Tara Blair

Tara Blair is a Digital Marketing Specialist for Gale, a Cengage Company. In her spare time, she is a total crime junkie and spends her days listening to podcasts—especially those of the unsolved.

Helping Students Succeed

By Angie T.  In 2014, for the first time, my library organized celebratory events for National Library Week. We invited students, faculty, and staff to submit speech bubbles with stories of how libraries had changed their lives. We received responses such as: “Thanks to our library, I have been able to keep up on my … Read more

Inspire A Lifelong Love of Reading…One Party at a Time

By Adam W. 

The love of reading happens over the Summer, after you shut the text book for the year and chart your own reading course. Kids are going to read in November because they read what they wanted in the Summer. The Summer Reading Party is just an extension of reading, it is one chapter to spark a lifelong love.

The 2014 theme is Spark a Reaction and that is exactly what we do with the Library Kick-Off Party. We kickstart the rest of the Summer. We have rides, bounce houses, authors, prize giveaways, Kindles, GoPros, Boat Rentals, even a PS4.

Read moreInspire A Lifelong Love of Reading…One Party at a Time

I <3 My Library!

By Shawn K.  Our library is a small, but a vibrant part of our rural community. They are constantly looking to the community for ideas on how to improve and make things better. My kiddos love going to check out books, of course, but they also love going to all of the different activities sponsored … Read more

In Other News: The Dress Debate

A look at a current news item through the lens of different Gale electronic resources.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

The Internet exploded last night. While this seems to happen more and more often, this particular episode highlighted a few interesting things to me. First, people care passionately about seemingly random things. People also seem to have very strong opinions on things which, in the sweep of things, don’t really matter. It was also an interesting display of how quickly anything — valuable or not — can infiltrate just about everyone’s social feeds. Even while the “whole world” (read: U.S.) is sleeping. Most importantly, lessons of ‘things aren’t always what they seem’ and ‘just because its on the internet doesn’t make it true’ abound.

Just to catch everyone up, a “controversy” spawned last night about whether a certain photographed dress was “white and gold” or “blue and black.” In said photo, I see white and gold. I’ve also seen pictures of a woman wearing the same dress at a wedding, where it is clearly blue and black. This morning, ABC ran a segment about it. It’s good background, and shows all of the images you need to make a decision. Or find ammunition for your counter-argument. Up to you. This article from The Atlantic also looks at the great debate.

Here’s a look through 4 online resources from Gale.

Read moreIn Other News: The Dress Debate

Patrons We May Not See

By Tina M.  A patron came into the library one afternoon and was waiting patiently at the staff counter. I asked him if he needed any help and he did say someone was getting some hold items for him. He proceeded to tell me that he was so thankful we had the process of reserving … Read more

A Way of Life

By Deb C.  The library has always been an important part of my life. My first memories of the library where I grew up was walking to the little “store front” library branch around the corner and spending hours pouring over the nature books. I loved the smell of the old card catalogs! When I … Read more