Gale Digital Scholar Lab

Gale Digital Scholar Lab is an online tool for collecting data sets comprised of content from the UW-Madison Libraries’ subscriptions to Gale Primary Sources databases. Those data sets can then be analyzed using text analysis and visualization tools built into the Gale Digital Scholar Lab. Digital humanities analysis methods include: Named Entity Recognition, Topic Modelling, Parts of Speech, and more.

Please note that to use the Gale Digital Scholar Lab you will need to create an account. Accounts use either a Google Apps or Microsoft Office 365 account for authentication and to save content. See the following excerpt from the publisher’s FAQ:

Why am I required to login via Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive? Is this a named user experience? And will we be supporting additional authentication options?

The time spent in the Gale Digital Scholar Lab is an investment in research. In a given session, users can create custom content sets, configure and run analysis tools, and drive visual and data outputs that can be interpreted in and outside of the Lab. In order to save these research components, the application requires a unique identifier to persist this information. Presently, the Lab allows users to sign up or log in using a Google or Microsoft account. These have been identified as popular authentication methods by our users as they can leverage existing user names and passwords.

When a user creates an account or logs into the Lab using one of these methods, a unique identifier (a series of characters, numbers and letters) is generated. It’s important to note that this ID is disambiguated from personal information (email, name, etc.) to prevent the retention of users’ personal identifiable information.

– Gale/Cengage Digital Scholar Lab FAQ

Further Resources