engage helps achieve this with innovative technology that helps public libraries understand patron activity to better target and market their resources and services, delivering a more personalized relationship with the library.”