Community Archives | Gale Blog: Library & Educator News

Gale’s Holiday Book Sale Raises Funds for Reading Is Fundamental

December 18, 2017December 22, 2017

| By Jennifer Stock | This year, I became the new project editor for the Something About the Author series. Featuring emerging and established authors/illustrators in the fields of children’s and young adult literature, this series includes images of the entrants, as well as numerous book covers and interior illustrations. Each of the books that have images … Read more

Partners in Connecting with Nashville’s Youth

June 6, 2017June 6, 2017

By Allison Barney
Limitless Library Coordinator
Nashville Public Library

At Nashville Public Library (NPL), our story is about more than books. It’s about education, community, and enabling others to thrive. Our award-winning programs allow our entire city to dream, learn, see, do, and become more. Better yet, these programs don’t just happen inside our buildings. We connect with them right in their own communities. In fact, two of our very successful community programs, Limitless Libraries and the Nashville After Zone Alliance (NAZA), use this model to reach thousands of children and youth through the public schools who might not otherwise have access to library resources.

Archives of Sexuality & Gender: “An Excellent Addition”

March 20, 2018February 17, 2017

Students, educators, and researchers can now engage with a vast resource that connects them to this history, and enables them to delve deeper and make new connections with the largest program of digital primary source materials available in support of these and many other related areas of research. With approximately 1.5 million pages of primary sources content on social, political, health, and legal issues, Archives of Sexuality & Gender is your one-stop source for all topics impacting LGBTQ communities around the world. Covering subjects such as the gay rights movement, activism, the HIV/Aids crisis, and more, the Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part I is an “excellent addition for academic and public libraries.”

See what Christina Hennessey, a Cataloging Librarian at Loyola Marymount University, thinks of this milestone digital program:

Archives of Sexuality & Gender: A “Recommended” Resource

November 3, 2016November 7, 2016

Support scholarly researchers, students, and educators with LGBTQ history and culture with Archives of Sexuality & Gender. Likewise, LGBTQ community, allies, and families can also gain a deep understanding with this resource of approximately 1.5 million pages of primary source content. Covering social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities around the world, Archives of Sexuality & Gender is a “recommended” resource for all researchers.

Curious? Read a review from Cheryl LaGuardia, a Research Librarian:

Tools of the Trade: Empathy, Respect, Openness,
Communications, and the Library Mission

November 18, 2015November 4, 2015

Posted on November 4, 2015
During the time of unrest in Ferguson, we at the Ferguson Municipal Public Library (FMPL) made a conscious decision to simply stay open for our community. We forged many vital relationships during those difficult days by providing empathy, respect, and comfort to the people in our community.

Empathy and Respect – Keeping our doors open during the hard days created a shift in how the people of Ferguson thought of their library. The empathy and respect we showed our patrons created a synergistic boost to the community as a whole.

Understand patrons, and respect them as people. Everything else grows from this, but you have to really mean it. If you care deeply about your community, it shows in every conversation, decision, and service. This cannot be an abstract thing—caring in aggregate but not in specific. It’s about building actual relationships. After all, we serve each patron as a person, individually.

2015 TEAMS Award Announced and the Winners Are….

February 26, 2018September 18, 2015

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:

Top Library Leaders Share Their Thoughts: Turning the Page

July 10, 2015June 15, 2015

By Misty Jones

For libraries to remain relevant and effective, we need to define ourselves and set a direction and identity. At the heart of setting this direction is remembering our core services, while adapting to our evolving internal and external environment. It means remaining open to new opportunities not yet envisioned, but still remaining true to ourselves and what we represent. By establishing a brand, libraries can identify themselves and their importance and relevance to their community.

Ferguson Municipal Public Library Named 2015 Library of the Year

May 23, 2018June 9, 2015

By Kristina Massari

Ferguson Municipal Public Library of Ferguson, MO has been named the 2015 Library of the Year by Library Journal magazine and Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. The small suburban library rose above the chaos and stepped up to provide sanctuary and resources for all in a community in crisis, and remained steadfast to that call over months of duress. The library leadership’s modest “it’s what we do” stance resonated worldwide through social media and news coverage. It placed libraries in the center of the solution, and created a model for other libraries in communities experiencing strife.

Library of the Year is a prestigious recognition that goes to a public library that profoundly demonstrates service to community, creativity, leadership and innovation in developing community programs. Nominated by over 100 U.S. library leaders, Ferguson Municipal Public Library was recognized for its outstanding commitment to service and its extraordinary role as community anchor.