Tara Blair, Author at Gale Blog: Library & Educator News | K12, Academic & Public

Gale Technical Solutions: Organizing Electronic Resource Pages

November 4, 2015October 7, 2015

By Scott Steward

Let’s talk about some best practices for organizing electronic resource pages.

It doesn’t matter if you are an academic, K12, public, or special library; if you boil down what we do to its simplest definition, our primary goal is to connect people to information.

Our users are already using tools like Google and Bing in their everyday lives to find information. E.g. Who makes the best cup of coffee? What is the cheapest flight to Las Vegas? What is the carrying weight of a swallow?

Love, passion, humanity – yes, please!

September 30, 2015September 29, 2015

Unexpectedly, she saw a man standing on the sidewalk looking right at her. He was tall, with blond hair, and broad across the shoulders. He was also handsome; watching him stirred something in Olivia, a feeling that while unfamiliar was far from unwelcome………..

–Excerpt from Take Me Home by Dorothy Garlock

Romance novels have the same effect on their readers – stirring passion, happy memories, dreams, and, as public librarians know well, demand for more titles. Far more than the province of lonely women, romance titles attract readers of all ages with their lively story lines, adventurous plots, and exploration of all aspects of human emotion and experience.

Content Updates for Gale’s In Context (week ending 9/25/2015)

September 24, 2015

Posted on September 24, 2015

New content has been added and existing content has been updated in a number of Gale’s In Context products.

Biography In Context

New portals were launched for Biography In Context this week. They include:

Popular MMA fighter Ronda Rousey
Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia
Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha
Late poets Lucille Clifton and Denise Levertov

Updates have been made for content reflecting the ousting of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot, the retirement of Floyd Mayweather, Jr., and the recent passing of Moses Malone.

Narrative content has been added for:

Contemporary Black Biography, Volumes 125 and 126 which covers 110 biographies across the 2 volumes. Some of the individuals covered include:

Jeh Hohnson U.S. Homeland Security head
Somali-American runner Abdi Abdirahman
American ballet dancer Misty Copeland
British actor David Oyelowo
Zimbabwean author NoViolet Buluwayo
Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

2015 TEAMS Award Announced and the Winners Are….

February 26, 2018September 18, 2015

Posted on September 18, 2015

Another TEAMS Award is in the books! 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.

This year’s big winners include:

Supporting Your Local Data Miner

November 4, 2015September 17, 2015

By: Dr. Dallas Liddle, Associate Professor and Chair of English, Augsburg College

Marshall McLuhan is supposed to have said that “the content of a new medium is always an old medium.” He intended the observation as wry cultural criticism,

What I Did on My Summer Vacation: A Gale Intern’s Story

November 20, 2015September 15, 2015

by Luiza Lodder

As an English major from Penn State University, I was pleased to work as a content development intern for Gale this summer, managing academic and educational online resources and databases. My goal was to explore publishing and apply my skills and interests. Although I was placed in the Boston office, my supervisor and team were located in Michigan. Yet in spite of working remotely, I felt fully engaged with the work and the team.

Part of my responsibilities included updating Gale literature databases and maintaining content. For example, I input author birthdates and death dates, recent prizes won, and recent developments such as book publications or adaptations. One of Gale’s long-term goals is to make classic works available online to customers; I helped by identifying which works were already public domain and which were still protected by publication rights. Being an international student from Brazil, I enjoyed a bonus experience that was fun for me and uniquely useful to Gale: translating an interview of Brazilian users recorded by Gale market researchers.

Gale Technical Solutions: Branding

October 13, 2015September 15, 2015

By Scott Steward

Welcome back to the Gale Technical Solutions blog series!

I thought it would be good to start with some of the basics. Today, I will be discussing Branding.

Now when I say branding, I’m not talking about the Gale brand; I’m talking about your library’s brand within your Gale products. Did you know all Gale products have dedicated space reserved in the interface for your library’s branding? In this reserved area we can display text, an image, or some custom code (Javascript, PHP, HTML, jQuery, etc).

New Titles Added to the InfoTrac Collections in August 2015

September 15, 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. Academic OneFile 2010 State Technology and Science Index: Enduring Lessons for the Intangible Economy (Milken … Read more

Content Updates for Gale’s In Context (week ending 9/11/2015)

September 11, 2015

Posted on September 11, 2015

Take a look at the latest content updates made to Gale’s In Context products.

Biography In Context
New homepage spotlight images have been added this week. In addition you’ll find that these images have special “hotspots” that allow users to hover over portions of the image to find fast facts about the topic and links to additional content. The new spotlights include:

Selena Gomez, actress and singer
Tennis player, Serena Williams who was the winner at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships which marked her 21^st Grand Slam title
The late Jim Henson, creator of “The Muppets”
Satchel Paige, who at 59 years old on September 25, 1965 pitched 3 innings of a Major League baseball game
United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, will mark the International Day of Peace by ringing the Peace Bell on September 21, 2015

A new portal page has been added that features Lindsey Graham and updates have been made to biographies for Elizabeth II, Queen of England and Stephen Colbert. In addition a new video is available on the home page featuring Bill Gates and the future of technology.

Comparative Review: Opposing Viewpoints in Context and Points of View Reference Center

October 13, 2015September 9, 2015

The results are in: Opposing Viewpoints In Context is the clear winner! In an issue of The Charleston Review, Susan Moore of Limestone pitted Gale’s Opposing Viewpoints In Context (OVIC) against EBSCO’s Points of View Reference Center (POV).