Running Like a Girl

| By Debra Kirby |

Anyone remember when phrases like “You run like a girl!” were considered insults? Not anymore! I love when power is claimed by turning what is meant to be a negative into a positive. Two recent events are inspiring me right now:

  • My 9-year-old granddaughter has joined her school’s Girls on the Run program, which will culminate in a 5K Run (“Not a race, Nana” says Grace) in June.
  • Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon 50 years ago, ran it again this year – at the age of 70!

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Digging in to Earth Day

| By Debra Kirby |

On April 22, Earth Day will be observed by more than a billion people in nearly 200 countries, making it the world’s largest civic observance. The first Earth Day was held in 1970, a year I remember well. I had recently moved to a smaller high school where the student body was less diverse and more conservative. When I found out that my new school had no plans to mark the important occasion, I gathered a few like-minded friends and, with a sense of righteous indignation, we marched out to the parking lot to pick up trash! Not the most impactful way to celebrate the first ever Earth Day, but the effort apparently helped cement my reputation as a “rebel egg head,” as I learned years later when I was introduced as such to more than one former classmate’s spouse at our 20th high school reunion.

Many years later I can’t recall much about that day or even, now I think of it, the history behind Earth Day. But having access to Gale’s rich database content, I recently set out to educate myself. Here’s what I found:

  • The concept for Earth Day began with United States Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin Democrat, who in 1969 proposed a series of environmental teach-ins on college campuses across the nation. Hoping to satisfy a course requirement at Harvard by organizing a teach-in there, law student Denis Hayes flew to Washington, DC, to interview Nelson, who persuaded Hayes to drop out of Harvard and organize the nationwide series of events. (Science In Context)

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New Curriculum Correlations in Smithsonian Primary Sources in U.S. History

Smithsonian Primary Sources in U.S. History now connects literary concepts to primary sources located in the product. Detailed curriculum correlations align the primary source to national social science and literary standards for easy-to-see application across subjects. Primary source materials greatly enrich learning for high school students by helping them develop critical thinking skills, pursue independent … Read more

Meet Our New GVRL Specialist

| By Nicole Albrecht |

Hi everyone! My name is Nicole Albrecht and I am Gale’s new GVRL Specialist. I am sure you are asking yourself, “What exactly is a GVRL Specialist?” Well, before I explain my role, what I have created recently, and how I plan to help in the future, let me tell you about myself.

I was born and raised in the lovely state of Michigan and currently live in the Metro Detroit area. I always knew I was going to be a teacher, so after high school I attended Western Michigan University. (Go Broncos!) My love for reading and learning about the past lead me to choose Western’s Education program in Secondary Education with a major in English and History. After graduation I decided to take a leap of faith and go out of state to teach. I taught World History in beautiful, but very rural North Carolina for two years before moving back home to Michigan. Teaching jobs were hard to find when I came home, so I took a position at a charter high school in inner city Detroit. It was in this urban environment that I thrived and settled in to teach for the next four years. As you can imagine, teaching in the inner city wasn’t easy or pretty at times, but something about the kids and their challenges made me a better teacher. During my time in Detroit, I also graduated with my Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Adolescent Literacy. At the end of my 6th year of teaching, I felt it was time to search new horizons and I came upon an opportunity to teach at the college level for a technical institution. It was an amazing chance to teach high school students who were dual enrolled for their diploma and an associate’s degree. I taught there for two years before finding this wonderful opportunity, here at Gale, to step out of the classroom and utilize my skills in a different manner.

Read moreMeet Our New GVRL Specialist

You Empower Us! What Empowers You? Let Us Know During National Library Week and You Could…

Win a free T-shirt! Be featured on our social media pages! Most importantly, let everyone know what empowers you. All of this and more happens when Gale kicks off National Library Week 2017! To celebrate, we want to spark a conversation where librarians from coast to coast share what they’re empowered by. As a librarian, you … Read more

National Autism Awareness Month

| By Traci Cothran |

Sesame Street’s first new puppet in a decade debuts this month; her name is Julia, she’s a cutie-pie, and she has Autism.  To say this is a huge moment for the Autism community is a gross understatement, as kids on the spectrum struggle every day to find acceptance and friendship, and Sesame Street is now providing a way for young children to grow up understanding this disorder better and accepting kids who have it.  Like many others parents of children on the spectrum, I was thrilled (and a little choked up) watching the “60 Minutes” segment about Julia and all the research and thoughtfulness Sesame Street put into the creation of this character.

