Breaking Major League Baseball’s Color Barrier

The 75th Anniversary of Jackie Robinson | By Shirelle Phelps| On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s long-standing color barrier when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Since 2004, Major League Baseball (MLB) has celebrated this historic date annually. One way the MLB honors Robinson is by having all Major League players and on-field … Read more

National Poetry Month: Poets through the Years

| By Carol Brennan | Poetry is nearly the oldest form of creative expression in the history of humankind, possibly second to the cave paintings of Lascaux, France, as evidence that our brains strive to explain and invent lyrical stories about the world around us. For National Poetry Month 2022, we’d like to recommend some … Read more

Support Childhood Resiliency

| By Kathleen J. Edgar | When life’s stresses seem overwhelming, do you ever wonder what it would be like to be a kid again, living a carefree life, full of fun and games, playing outdoors, free of responsibilities? That idyllic life of cheerfulness and enjoyment may exist in your mind, but it is not … Read more

Gale Releases Who’s Who Among African Americans: 37 Edition

| By Tara Atterberry and Jessie Carney Smith | As we approach the release of Who’s Who among African Americans: 37th Edition, Gale advisor and dean of the library and Camille Cosby Distinguished Chair in the Humanities at Fisk University Jessie Carney Smith provides an invaluable service by developing lists of notable and upcoming African … Read more

Big Ideas and Big Reads to Celebrate Spring

| By Thorndike Staff | Of the four seasons, spring is unrivaled in delivering both majestic beauty and devastating natural catastrophes. Likewise, our April picks explore opposing perspectives with unusual concepts. Two titles examine the power of memories, minds, and emotions in spellbinding tales. Nature is central to two others – one looking at environmental … Read more

Literary Milestones in Women’s History

| By Carol Schwartz, Senior Content Developer, Gale | As the end of International Women’s History Month approaches, Gale would like to take a moment to recognize a few milestones in women’s literary history. Early eleventh century: Japan’s Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji is considered by many to have been the first novel. 1648: … Read more

Women’s History Month 2022: The Last Ones

| By Carol Brennan | For this final installment celebrating the trailblazing women who have shaped the modern world, we dug deeply to find some of the figures dealing with legal battles inside Gale In Context: Biography. These activists and advocates earned their place by being the last of their gender to have been prevented … Read more

The Past Is the Future: Parallels to the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis in Gale Case Studies: Refugees and Migration

| By Rebecca Parks | Like most people, I woke up to the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with shock and horror. As the troops advanced, the civilian population fled; in 10 days, more than 1.5 million Ukrainians had crossed the border into neighboring countries. By March 15, the … Read more