In Other News: the Oscar Pistorius Trial

By Michelle Eickmeyer

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

March 21, 2014 – The Oscar Pistorius Trial

Whether you knew him as the first athlete to compete in the Olympics with prosthesis (it’s impossible to call him disabled) or for his current trial for the shooting death of his former girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius has spent much time in the international spotlight. The highest of high and lowest of lows. At just 27 he has accomplished much, and as his trial moves forward it remains to be seen what the future holds for him.

Here are five titles which look at the Oscar Pistorius trial from different perspectives:

Read moreIn Other News: the Oscar Pistorius Trial

Featured Partner: Encyclopedia Britannica

An ongoing look at the partner publishers available through GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

For many of us, Encyclopedia Britannica has long represented the place to go to find information on just about everything. While the look of the book has changed, and how students and your community interact with it have changed, the standard of excellence has not. Founded nearly 250 years ago, Encyclopedia Britannica is still a trusted source of all kinds of information.

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Putting the “Pub” in Public Library

By Harmony Faust

To say I’m a fan of craft beer is accurate, but perhaps doesn’t paint the full picture. The fact is, for my husband and I, it’s “our thing.” We appreciate craft beer to the point that last month, for the fourth consecutive year, we traveled to the Annual Winter Beer Festival of the Michigan Brewers Guild. That’s right, Michigan’s Brewers Guild. This places us outdoors in the middle of February at a beer festival. The high was 24 degrees but surrounded by good beer and good friends, no one seemed to notice.

Read morePutting the “Pub” in Public Library

In Other News: Malaysian Airlines Diaster

By Michelle Eickmeyer

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

March 14, 2014 – The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370

It’s the worst nightmare of any traveler, their family and most regular people. An airplane takes off at 12:41 am from Kuala Lumpur headed to Beijing with 239 people on board. Just two hours later… it’s vanished. The speculation began almost immediately: How had people boarded the plane with stolen passports? Was there a bomb? Could they have turned around? How long after the last radar ping was the plane still flying? Why is the ‘black box’ orange? In 2014, how do you lose a plane? With nearly a week passing, we know little more than we did the first day. The world continues to hope for the best, fear the worst, and wait for word.

Here are five titles which look at the the disappearance from different perspectives:

Read moreIn Other News: Malaysian Airlines Diaster

In Other News: Ukraine

By Michelle Eickmeyer

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

March 7, 2014 – The Ukraine

For several weeks, the Ukraine and the Crimean region have been in the news. What started as a celebration of the region with the Winter Olympics has become a near hourly reporting of increased tensions, dividing lines and fear on all sides of the conversation.

Here are five titles which look at the Ukraine from different perspectives:

Read moreIn Other News: Ukraine

Featured Partner: Springer

An ongoing look at the partner publishers available through GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

This week, Gale was proud to announce our partnership with Springer, bringing nearly 3,000 titles dedicated to STEM disciplines to GVRL. The addition of this fantastic content from Springer is a great benefit to academic libraries.

Read moreFeatured Partner: Springer

The Cat’s out of the Bag. We’re Not Just Reference Anymore.

By Harmony Faust

I shared an inside secret with you in our first post and it felt liberating, so I’m going to do it again here. As a representative of a company with 60 years as a leading publisher of reference content, this secret is potentially risky to post, but no less true.

Whew. Okay. Here it goes…

I have heard several of our public libraries partners say…*gasp*…their patrons aren’t asking for reference anymore. That it’s hard to create excitement around reference. In fact, a much-esteemed leader in library land was so bold as to say, to my face, that we do ourselves a disservice by referring to our eBook platform as Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL).

Read moreThe Cat’s out of the Bag. We’re Not Just Reference Anymore.

Look out, Schools! Exciting Changes are Coming to GVRL

By Geoff Schwartz

At Gale, we are committed to providing schools the necessary tools to provide the best possible education to their students. Yesterday, we announced the addition of STEM content to GVRL, starting with nearly 3,000 eBook monographs from Springer and hundreds from Elsevier. That’s just the beginning, however, as we’ll soon add grade-appropriate STEM content for the K-12 market as well.

Read moreLook out, Schools! Exciting Changes are Coming to GVRL