And, as a parent, I’m always trying to keep current on new trends, therapies, and research on Autism.  It can be overwhelming, as it seems there’s less defined about Autism than is known.  This is where I love our Gale resources.  We have fantastic information on the topic in our eBooks on GVRL, including:

Autism, 1st Edition
Series Name: Introducing Issues with Opposing Viewpoints
Lauri S. Scherer
Greenhaven Publishing

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Goodreads Big Books of Spring 2017

Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Their mission is to help people find and share books they love. They have 55 million members and there are over 50 million readers on their website. Their Spring list contains the top 25 books that readers are adding to their “Want to Read” shelves. We’ll be publishing the following of these buzz books in large print.

Read moreGoodreads Big Books of Spring 2017

A Remarkable Review for Smithsonian Primary Sources in U.S. History

History is not just a list of dates and events. But history taught well is vibrant, relevant, and engaging. And nothing brings history to life like primary sources that give students a close-up look at history as it unfolded.

Gale and Smithsonian have partnered to deliver an online resource that includes unique and seminal primary sources, including documents, maps, historical objects, and other materials from the museums and archives from the collections of the Smithsonian and from Gale’s leading digital collections: Smithsonian Primary Sources in U.S. History.

Designed for use by both teachers and librarians, this resource from Gale supports core and Advanced Placement U.S. history programs. Primary source images are hand-curated by scholars at the Smithsonian – experts who have a unique knowledge of U.S. history as seen through the Smithsonian’s valuable collections and shaped for the school curriculum by an advisory board of teachers.

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

Read moreA Remarkable Review for Smithsonian Primary Sources in U.S. History

Pellissippi State Community College Librarian Shares Why Gale Resources are Successful

|  By Jennifer Mezick, Acquisitions and Collection Development Librarian Pellissippi State Community College |

At Pellissippi State Community College (PSCC), our users have access to many Gale resources through the Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL). Through our TEL setup we are able to track only statistics for PSCC users. From our statistics, we know that Gale resources are heavily used by PSCC patrons and there are a few reasons behind this success:

In Class Instruction
Our students primarily use the resources shown to them during class. PSCC librarians provided research instruction to 137 classes this past fall semester. PSCC librarians and teaching faculty find that students who receive in-class research instruction achieve higher grades on their research assignments. One of the lessons we present to students is the importance of finding background information before searching for journal articles. Opposing Viewpoints In Context is our go-to database for demonstrating background research. All the “In Context” databases contain Topic Pages for select topics, which provide histories and explain the different viewpoints of those topics or issues.

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Faculty Outreach
Because not all of our faculty can find the time in a 5 to 16 week semester to have us in their classes, educating our faculty about our resources is the next best way to reach our students. Our faculty learn about Gale databases at our New Faculty Academy, where we introduce library resources, and at Faculty In-Service, where we demonstrate new databases or changes and new features to current databases. Librarians at PSCC are faculty and serve as subject liaisons. With this designation comes the responsibility to serve on campus academic committees and attend academic department meetings (and sometimes share after-work beers). Relationships with faculty are formed through these committees. I find that these relationships make faculty more comfortable talking with librarians about research assignments and available resources, which provides us the opportunity to recommend the most appropriate resources for their upcoming assignments (or their own research).

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The Greatest Resistance Stories

| By Debra Kirby |

In honor of Holocaust Month, which is observed in the United States in April, I’m sharing a few of my current reads and older favorites related to World War II resistance groups and individuals. With a background like mine—a lifelong interest in World War II history, French and Polish grandparents, and a tendency toward activism—stories about WWII resistance in Europe have long attracted my interest. Below are a few of my current and longtime favorites, as well as recommendations on which Gale databases you can visit to learn more about WWII resistance.

 Recent Nonfiction Favorites:

The Resistance, 1940: An Anthology of Writings from the French Underground translated and annotated by Charles B. Potter (2016). This fascinating first person accounting of four French Resistance fighters, including national heroes Jean Moulin and Germaine Tillion, would make an excellent primary source student resource.

The Zoo Keeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman (2007) chronicles the experiences of Polish citizens Antonina and Jan Zabinski and their sheltering of Jews on the grounds of the Warsaw Zoo. A movie based on the book and starring Jessica Chastain premiered in Warsaw in early March.

Read moreThe Greatest Resistance Stories