The Biggest Large Print Myths Busted!

Thorndike Large Print Books Same Size!

Spoiler Alert: The large print format offers benefits for people under the age of 60 with perfectly good eyesight.

Have you ever been so good at something you’ve found yourself pigeonholed? Being typecast can feel like a mixed blessing—your claim to fame shines bright, creating the shadow in which your other great qualities hide. If large print books were people, they would feel this acutely.

No doubt, large print books are a well-known solution for visually impaired readers, and those readers are typically seniors. Unfortunately for large print, being so good at solving this one problem for this one audience has led to a narrow, and sometimes inaccurate view of the usefulness of the format overall.

We’d love to enlist the expert MythBusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman to explore the issue in detail, but if you’ve ever seen the Discovery Channel show, you know their mythbusting process tends to involve blowing things up, and we’d hate to see our beloved books so abused.

So, without the pyrotechnics, here are the biggest large print myths: BUSTED!

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Look Up in the Sky – What Do You See?

Posted on April 19, 2016

By Candy Jones-Guerin

Did You Know… that we can actually see the past? Light from distant stars take a very long time to reach the Earth, so when we look at a star through a telescope we are looking at the light that left the star several hundred, thousands or even million years ago!

Take your students on a journey that is sure to be out of this world on May 14th for International Astronomy Day. Gale has great resources to get you started!

Space and Astronomy Experiments Sourcebook, 1st Edition
December 2016
Space and Astronomy Experiments Sourcebook, part of the Science Experiment Sourcebooks series, features approximately 50 experiments on topics such as planets, stars and sunlight, and astrophysics, along with analysis and findings. These hands-on, user-friendly experiments for middle and high school students meet national science standards, require readily available materials, communicate directions clearly to student and teacher, and relate the activities performed to real-life situations.

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Baby, You Can Drive my Car

Posted on April 18, 2016

By Mary Kelly

One of my favorite databases to play with is Gale’s Chilton collection. Not because I am a car person. (To me a car is a giant purse on wheels.) Not because as a librarian it is the easiest way to do car repair reference (which is very true). The Chilton database is more like my own personal marriage saver. This is because I have been married to an auto engineer for more than thirty years and car vocabulary is constantly the lingua franca of our household. This arrangement is great since I really don’t have to worry about car stuff. However, I do have to listen to all sorts of talk about cars. I am also told (in great detail) about car maintenance issues and why it is important.

Chilton is my personal car vocabulary resource/translator for about 75% of our conversations. (Yeah, this database is bookmarked for me.) It helps me explain my car problems to the Engineer husband, followed by criticisms of my general lack of car knowledge and failure to follow regular maintenance schedules.  This discussion is usually punctuated by people shouting and swearing. (Note: The current version does not include any definitions for the accompanying swearing associated with car repairs. Perhaps Chilton’s can consider adding swear words as a “feature” in future releases, until that happens, you are on your own.)

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A Treasure Trove of Queer History Is Now Online

Gale’s Archive of Human Sexuality and Identity being called “A Treasure Trove of Queer History” by Advocate Magazine Published on April 14,2016 Gale’s Archive of Human Sexuality and Identity was recently featured in Advocate Magazine, a leading U.S.-based national gay and lesbian news magazine. In the publication, the collection is noted for its depth of information covering … Read more

Introducing Gale Interactive: Science: Make Science Come “Alive”

Posted on April 14, 2016

“Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure ‘science.’” – Edwin Powell Hubble

Famed astronomer Hubble articulated simply what great science teachers have always known:  science is based on exploration, interaction, and engagement. When students connect with concepts in a meaningful, tactile way, they learn in a more meaningful way.

That belief is the foundation of Gale Interactive: Science, a new resource with interactive 3-D models and authoritative, curriculum-aligned digital content that helps students experience science, not just study it.

Read moreIntroducing Gale Interactive: Science: Make Science Come “Alive”

InfoTrac: Environmental Studies and Policy: A “Solid” and “Viable” Collection

Searching for a “solid” resource of “considerable substance” to answer inquiries about environmental concerns? Your search ends here with the InfoTrac: Environmental Studies and Policy Collection, featuring over 5.4 million articles and “more searching flexibility than that of most platforms.” Engage and support students with an easily searchable, mobile-responsive design and integrated Google Apps for Education tools.

Read a review from Library Journal, April, 2016

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Recommended For 5-Year AdvancED/SACS/NCA/NWAC Re-Accreditation

Published April 4, 2106

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March 18 – Dr. Howard Liebman, Superintendent of Schools, announced today that Smart Horizons Career Online Education (SHCOE), the world’s first private online school district, has been recommended for AdvancED 5-year re-accreditation. Cited for creating a “culture of hope” for so many individuals who have been disengaged from our educational system, the AdvancED administrative lead Dr. Darrell Barringer said he will “forever forward remain an evangelist for this program.”

Read moreRecommended For 5-Year AdvancED/SACS/NCA/NWAC Re-Accreditation

Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture: “Enthralling” and “Remarkable” Primary Sources

Searching for “extraordinary” materials to enhance understandings of the evolution of criminal justice and penal reform? Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture 1790-1920 features “easy to use navigation” paired with 2.1 million pages of materials supporting the study of nineteenth-century criminal history, law, literature, and justice, to enhance law and society knowledge during a pivotal era of social change. Only Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture, 1790-1920 helps users explore the links between fact and fiction by integrating legal and historical documents with literature, an emerging crime-fiction genre, newspaper reports, and more.

Read a review posted by Cheryl LaGuardia of Library Journal, April, 2016

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Peaceful and Quiet Conduct on the Streets of the Village: New York City in the Years following Stonewall

Posted April 7, 2016

By Caitlyn Colman-McGaw

It’s now widely acknowledged that the Stonewall Riots of 1969 represent the historical tipping point of the Gay Rights movement. Years and years of work by LGBT folks in New York City and beyond culminated in riots on the street of the Village. With this year representing the 45th anniversary of Stonewall I decided to take a look back at what was it like in the years after Marsha P. Johnson & Company threw the first brick and ignited a movement. Specifically, what was it like to be a lesbian in the 70s in New York City? Gale’sArchives of Human Sexuality and Identity is a fantastic place to discover more fantastic information.

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Vast digitizing project will put Harvard’s colonial archives online

Published on April 6, 2016 Harvard University has launched a project to digitize almost half a million items from its 17th and 18th century archives – the largest digitizing effort the university has ever undertaken. The letters, journals, documents and drawings tell the story not only of the nation’s oldest institution of higher learning, but … Read more