Witness the March Towards Women’s Rights

Introducing Women’s Movements and Issues – the first in the Women’s Studies Archive, a collection that traces the path of women’s issues from past to present—pulling primary sources from manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, and more. It captures the foundation of women’s movements, struggles and triumphs, and provides researchers with valuable insights.

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Academic Librarians: Adding Value beyond the Library

In a recent issue of Information Outlook, the Special Library Association‘s bimonthly online magazine, Phil Faust, Vice President of Academic Product at Gale shares his thoughts on how academic librarians impact stretches beyond the walls of the library by helping make college more affordable for students and collaborating with faculty to gain new insights.

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The Highlander Center Raid

By Traci Cothran

When a new publication is released here at Gale, I like to take a peek at what colleagues have been working on. So today I opened up the new American Civil Liberties Union Papers, 1912-1990and WOW! What a treasure trove of history it holds!

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Hidden No Longer

By Debra Kirby

Sometimes it takes a critically acclaimed movie to shine a light on extraordinary achievements. This has proved to be especially true when the subjects of those achievements are women or members of minorities. The movie Hidden Figures, based on a book of the same name, has recently generated interest in three African American women who played important roles in the U.S. Apollo Space Program. As is often the case, once you start digging into the details around historic events or people, you discover many related interesting facts and stories. When your sources include Gale databases you can spend hours exploring and learning.

Here are some of the facts I found when I began my journey to learn more about Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson—the fascinating women whose stories are told in Hidden Figures.

  • Katherine Johnson began her career as a “human computer” at the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), NASA’s predecessor. Before the age of electronic computers, NACA employed hundreds of women mathematicians as human computers. Men with similar qualifications were classified as professionals; women were sub-professionals. Black mathematicians were segregated in their own office and loaned out to various divisions as needed. (Read more about Johnson in Biography In Context.)

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Evolution of Flight: A Recommended Resource

From the hot air balloons of yesteryear to the commercial airline carriers of today, mankind has always been fascinated by the concept of flight. Public interest in aviation peaked during the twentieth century, leading to rapid development of its corresponding technology. From this period of fervent focus emerged the celebrated pioneers of aviation:  Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, Wiley Post, Jimmy Doolittle, Chuck Yeager, and many others, who forever changed the way humans interact with the world. Their theories, feats, and record-breaking efforts are all captured in Evolution of Flight, 1784-1991.

 

Drawing from the treasure trove of images, diaries, correspondence, scrapbooks, government documents, and other primary source materials available within the National Air and Space Museum Archives, the National Air and Space Museum Library, the Smithsonian Archives, and Smithsonian Libraries, this newest collection in the Smithsonian Collections Online series offers unparalleled insight into the era of aviation and its lasting impact on today’s society with content that spans more than two centuries, 1784-1991.

 

See how a reviewer feels about the collection of Primary Sources:

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Posthumanities: The Dark Side of “The Dark Side of the Digital”

An article from       By Janneke Adema and Gary Hall   Disruptive Humanities – Digital Humanities – Posthuman Humanities “In What Is Posthumanism? Cary Wolfe insists “the nature of thought itself must change if it is to be posthumanist.”[1] Our argument, made manifest by this special issue of the Journal of Electronic Publishing, … Read more

The Research Librarian of the Future: data scientist and co-investigator

In the article by The London School of Economics ans Political Science, Jeannette Ekstrom, Mikael Elbaek, Chris Erdmann and Ivo Grigorov discuss the disconnect between how research librarians see their role and its responsibilities and how theses are viewed by their faculty colleages. They rein in on their ideas on how the research librarian of … Read more

The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World: Recommended for All Libraries

Looking for an “expanded” and “recommended” resource designed to support users’ religion and history understandings? The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World provides rich historical content partnered with coverage of the issues, countries, and people that are important in today’s world to provide knowledge of Islam’s influence on all areas of human activity. This updated edition should be considered for beginning students for any library.

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