By Jennifer Albers-Smith
It’s certainly no twerk (thank goodness), but there are people all over who love to dress up and dance the way people danced in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain. What woman in love with Jane Austen’s world wouldn’t dream of going back in time and being Elizabeth Bennet at a ball, meeting Darcy (minus the rejection part)?
Read more19th Century Nitty-Gritty: Dancing with Jane Austen
By Nicholas Schultz
This delicious image portrays a traditional Japanese Bento. Bento is a single portion takeout or home-packed meal. Traditionally a Bento would hold rice, protein, and pickled or cooked veggies – usually in a box-shaped container – hence “Bento Box”.
Over the last few years, Bento has become the new hip. Culinary speaking, Bento Boxes are being offered in most upscale gastro pubs throughout North America, regardless of cuisine style. It satisfies the hipster’s need to be trendy while not having to cook. It satisfies the Michelin chef’s need to offer chic take-out lunches at a premium price point. The world’s most expensive Bento sold for $229,000.
Now Bento is influencing how we consume information as well. The word “bento” roughly translates to “convenient” or “convenience”. In an embattled library world that has seen many skirmishes between federated searching and web-scale discovery/discovery service iterations, user convenience may be the silver bullet.
Recently, we sat down with K Lee Lerner–a senior commissioning editor and advisor/contributor to news services and academic resources. Lerner’s portfolio covering science and global issues includes two RUSA Book and Media Awards, and two Outstanding Academic Titles. A former classroom teacher, Lerner holds multiple degrees in science, science education, and also a Master’s in Journalism from Harvard. We asked him to critically review our new Associated Press Collections Online archives. We hope his insights will help you to see the real value in these collections for active journalists and students alike.
Read more“Like working for AP and having access to the morgue”
What makes working for National Geographic a fulfilling experience and why should you be excited to add National Geographic Virtual Library to your collection? Find out straight from the source. In a continuation of our interview with the Geographic, we had the pleasure of interviewing Anne Marie Houppert.
Read morePartner Interview: Anne Marie Houppert of the National Geographic Society
Gale is continually updating and adding new content to our In Context products, ensuring that they offer timely, authoritative, useful information. The items below were added or updated during the week of October 6, 2014.
Read moreProduct Updates: New In Context content for 10/06/14
By Bethany Dotson
My name is Bethany Dotson, and I’m a market development manager here at Gale – and, for today, your featured guest blogger on Nineteenth-Century Nitty Gritty. My background is in English and Spanish literature, and I love all things Victorian.
I have recently discovered the joys of audiobooks on my commute—with the complication that the four miles I drive to work lends itself to only a few pages at a time. For the last few weeks, then, I have been enjoying (I can’t say devouring at this pace) Simon Winchester’s The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology, about—well, about the birth of modern geology.
By Alice Eng
[alert-info]Recently, we issued a challenge to all those who planned to attend the Charleston Conference this November. Answer a question in 1,000 to 1,500 words, and when a travel scholarship to attend the 2014 conference. While, we received many thoughtful responses, our far-and-above favorite came from Alice Eng, Electronic Resources Librarian at the University of North Florida. This is her winning essay in response to our question: “What is the best way for library resources to be integrated into the university or college curriculum, and how, in your opinion, could this be achieved?”[/alert-info]
Read moreIntegrating Library Resources into the College Classroom
Gale is continually updating and adding new content to our In Context products, ensuring that they offer timely, authoritative, useful information. The items below were added or updated during the week of September 29, 2014.
Read moreProduct Updates: New In Context content for 09/29/14
By Frank Menchaca
Libraries, it seems, are under attack everywhere. Schools are eliminating librarians. College libraries receive less than three cents of every dollar spent on higher education. Marketing guru Seth Godin— and a chorus of others—has questioned the relevance of libraries in particularly stinging terms.
But there’s good news too. Ninety-five percent of Americans believe that public libraries play an important role in helping people live more successful lives. Students who visit their college libraries even once a semester are much more likely to return to school the following semester than those who do not. According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, “the vast majority of readers aged 16-29 have read a print book in the last year.” And 60 percent of Americans under the age of 30 have used a library within the last 12 months.
The message is clear. Libraries—whether academic, municipal, or special purpose—are essential to the health, wealth, and education of the communities they serve. There’s no doubt libraries are challenged by funding cuts and bad press or that they need to beef up their marketing efforts, but the rumors of their death have been greatly exaggerated.
A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.
By Michelle Eickmeyer
Some amazing women did some amazing things this week. And sadly, some horrible things were said about and done to some amazing women this week as well.
This post is going to be a slightly different format than usual. Hopefully you’ll find the information just as useful.
Here are five titles that look at women from different perspectives: