By Anne Nagrant and Vanessa Craig
Summer and reading go hand in hand. From books for the beach to bestselling paperbacks, adults take advantage of longer days and vacation time. Children are encouraged to read for fun and to combat the “summer slide.” Public library summer reading programs provide fun motivation for both adults and young people to read, read, read.
Loretta loves teaching sixth grade science. In fact, she’s been teaching for more than 25 years and hopes to stay in the 
classroom for another 20 years. Students are drawn to her high energy and creative approach to teaching. But, as she likes to tell her incredulous students, “The Interweb wasn’t even invented when I got my teaching degree!” To keep her skills and knowledge fresh, she reads the latest journals and attends conferences. But she’s always looking for other resources to learn more about new techniques and approaches.
Loretta and many other teachers are on the hunt for professional development resources to support their lifelong learning in the field of education. Now you can provide them with easy-to-use electronic resources that give them instant access to content that will support their professional development.
Consider supporting teachers with resources that can help guide their development and enhance their teaching skills.
By Kim Martin
Meet Rose, the avid gardener She loves getting outdoors, working in the soil, and seeing her efforts take root, grow and bloom. Well, to be honest, she’s fairly new to gardening… and has lots of questions. She seeks information to inspire her, as well as inform. Her friends are gardeners too. Some are serious master gardeners even and they are stumped from time-to-time and need reliable resources to turn to.
Do you have patrons like Rose and her friends who are looking for practical and authoritative guidance on gardening, landscape, and horticulture?
Read moreHelp Rose’s Gardening Knowledge Bloom with Mobile Friendly eBooks
Today, enhancements released to GVRL and all resources within the InfoTrac and In Context families (including the PowerSearch platform) will increase accessibility for those with disabilities like low vision or blindness, improve usability for desktop and mobile researchers, and create a common user experience across some of our most popular resources.
Enhancements at a Glance
Read moreNow Available: Enhanced Experience of GVRL, InfoTrac, and In Context
Lora Cokolat is a Collection Development and Reading Librarian for the Santa Clara County Library District, working in the District’s Services and Support Center in
Campbell, California. Lora purchases e-books, DVDs, book club kits, and e-magazines to support patrons who use the district’s seven libraries and two bookmobiles. Part of the District’s mission is to provide diverse resources on a wide variety of subjects and viewpoints, and to help people use those resources — a task right up the alley of GVRL eBooks.
“We are committed to offering a variety of subject areas, topics, and viewpoints,” says Lora. “Providing electronic versions of reference sources can be more cost effective than print copies at multiple locations.”
Read moreGVRL Pleases Patrons, Young and Old, in Santa Clara County Library District
Do you remember the glorious childhood feeling of the last day of school? Walking out of your classroom with your face to the sun, eager to explore a whole summer of swimming, biking, and…reading! Wait, reading?
Studies show that children who don’t read or who read rarely over the summer stagnate or decline in their reading skills. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Consider these studies:
Read moreStand Back: Heroes (No Villains) Land in Your Library for Summer
Technology-savvy people are the explorers and gladiators of our great Information Age. Without them, we’d have no blogs, our phones wouldn’t be smart, and none of us would be able to look up the name of that actress we always forget from you-know-that-one-show in a few keystrokes. The Techie’s thirst for knowledge – whether budding young techies or adult tech users – is boundless.
Terry Beck, the Information Services Manager for Sno-Isle Libraries north of Seattle, knows firsthand how to deal with logistical nightmares. Beck is responsible for serving approximately 697,000 people in two counties across 21 community libraries. To complicate matters further, Beck lacks a central or main library location from which to work and was quickly running out of room for reference materials.
“We don’t have one great big place,” Beck bemoaned. “We knew we needed to grow our reference collection but we had no room for additional print materials.”
Read moreLibrarians Overcome Distance and Tradition with GVRL eBooks
By Jacqueline Longe
This winter has seen record lows with artic freezes, seas turned red by the blood of 21 Egyptians, a measles outbreak, viable threats of terrorism in malls across America, and a whole host of other things to make even the warmest of hearts turn cold.
Despite reason for melancholy, there is focus on one matter that we can all rally around—heart health. Though the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide is heart disease, this month facing such a fact and doing something about it on a personal level is a step toward optimum health. That warms the heart.
Sushi. Cupcakes. Acai. Paleo. Kale. Hot food trends never end. And neither do peoples’ interests in cooking for their friends and family. But many want to look beyond Pinterest and popular websites to learn new skills and take a fresh look at culinary arts.
Members of your community are hungry for resources to help them develop their cooking skills and repertoire.