Midlife Crisis? Open a Business

By Holly Hibner

Business reference: librarians either love it or hate it. Thankfully, Gale’s Small Business Resource Center make’s it easy for us. Seriously – if you haven’t looked at SBRC recently, do yourself a favor and check it out. You’ll thank me later.

My husband and two business partners recently decided that what they really should do for their midlife crisis is open a brewery. He couldn’t just buy a Corvette – he decided to open a small business. He (and both partners) are engineers, so they don’t have a lot of experience opening or running a business. Gale’s Small Business Resource Center came to their rescue. (Well, my rescue if I’m being honest. Who do you think did a lot of the research for them?)

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Diving into The Olympics

By Tara Blair

9781680200058_00010
Zeus prepares to hurl his trademark thunderbolts.

More than 70% of the world’s population tune in to the Olympics, it’s no surprise that the event is ranked as the most common shared experience on Earth. We know the world is well informed of the quadrennial event held and are patiently waiting for August 5th. I backtracked nearly 3,000 years on Gale resources to uncover some knowledge and history most fans are unaware of.

Read what I found!

Originating in 776 BCE, the Olympics began as a festival to honor the mythological Greek god, Zeus. As the son to the supreme god of time, Cronus, and goddess of fertility, Rhea,  Zeus was the leader of the heavens and earth. After overthrowing his father through a tremendous war with a few devoted Titans and his destructive thunderbolts, Zeus proceeded to take control of the universe. Ruling from their court on Mt. Olympus, Zeus, as well as the other Titans, became known as Olympian gods. As the story goes, religious festivals developed on the foot of the mountain to worship Zeus and approach his strength. In order to commemorate the greatest of all gods, the Greeks believed they should offer him the best of everything , which included dexterous athleticism. Thus, the Olympics were born.

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Product Update for Academic OneFile

Academic OneFile now includes a unique new browsing experience for users. Committed to improving user experience and based on feedback from students, this feature is designed to address significant searching needs.

  • Defined topics for ease of browsing
    Users won’t need to guess what to type in the search box—we’ve identified the topics for them. Gale has created browse-able topics by combining our superior subject indexing with taxonomies from Cengage Learning textbooks to create the most relevant periodical content around their research needs.
  • Navigating advanced searches 
    This feature does the searching for you, making it ideal for the user who struggles with effective Advanced Search strategies and overwhelming results. Users can drill down within one of six subject areas–like Marketing, Psychology, or Criminal Justice–to view relevant results in their topic of interest.
  • Focused and relevant results 
    Content is tailored to specific topics. Smaller and more targeted results will empower users to quickly find relevant content. Publications are hand-selected by subject-matter experts to ensure content is focused on the selected subject area.

This new browsing feature adds to the current Academic OneFile experience.  All the familiar searches–like Basic, Advanced, Subject, and Publication–are still available options.

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Try Something Different this Summer

By Mary Kelly

One of the more tired phrases in publishing and library world is the use of the phrase “beach reads”. Evidently summer reading is about the light and easy book choices. Usually, this pops up when we talk about romances, women’s fiction (or domestic fiction) and books that are somehow not “serious”.  Summer reading or a beach reads often implies a lesser type of read.

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Tricks of the Trade

By Tara Blair

Most professionals discover a few tips and tricks during their career that allows them to complete a job with ease and quickens their work flow. At Gale, we’re no different. We have a few tricks up our sleeves, and thought why not share a couple of our favorites with our readers? Although we use a handful of media and imagery applications on a daily basis, we chose two of our favorites to share with you today. Without further ado, I introduce Canva and Word Swag. Two helpful applications that can be utilized in marketing (and everyday life).

My personal favorite, Word Swag, allows users to add text to photos in seconds. Creating beautiful, custom text layouts is easy with the “Exclusive Typomatic Engine” – a term appropriately coined to describe the one tap text layout modifier Word Swag is famous for. Color, size, and skew are a few more easily operated text options offered to make your caption pop. And just in case writer’s block gets the best of you, the app inspires creativity with hundreds of pre-designed quotes, thoughts, and jokes. Best of all, not only are there over 290,000  Pixabay background photos to choose from, but uploading personal photos right from your phone is also an option. Word Swag is an easy-to-use graphic designer app that makes marketing and advertising seem effortless, even on the go! Take a look below at some samples made by everyday users!

thebaseproject amongmany  LOY2016

richardlazarte  wordswagapp2  he_is_my_strength

 

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Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History:an “Interesting” and “Informative” Title

Looking for an “interesting” and “informative” resource that offers comprehensive coverage of American economic history from the arrival of Europeans to the present? The Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History is an “exceptional” one-stop resource that provides clear explanations on difficult topics for high school and college level learners.

Read what a few of our patrons had to say!

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Life and Career Skills:An “Engaging” Series with “Pertinent Information”

The Life and Career Skills series currently stands as a four volume set aimed at developing skills your users need to transition successfully in the real world with themes ranging from personal finance to social skills. Offering the most “up-to-date” content delivered in an “engaging” and “logical” question and answer style, the Life and Career Skills series supplies “foundational” information.

Read a review posted by the American Reference Books Annual, June, 2016.

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Gale’s In Context: “A Comprehensive Instructional Reference” with Modern Tools

Searching for a “core, essential, and vitally important addition” to add to your library? In Context family of online resources are a “valuable addition for high school, college, or public libraries.” With current, authoritative, media-rich information, In Context, meets the needs of today’s students with an easily searchable, mobile-responsive design and integrated Google Apps for Education tools.

Check out some user reviews below!

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Let the Colors Flow

By Candy Jones-Guerin

Think quickly…who is your favorite American Artist?  Did you think of Andy Warhol or Andrew Wyeth, Georgia O’Keeffe or Mary Cassatt?

In August we celebrate American Artists Appreciation Month and pay homage to the visionaries that color our world. Take some time to look up your favorite or choose from the selection below and spend some of your summer reading time learning about these great American icons as well as those around the world that have had an impact on the art community.

Impressionism, 1st Edition
ReferencePoint Press
December 2015
Born in the mid-1800s, the Impressionist movement redefined the way artists approached their craft, opening the doors to previously unheard-of freedom in methods, viewpoint, and execution. This book examines Impressionist art, the tools, the techniques, the artists, and the artwork that so many generations have come to know and love.

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Working Like a Dog

By Tara Blair 

This work week was unlike any other. I eagerly awaited Thursday—yes, I said Thursday—for a day that otherwise only existed in my dreams. It was the day that Gale celebrated Take Your Dog To Work Day (TYDTWD), where staff members were invited to bring their best friend to the office. As I walked into Gale with my employee badge and my Australian Cattle Dog, I couldn’t help but think, “does this day offer any substantial benefits, or is it just pure amusement?”

After a small amount of research, I found that a doggone good time isn’t the only reward to sharing a cubicle with your four-legged companion.

Sit, stay….and read about all the perks of TYDTWD and check out some photos from Gale’s dog day.

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