Academic

Paving the Way for Women in the Sciences with Sally Ride

By Jennifer Albers-Smith

I was a Computer Science major for a couple years at the University of Michigan (before declaring an English and Sociology double major) and participated in the Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) residence program. One of the events on our radar was the Sally Ride Science Festival that took place on North Campus. Each year, I was amazed as the campus was swarmed with hundreds of children. The festival, which still takes place each year at colleges across the United States, it is a fun-filled day of science projects, workshops, and experiences for middle schoolers.

This festival struck me in particular because no one had encouraged me (outside of my chemist father and pharmacist mother) to turn my interest in science into a career. There weren’t programs for young girls (or at least none in my area) trying to promote scientific careers in a fun way. And as a pioneer for STEM education and the first American woman in space, Sally Ride deserves a shout-out for this month’s focus on Women’s History Month.

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A Grown Woman’s Tribute to Little House on the Prairie

By Jennifer Albers-Smith

If any of you happened to use Google on February 10, you would have seen the customized home page for Laura Ingalls Wilder’s birthday. Dead for 58 years, her name is still synonymous with Westward Expansion and the nineteenth century prairie. All these years later, her literature continues to have a life of its own. After all, few go through childhood without reading Little House on the Prairie.

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I loved the Little House books as a child (and now as an adult) and read them all several times. Her writing took me to another time and place, a place that I found fascinating, especially during a time when the game Oregon Trail was immensely popular on floppy disk.  And don’t forget the Little House TV series! When my parents and I traveled West on a two-week vacation, we stopped along the way at some of the places the Ingalls family stopped; we even saw the giant wagon ruts in Wyoming.

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Celebrating Many Women with Many Resources

By Robert Lisiecki

March marks the time for us to celebrate Women’s History Month. During this month, we’ll remember and celebrate the various women throughout history who have made lasting impacts on the world as we know it today. And boy, there are a lot of women to celebrate.

The women we recognize come from different eras and backgrounds—each presenting her own unique story. When thinking about the uniqueness that each story presents, I began thinking about some of our resources. Each resource is crafted and created to provide a unique functionality and utility to tell its own story.

Today, I’d like to reflect on five different women from five different resources, highlighting some high-level information. Some women are more well-known while others, to me at least, are less. I hope this post can serve as an example on how different resources can impact research. Let’s go.

Five Impactful Women from Five Different Resources

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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.

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Women and the Cold War: A Unique Perspective with Archives Unbound

By Bob Lester

In the early 1950s, the Cold War contributed heavily to a change in American society and women’s roles. Once again, women were called upon to fulfill a role in the defense of America – on one hand to perpetuate the American population and on the other to promote American ideals abroad.

One of the more prominent women’s organizations created to promote American ideals, was the “Committee of Correspondence.” Beginning in 1952, this organization reached out to women political, social, and economic leaders in the Americas, the Western nations and newly-liberated Third World countries; to impress upon them Western democracy and to support the anti-Communist crusade. But, how did this organization achieve its goals and support America and the West’s political fight to win the hearts and minds of the global population? Who were the leaders and the members? What was accomplished during its existence? All of these questions and more can be answered in Archives Unbound’s digital collection entitled Transnational Organizing: The Committee of Correspondence, 1952-1969.

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Committed to a Seamless Customer Experience:  Gale Continues Partnership with YBP

By David Schroeter 

Last week, EBSCO announced its acquisition of YBP Library Services. For years, YBP and its GOBI platform have been a valuable partner to Gale, part of Cengage Learning, providing access to both print and eBook titles as part of Gale’s GVRL, Gale Directory Library, and Literature Criticism Online programs.

We at Gale are devoted to providing our customers with the best ease of access and workflow models available, and because of this, our partnership with YBP will remain unchanged. This means that there will be no interruptions to service or changes in contracts, and you can continue using our resources the same way you always have.

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In Other News: Greece & the EU

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

Ah, Santorini. The quintessential picture of Greece. Stark white building against lovely blue sea. Full disclosure: I’ve chosen this picture for partially selfish reasons. It is currently -8F (-22.2C) outside of the Gale office in Farmington Hills. I need this picture right now.

Read moreIn Other News: Greece & the EU