Month: July 2015

21 Voices, Predictive Findability, and What Have Your Students Taught You Lately

By Daniel Marano

At Gale and Cengage Learning, we conduct hundreds of user studies in any given year. In each study, we talk to and observe dozens of users as we iteratively design or modify our resources and tools. We have been doing and learning from this user-centered design approach for years now, and have a centralized user experience department that conducts this research for the entire organization.

What this traditional form of user-centered design leaves out, however, are certain types of longitudinal data, and the evolving habits and technologies that a student moves through over time. That’s why last year we launched a novel new research study called 21 Voices.

Read more21 Voices, Predictive Findability, and What Have Your Students Taught You Lately

New Read Alikes for Old Classics

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By Holly Hibner and Mary Kelly

Remember in high school and college when you were assigned classic fiction reading? Those titles are classics for a reason. They have stood the test of time and are still assigned reading in many classrooms. Some of my personal favorites were The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, and Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. I remember thinking that there were such profound ideas in those novels, and soaking up every metaphor and every turn of phrase.  As an adult, I am interested in these same profound ideas and great writing, and I think that there are a lot of books published in the last ten years or so that make great read alikes to those classic novels. Let’s start with my favorites.

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Content Updates for Gale’s In Context (Week of 7/20/2015)

Posted on July 24, 2015

Updates have been made this week to the rich content found in Gale’s In Context products. Check-out what’s new.

Canada In Context

New homepage spotlights have been added featuring updated content on Evangeline Lilly and Jack Layton. Also look for new content additions on Alexander Graham Bell.

A new video has been added to the home page from the CBC on the Dieppe Raid: “70th Anniversary of Ill-Fated Invasion in Dieppe, France.”

Research In Context

The newest database in Gale’s In Context family has even more content that’s been added this week. Some of the additions to the homepage spotlights include:

Read moreContent Updates for Gale’s In Context (Week of 7/20/2015)

Fulton County Schools: Getting Curriculum Support Right

Posted on July 17, 2015

By Tina Creguer

New technologies offer all kinds of new ways for students to learn, for teachers to teach, and for school systems to provide a learning environment.  But the sudden convergence of content, technology, and tech-savvy students has created as many conundrums as opportunities.  So, during a time rampant with experimentation and piloting, when a school system figures out ways to make all systems work together to enhance learning, people stop and take notice.

Fulton County (GA) Schools has done just that.  And, for their efforts, they were recognized last month by the Center for Digital Education (CDE) with a Digital Content and Curriculum Achievement Award for K-12 at the International Society for Technology in Education 2015 conference in Philadelphia.

Alan Cox, Senior Vice President for the CDE, announced the awards, saying, “It is clear that schools all over the country are moving from pilot projects to full-scale implementations. Districts are combining content created by their faculty with content curated from other organizations or purchased from private-sector curriculum providers in ways not truly realized in past years. This year’s honorees are taking the practice of education to new heights that show great promise for other districts to follow.”

Fulton County was one of just six large (12,000+ students) districts to be recognized for its innovation and diligence in digital content and curriculum program implementation.

Read moreFulton County Schools: Getting Curriculum Support Right

Content Updates for Gale’s In Context (Week of 7/13/2015)

Posted on July 16, 2015

New content has been added or refreshed for several of Gale’s In Context databases. These include:

Biography In Context

New portals were added this week:

  • Misty Copeland – On June 30, 2015, Misty became the first African American female principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater company.
  • Bernie Sanders – Currently a junior U.S. Senator from Vermont he has entered the 2016 presidential race as a Democratic candidate.
  • Laverne Cox – As an actress in the series “Orange Is the New Black”, in 2014 she became the first transgender person nominated for an Emmy Award.

Read moreContent Updates for Gale’s In Context (Week of 7/13/2015)

Content Updates for Kids InfoBits (Week of 7/13/2015)

Posted on July 16, 2015

New content has been released in Kids InfoBits. See what’s new and available for your classrooms and students.

New homepage content snippets, or “infobits”, have been updated in the following categories:

Animals – Includes interesting facts about dolphins.

Read moreContent Updates for Kids InfoBits (Week of 7/13/2015)

New Titles Added to the InfoTrac Collections in June 2015

 

The titles below have been recently added and can be located in the product using Basic or Advanced Search forms. Titles can be found via Browse Publications within two weeks. For complete coverage information please see the product title lists.

Read moreNew Titles Added to the InfoTrac Collections in June 2015

Bringing the Power of Business Analytics to Canadian Libraries

Analytics On Demand Canada

By Tina Creguer

“In God we trust. All others must bring data.”
– W. Edwards Deming, famed statistician, professor, author

Every day, businesses across Canada use sophisticated data analytics to understand, predict, and gain insight into their customers’ behavior. But why should businesses have all the fun? Libraries have goals and missions to accomplish, and they, too need to understand their customers, er, patrons.

Gale now offers powerful new tools for Canadian libraries that will help them gain deep insight into patrons and improve the day-to-day decision-making and strategic planning. By tapping into your library’s existing data and combining it (in a secure environment) with demographic data using Environics’ PRIZM5 lifestyles profiles, Analytics On Demand helps you learn more about patrons, from income and life stages to online behaviors and preferred social media channels.

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Taxicab Confessions: ALA Edition

By Carrie Stefanski

I learned first-hand that there are more library conversations than the ALA show floor can handle, or maybe I was just high on libraries during the long conference weekend. Either way, the need for libraries followed me on all my ride-share trips around SF. And this made me happy!

Here’s the inside scoop on how the library love spilled out of the conference and into the taxi cabs.

Stop 1: Periodical 15

Read moreTaxicab Confessions: ALA Edition