From Politics to Chemistry – An Escape Plan

By Deb Kirby

Seeking relief from the overload of rancorous political discussion last week, I decided to focus on something different. When I discovered that February 7 is National Periodic Table Day, I had my plan: Finally learn some basics about the periodic table, which I had somehow managed to avoid in school. (Reading a book a day in my middle and high school years may have enhanced my reading skills, but since my genre of choice was the historical romance, did not do much for my understanding of things like Chemistry.)

I turned to Gale’s Science In Context to learn more about the periodic table and the recently released Gale Interactive: Science for a hands-on learning experience.

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7 Primary Source Documents Related to Immigration and the ACLU

Since its inception the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has taken part in some of the most contentious legal battles in American history. The ACLU has once again become a central figure in a contentious legal battle following their objections to the recent Executive Order restricting immigration from 7 countries. The ACLU has a long history of fighting restrictions on immigration they deem in violation of civil liberties. The documents below found in the American Civil Liberties Union Papers, 1912-1990 are several examples of the ACLU’s past involvement in issues surrounding immigration.

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Bridging the Gap Between Quantitative and Qualitative Research in Digital Newspaper Archives

by Thomas Smits on DIGITAL HUMANITIES NOW Since the early 2000s, humanities 3.0, as Rens Bod has called it, was posited as being able to discover new patterns, mostly over long periods of time, that were overlooked by traditional qualitative approaches. A study by a team of academics led by Professor Nello Christianini of the University of … Read more

Alternative Facts, Fake News, and Digital Literacy

By Traci Cothran

There was a time when we didn’t need to define what a fact was – or rather, we all understood that it meant the same thing. It was a fact – it was the truth; the rest was fiction or opinion. There were clear, credible sources, and there were those that weren’t. Now students, teachers, and librarians (as well as the rest of the American populous) must grapple with distinguishing fact, fake news, and “alternative facts” on a near-constant basis. While the Internet gives us a plethora of easy-to-access information, it’s up to us to discern what is factual and what is not.

To do that, we need to start asking hard questions of everything we read and hear – such as:

  • Where did that Facebook “news” post originate?
  • Is this news or a “newsvertisement?”
  • Are these statistics or this sound bite taken out of context to distort their meaning?
  • Who penned this article? Do they have a specific agenda that influences their writing?
  • Who created this website and how are they getting paid for their content?
  • When you reverse-search the image used in the article, do you find different source content?

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Robert Smalls: From Slave to Senator

During Black History Month, we honor African Americans who made significant contributions to American society and impacted the course of American history. One such figure is Robert Smalls, who was born a slave in South Carolina, made a dramatic escape from slavery, and was later elected to Congress. With primary sources, Smalls’ remarkable life, achievements, and impact can be considered and understood through contemporary accounts.

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Philosophy: Sources, Perspectives, and Methodologies: Highly Recommended in All Libraries

Looking for a way to stimulate philosophical discussions without lengthy excerpts? The search stops here with Philosophy: Sources, Perspectives, and Methodologies. By using film, literature, art, case studies, and other disciplines to provide an innovative approach to introducing philosophy, this resource will be your one-stop source for all things philosophy.

See what a professor said in CHOICE, February, 2017:

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More Enhancements to Gale eBooks on GVRL

Last month, Gale eBooks on GVRL underwent quite a few improvements. From visual and accessibility enhancements to options for homepage customization (read the full blog), our goal is to continuously update the platform based on our users’ needs. Below are three, additional enhancements users can expect to find in product: Search within custom collections. Previously users … Read more

“Huck Out West”… The Buzz Keeps Coming!


Amazon named it a “Best Book of 2016” and Men’s Journal named it one of the 7 Best Books of January!

Coming soon in Large Print, Huck Out West by Robert Coover, is continuing to receive extraordinary reviews from Booklist, The Washington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, and many more! We can’t be more excited to have this title available soon in a format for all readers to enjoy.

“Coover delivers a near-masterpiece. It’s pitch-perfect and laceratingly funny but also a surprisingly tender, touching paean to the power of storytelling and the pains of growing up.”—STAR Booklist review 

“The characters are colorful, with names such as Pegleg, Yaller Whiskers, and Eyepatch. Huck finds love and there’s the inevitable return of Tom, whose adult mischief is more sinister than his teen antics. A lively and fast-paced encore for a beloved American hero.” –Publisher’s Weekly

“Revisiting Huckleberry Finn’s America—by picking up where Mark Twain left off.”-Kirkus Reviews 

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Academic OneFile Expands Browse-By-Discipline Feature

Releasing mid-February, Gale is happy to announce that the browse-by-discipline feature within your Academic OneFile will automatically update to include coverage in three key areas of study –Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Science. The expanded offering of curated content will provide users with greater access to full-text-scholarly journal content that supports the concepts and topics discussed within the STM disciplines.

And there’s more! In an effort to further improve the user experience, we’ve updated the appearance of the browse-by-discipline icons, resulting in a cleaner presentation and easier navigation. Take a look at what your users will experience when the enhancements roll-out this February.

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