We Love Analytics!

Posted on February 19, 2016

We love our work on the Gale Databases team, as we continuously add informative and engaging new content – this includes keeping up with the latest current events (World History In Context, Global Issues In Context), health news (Science In Context, Health and Wellness Resource Center), business developments (Business Insights), and topics being studied in school (Student Resources In Context, Research In Context, Kids InfoBits), to name just a few.

But we also love finding out how the content is actually used in these databases once we load it – and we look at many metrics, including:

  • Top Searches
  • Top Media
  • Most Popular Articles and Journals
  • Number of Users
  • And many others

Read moreWe Love Analytics!

Introducing…Nancy’s Pearls!

Posted on February 22, 2016

Nancy Pearl’s Large Print Picks!

The World of Collection Development Is Your Oyster with Nancy’s Pearls

The large print section is one of the most popular areas of any public library – serving readers of all ages and reading abilities.  But when budgets are limited, choosing the right titles can be difficult.  How can you know which new titles will be the most sought after and beloved?  Sigh…if only you could tap into the expertise of the nation’s most recognized librarian known for her particular insight into reader tastes and interests….

Oh, wait.  You totally can.

Read moreIntroducing…Nancy’s Pearls!

Explore Histories of Everyday Life in Totalitarian Regimes through first-hand accounts and fictional works from the twentieth century.

Posted on February 22, 2016

 

Guided by a five-person advisory board of distinguished scholars, Histories of Everyday Life in Totalitarian Regimes spans multiple disciplines, including history, literature and language.  Examine what life was like during the twentieth century under totalitarian rule. This set holds a wealth of information for various college courses and also high school teachers encouraging the analysis of primary and secondary sources.

Learn more about Histories of Everyday Life in Totalitarian Regimes with Editor-in-chief Peter Fritzsche, PhD., as he introduces the series’ distinctive approach.

 

Read moreExplore Histories of Everyday Life in Totalitarian Regimes through first-hand accounts and fictional works from the twentieth century.

“Powering” Through Content

Posted on February 19, 2016

by Kristin Fust, Gale Product Manager, GVRL

Millennials are digital natives and undisputed power users of Google. However, with Google having over 50 million people using Google Apps for Education, it looks like it’s not just millennials using Google tools.

Google is a comfortable, highly used pathway in the daily routine of many. As a Google for Education Partner, Gale incorporates the most current and popular Google tools to help users organize and manage their content. Using Google Account credentials, users can access Google tools like Drive and Docs to share, save, and download content from within Gale products such as GVRL.

With the Gale-Google integration, GVRL eBooks can be better integrated into user workflows by expanding access and enhancing resources for library users thus making it easier to find and use relevant, authoritative information.

Read more“Powering” Through Content

Sending Birthday Wishes to the “Father of our Country”

Posted on February 18, 2016

Did you know that according to the then-used Julian calendar, George Washington’s birthday was actually February 11, 1731?  It wasn’t until Britain and all its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar that his birthday was moved 11 days later to February 22.

The “Father of our Country” was unanimously elected as the first President of the United States (1789-1797) and during that time shaped the course of our country. From the Revolutionary War to the Constitution, George Washington made his mark on history.

Take some time this month to browse Gale’s titles about the life and times of this great American figure and while you are there, let us know how you implement these resources in your classroom!

American Eras: Primary Sources: Development of a Nation (1783-1815), 1st Edition
February 2015
This volume in the student-friendly American Eras: Primary Sources series documents the dramatic period when the federal government and the U.S. Constitution were established. This volume features personal letters, memoirs, laws, sermons, speeches, works of literature, and many other primary source types. Together these sources show the diversity of the American experience.

Read moreSending Birthday Wishes to the “Father of our Country”

Women Unite!

Posted on February 17, 2016

I love learning about history, and there’s nothing like having the entire month of March devoted to the often overlooked contributions of women.I take my middle-school daughter to historic sites (sometimes with her feet dragging), and it’s great when she connects to historic figures to further understand what she reads about in books.  Here are some notable women we’ve “met” in our travels:

  • A Deborah Sampson re-enactor was our tour guide along Boston’s Freedom Trail. She related her fascinating story – dressing as a man to fight in the Revolutionary War – as we toured some of the sites of the American Revolution.  Years later, she fought for – and eventually received – a soldier’s pension.

Read moreWomen Unite!

Update Your Collection with the Latest Editions of Two Best-Selling Directories

Posted on February 10, 2016 The Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media, 152nd Edition is now available. Valuable to researchers seeking descriptions, contact information and advertising rates on print/online media worldwide, this directory now covers 53,000 listings. These include newspapers, magazines, journals, radio and TV stations and cable stations and systems. Publishing this month, the Encyclopedia of Associations–International Organizations, … Read more

Tending the Academic Garden with CLiC

Posted on February 9, 2016

By Megan McCarthy

I love to garden, and over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at it. However, that wasn’t always the case. When I first started, every spring I’d run to Lowes, and pick out all the blooming plants I thought looked pretty. I’d bring them home, and plant them in my yard. Then, every year, I would watch in horror as they would wither and die. What was I doing wrong?  Well, as it turned out, almost everything. I finally consulted with a gardening expert, and found that plants had to be grown according to their needs. Some needed shade, some sun. Some needed dry soil, and others needed water. Most liked to be planted when they weren’t in bloom, probably the reason I was killing so many. I learned some important lessons, but the most valuable lesson I learned was, when you are in trouble, ask an expert.

Read moreTending the Academic Garden with CLiC

2016 OAT Award Winning: Associated Press Collections Online

Published on February

Associated Press Collections Online, by Gale, part of Cengage Learning, was recently announced for inclusion in Choice’s annual Outstanding Academic Title list!  The Associated Press Collections Online resource will be recognized in the January 2016 issue of Choice Magazine, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries. This is an accomplishment Gale takes great pride in, as this year’s Outstanding Academic Title list includes 606 books and electronic resources chosen by the Choice editorial staff from among some 6,500 titles reviewed last year.  Of the titles selected, a mere 20 are electronic with one being the Associated Press Collections Online resource!  Titles are selected for their excellence in scholarship and presentation, the significance of their contribution, and their value as important – often the first – treatment of their subject.

Read more2016 OAT Award Winning: Associated Press Collections Online

Celebrate the Chinese New Year with Gale Primary Sources

Posted on February 8, 2015

By Masaki Morisawa

CNY1

“… the blessed Chinese New Year has come round, the Post Office has ceased to function, the office boy has burned his fingers lighting fire crackers and the door between my office and the Depot is locked; the doorkeeper has gone home with the key ….”

So writes John Darroch, a British missionary, in the March 1933 issue of The Chinese Recorder, one of the seventeen English-language journals published in or about China that will be included in the upcoming digital collection China from Empire to Republic: Missionary, Sinology, and Literary Periodicals 1817-1947.

Read moreCelebrate the Chinese New Year with Gale Primary Sources