Schools

TEL & Career Transitions: Connecting People with Jobs

By Steven Hicks and Kim Martin

For job seekers, libraries play a crucial role in career discovery, development, and overall assistance. In fact, almost one quarter of library visitors are there to look or apply for a job, according to the Pew Research Center. 1. To further solidify the library’s role as a hub for employment resources, in July, 2014 President Obama signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, identifying public libraries as potential partners of the American Job Center network, and acknowledging libraries’ ability to provide an expansive array of job search services.

Career Transitions, an online resource from Gale, assists users with career exploration and offers a complete, personalized and guided experience from assessing strengths and interests, to finding new career opportunities, to ultimately completing professional resumes and improving the chances of landing jobs.

Read moreTEL & Career Transitions: Connecting People with Jobs

Gale Technical Solutions: Organizing Electronic Resource Pages

By Scott Steward

Let’s talk about some best practices for organizing electronic resource pages.

It doesn’t matter if you are an academic, K12, public, or special library; if you boil down what we do to its simplest definition, our primary goal is to connect people to information.

Our users are already using tools like Google and Bing in their everyday lives to find information.  E.g. Who makes the best cup of coffee? What is the cheapest flight to Las Vegas? What is the carrying weight of a swallow? 

Read moreGale Technical Solutions: Organizing Electronic Resource Pages

Educators: Here’s a Fun Way to Encourage Critical Thinking and Research Skills!

Posted on 9/28/15

By Traci J. Cothran

Looking for a great way to engage students, where they can research a topic of their choice and present their findings in a format (including digital!) that fits their skillset?  The National History Day competition does just that, by providing students with a broad annual theme within which they’ll select their own subject; encouraging them to research, use, and document primary sources related to their chosen subject; then presenting their findings by creating an exhibit, paper, performance, website or documentary.

Read moreEducators: Here’s a Fun Way to Encourage Critical Thinking and Research Skills!

Content Updates for Gale’s In Context (week ending 9/25/2015)

Posted on September 24, 2015

New content has been added and existing content has been updated in a number of Gale’s In Context products.

Biography In Context

New portals were launched for Biography In Context this week. They include:

  • Popular MMA fighter Ronda Rousey
  • Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia
  • Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha
  • Late poets Lucille Clifton and Denise Levertov

Updates have been made for content reflecting the ousting of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot, the retirement of Floyd Mayweather, Jr., and the recent passing of Moses Malone.

Narrative content has been added for:

Contemporary Black Biography, Volumes 125 and 126 which covers 110 biographies across the 2 volumes. Some of the individuals covered include:

  • Jeh Hohnson U.S. Homeland Security head
  • Somali-American runner Abdi Abdirahman
  • American ballet dancer Misty Copeland
  • British actor David Oyelowo
  • Zimbabwean author NoViolet Buluwayo
  • Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Read moreContent Updates for Gale’s In Context (week ending 9/25/2015)

2015 TEAMS Award Announced and the Winners Are….

2015 TEAMS Awards

Posted on September 18, 2015

Another TEAMS Award is in the books! This year’s voting committee had amazing applications to review and discuss – from a school community garden putting a new spin on “farm to table”, to a 3D gallery walk featuring student artwork and videos, to a social action research fair with fundraising muscle – and all displayed exciting, creative ways in which teachers and media specialists are working together to promote learning and student achievement.

This year’s big winners include:

Read more2015 TEAMS Award Announced and the Winners Are….

Life Coach, Anyone? Self-Guided, Online Support for Better Living

Life and Career Skills eBooks for young adults

Achieving personal and professional excellence doesn’t “just happen” for most people. Success typically results from persistence and guidance.  For some, turning to a life coach is useful – receiving personal assistance with decision-making and skills acquisition. But with rates averaging $100 to $300 per hour, that service is out of reach for most young adults.

But hiring a professional isn’t the only path. With new resources from Gale, those eager for coaching can find help at the library.  (In fact, at YOUR library!)

Read moreLife Coach, Anyone? Self-Guided, Online Support for Better Living

Gale Technical Solutions: Branding

By Scott Steward

Welcome back to the Gale Technical Solutions blog series!

I thought it would be good to start with some of the basics.  Today, I will be discussing Branding.

Now when I say branding, I’m not talking about the Gale brand;  I’m talking about your library’s brand within your Gale products.  Did you know all Gale products have dedicated space reserved in the interface for your library’s branding?   In this reserved area we can display text, an image, or some custom code (Javascript, PHP, HTML, jQuery, etc).

Read moreGale Technical Solutions: Branding

Content Updates for Gale’s In Context (week ending 9/11/2015)

Posted on September 11, 2015

Take a look at the latest content updates made to Gale’s In Context products.

Biography In Context
New homepage spotlight images have been added this week. In addition you’ll find that these images have special “hotspots” that allow users to hover over portions of the image to find fast facts about the topic and links to additional content. The new spotlights include:

  • Selena Gomez, actress and singer
  • Tennis player, Serena Williams who was the winner at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships which marked her 21st Grand Slam title
  • The late Jim Henson, creator of “The Muppets”
  • Satchel Paige, who at 59 years old on September 25, 1965 pitched 3 innings of a Major League baseball game
  • United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, will mark the International Day of Peace by ringing the Peace Bell on September 21, 2015

A new portal page has been added that features Lindsey Graham and updates have been made to biographies for Elizabeth II, Queen of England and Stephen Colbert. In addition a new video is available on the home page featuring Bill Gates and the future of technology.

Read moreContent Updates for Gale’s In Context (week ending 9/11/2015)

Comparative Review: Opposing Viewpoints in Context and Points of View Reference Center

The results are in: Opposing Viewpoints In Context is the clear winner! In an issue of The Charleston Review, Susan Moore of Limestone pitted Gale’s Opposing Viewpoints In Context (OVIC) against EBSCO’s Points of View Reference Center (POV).

Read moreComparative Review: Opposing Viewpoints in Context and Points of View Reference Center

Driving Electronic Content Discovery and Usage: Communication – Part 2

Posted on September 9, 2015
Posted by Jan Snyder and Jennifer Maurer

Part II 

As we wrote in Part I of this series, we feel privileged to have a very rich collection of Gale databases and eBooks at our fingertips to use with students and staff, at zero cost to us, through the Oregon State Library’s Statewide Database Licensing Program. Statewide access provides consistency for students as they move from elementary to middle school and then high school.

But the real value and power of these resources are unleashed when librarians and educators collaborate and communicate.  In the second part of this blog series, we’ll discuss – from our own perspectives – communication.
(If you missed it, be sure to also read Part I — Driving Electronic Content Discovery and Usage: Collaboration.)

Jennifer

Electronic Mailing List:
While presenting about Gale databases to various audiences falls under the heading of training, it is also a form of communication. However, I also have a direct channel of communication about OSLIS and its resources, including the statewide databases. The State Library created an electronic mailing list called OSLIST. As I learn about new school library staff in Oregon, I automatically subscribe them. Through OSLIST, I share ideas for how to use the databases as well as communicate about new Gale products and features.

Read moreDriving Electronic Content Discovery and Usage: Communication – Part 2