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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Product Update: New Titles to InfoTrac

New Titles Added to the InfoTrac Collections in March 2017 The titles below have been recently added and can be located in the product using Basic or Advanced Search forms. Titles can be found via Browse Publications within two weeks. For complete coverage information please see the product title lists. Academic OneFile Collections:  A Journal … Read more

April 2017 Read-alikes and Bestsellers

| By Elyse Monahan | April Read-alikes Your patrons have their favorite authors and genres that they know and love. Below is a list of titles debuting in April inspired by those favorites! Jump to the April Bestsellers  If your readers like David Liss and Robert Harris, they might like: The Ashes of London by … Read more

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.

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April 2017 Picks

| By Elyse Monahan |

April Editors’ Picks 

Jump to the Library Reads List 

Jump to the Indie Next List 

Hand-picked titles from our expert editorial team are here! At Thorndike Press, our editors have a knack for picking the next great reads. They have been doing so for over thirty years! Here is a list of April titles they know your patrons will enjoy.

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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:

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Promotional Material Downloads for Gale Courses

Instructor-led online Gale Courses for libraries

Support personal and professional learners with online education to transform lives and foster positive change with Gale Courses. To help market the program at your library, download materials below. Press Release Template Newsletter Template  Animated Banners 120×90 125×125 125×125 v2o Logo Social Media Sample Posts; also, see how other libraries are talking about Gale Courses … Read more

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.

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