November 2015 | Gale Blog: Library & Educator News

Evanston Public Library Enhances Patrons’ Experience with Gale’s Vast Online Resources

November 30, 2015November 30, 2015

Posted on November 30, 2015

Lesley Williams is Head of Adult Services at the Evanston Public Library (EPL) in Evanston, Illinois. In the 18 years that she has worked there, the library has continually subscribed to products from Gale. Today, as a primary “go to” resource for the library’s broad range of patrons, GVRL eBooks are instrumental in helping EPL fulfill its mission. That mission is to be the heart of the community, promoting the development of independent, self-confident, and literate citizens by providing open access to cultural, intellectual, technological, and informational resources. “GVRL is the only online reference book service that we’ve ever had,” says Lesley.

The Hunger Games, Classroom Lessons

January 5, 2016November 20, 2015

Posted on November 20, 2015

By Traci J. Cothran

Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 has finally hit the big screen, enthralling young minds with the drama, action and adventures of Katniss Everdeen. Nestled in with all the unfavorable odds and pageantry are real issues that students can explore – while flexing their critical thinking skills – under this pop culture umbrella.

Global Warming and Climate Change. In The Hunger Games, the US has collapsed following a devastating series of drought, fire and storms, resulting in a fight for the remaining limited resources. The resulting society, Panem, rose in its wake. Science In Context provides factual overviews as well as in-depth articles on global warming, air pollution, and their lasting effects.

New Titles Added to the InfoTrac Collections in October 2015

December 14, 2015November 17, 2015

Posted on November 17, 2015

New Titles Added to the InfoTrac Collections in October 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.

Content Updates for Gale’s In Context (week ending 11/13/2015)

November 19, 2015November 16, 2015

Posted on November 16, 2015

Take a look at the new resources now available in many of your favorite In Context products:

Biography In Context
New homepage spotlights were added in the past few weeks that include:

Country music star Carrie Underwood who recently co-hosted the 2015 Country Music Awards with fellow artist Brad Paisley.
Native American leader Geronimo, in recognition of Native American Heritage Month.
Actress Jennifer Lawrence will be appearing in the final installment of the Hunger Games series, Hunger Games Mockingjay, Part 2 opening November 20.
New Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Journalist and author Ta-Nahisi Coates who won a MacArthur Genius grant this year and whose book Between the World and Me was shortlisted for the 2015 National book Award in Nonfiction.

New portal pages and a homepage video were posted including:

Notorious pirates Edward Teach (“Blackbeard”) and William Kidd (“Captain Kidd”)
Feminist writer and activist Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of Mary Shelly who is the author of “Frankenstein”
Stephen Curry, player for the Golden State Warriors
“The Walking Dead” actor Steven Yeun
Video “Out There: Einstein’s Telescope”: A nod to the 100^th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity

2015 TEAMS Award Ceremony and Celebration

January 5, 2016November 12, 2015

Posted on November 12, 2015

Congratulations to our 2015 TEAMS Award winners. Last week award sponsors Gale and Library Media Connection (LMC) hosted a celebration event at COSI Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, OH during the AASL Conference, to present winners with their certificates and award prizes. This year’s voting committee had amazing applications to review and discuss – from a school community garden putting a new spin on “farm to table”, to a 3D gallery walk featuring student artwork and videos, to a social action research fair with fundraising muscle – and all displayed exciting, creative ways in which teachers and media specialists are working together to promote learning and student achievement.

Winners receiving awards included:

Peer Picks…Meet Our Newest Peer Picks Selector

November 11, 2015

Posted on November 11, 2015

Robin Bradford is currently the collection development librarian for fiction, Large Print, DVD, music and world languages for the Timberland Regional Library System in Washington. Prior to moving to Washington a few months ago, she was the fiction collection development librarian for the Indianapolis Public Library. She has worked in a variety of libraries, academic and public, in a variety of positions, from student assistant to librarian. The one thing that has been a constant throughout, however, is a love of reading. When she isn’t working, or tweeting, or blogging, or reading, or at a conference focused on books, Robin is looking at the map and planning her next adventure.

Social Skills in the Digital Age

January 5, 2016November 10, 2015

Posted on November 10, 2015

Note to librarians: This blog post is for you to share! If you have this title, be sure to link it to your GVRL collection. If you don’t have this title and want to learn more, access a free trial today!

Communication is more complex than ever. Today, we tweet, chat, blog, email, text,…and, oh yeah…talk. New tools that enhance communication can also complicate it, making it difficult to navigate professional communication and steering people away from face-to-face communication that was more typical for earlier generations.

To support the development of social and professional communication skills, your library is offering a new online resource. Life and Career Skills: Social Skills provides simple, straightforward guidance to enhance verbal, written, and non-verbal communication that’s useful in all aspects of life. It’s designed especially for young adults who are entering the workforce or transitioning to new environments.

From Toddlers to Seniors: Learning at Every Life Stage

January 5, 2016November 6, 2015

Posted November 6, 2015

By Rosemary Long

Libraries continue to be represented in popular media as book repositories, a place for story time, and – in the most progressive TV shows – a place where people use (get this!) real, live computers!

Popular culture hasn’t caught up with the reality of today’s public library, where the mission has transitioned from providing information to delivering outcomes-based learning. Not just information seeking, but engaging in active learning. Gale’s online education programs helps libraries impact lives by supporting education, skills development, and personal enrichment.

Encourage Literacy with NaNoWriMo!

April 16, 2019November 5, 2015

Posted on November 5, 2015
By Anne Nagrant, Customer Success Manager

I enjoy the act of writing, and I used to write really long essays in college, but I’ve never tackled a major project like writing an entire novel. It seems so daunting. I think I might have trouble staying motivated long enough to really make progress. Luckily for people like me, November brings us NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)!

Tools of the Trade: Empathy, Respect, Openness,
Communications, and the Library Mission

November 18, 2015November 4, 2015

Posted on November 4, 2015
During the time of unrest in Ferguson, we at the Ferguson Municipal Public Library (FMPL) made a conscious decision to simply stay open for our community. We forged many vital relationships during those difficult days by providing empathy, respect, and comfort to the people in our community.

Empathy and Respect – Keeping our doors open during the hard days created a shift in how the people of Ferguson thought of their library. The empathy and respect we showed our patrons created a synergistic boost to the community as a whole.

Understand patrons, and respect them as people. Everything else grows from this, but you have to really mean it. If you care deeply about your community, it shows in every conversation, decision, and service. This cannot be an abstract thing—caring in aggregate but not in specific. It’s about building actual relationships. After all, we serve each patron as a person, individually.