PowerSpeak Archives | Gale Blog: Library & Educator News

Retirees: Learning, Rediscovering…Living the Dream

May 29, 2015May 28, 2015

They’ve worked hard. They’ve raised kids, saved, and made sacrifices. Now, with long-awaited free time, they want to pursue new interests and rediscover old ones. Today’s retirees are keen to make the most of their non-working years.

But the more than 13% of the US population aged 65 or older (and that percentage expected to balloon in the next five years)¹ is the group least likely to have visited the library in the last year.² Public libraries have their work cut out to serve the needs of this age group. Luckily, Gale has resources that can attract and support seniors’ thirst for discovery.

Out of the Office: In Germany!

June 5, 2014May 3, 2014

By Bethany Dotson

For Christmas last year, my husband bought me the Rosetta Stone German Level 1-5 Set. He was so excited to give it to me, in fact, that he convinced me to open it five days early (I have to admit—I wasn’t hard to convince). But upon opening the gift, I had to wonder out loud—why German? I had never expressed any interest in learning German—had I?

My patient husband, who is a mechanical engineer by education, by natural inclination, and by trade, responded that he knew that I wanted to take another trip to Europe, and he had settled on Germany as his #1 choice: not because of the fantastic history or culture, or even because of the food and beer, but because, and I quote, “they have a lot of engineers there and their trains run on time.”