public libraries Archives | Page 23 of 34 | Gale Blog: Library & Educator News

Help Rose’s Gardening Knowledge Bloom with Mobile Friendly eBooks

April 29, 2015April 20, 2015

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?

Historical Fiction Recommendations from Joyce Saricks: New and Popular in Large Print

February 26, 2018April 15, 2015

Forget the “Columbus sailed the ocean blue” mnemonic devices and dusty history books. If you want to experience history with dimension and humanity, turn to historical fiction.

Librarians Overcome Distance and Tradition with GVRL eBooks

March 12, 2015March 9, 2015

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.”

Moving from Gatekeeper to Gardener: An Introspective On Librarianship

March 12, 2015March 5, 2015

By Jamie LaRue

I believe that librarianship is at the threshold of transformative change. Some of that change is society-wide. Some of it is specific to libraries. In recent years, I’ve spent a lot of my professional time exploring and talking about three key trends. Together, they make up my platform as a candidate for ALA president.

Fiction, Schmiction. How About Some Reality?

June 11, 2018February 23, 2015

Thorndike large print memoirs and biographies

Some readers crave fiction. But a growing number of readers are hungry for nonfiction. In fact, a recent analysis of circulation data from libraries around the country revealed phenomenal growth of circulating nonfiction over the last 20 years. Why? Well, here are two possible reasons:

Public Libraries Across the U.S. Find Reinvention and Value through Innovative Education Program

April 16, 2019February 10, 2015

By Kristina Massari

Public libraries across the country are finding innovative ways to deliver value to their communities, including presenting high school diplomas to adult residents through Career Online High School, an accredited high school completion and career certificate program. Career Online High School is now available at more than a dozen libraries from coast to coast, with several launching this month, and has graduated its first library students.

Wanderlust Lives! Where in the World Will Your Patrons Go?

February 23, 2018January 22, 2015

By Tina Creguer

Okay, so maybe the Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy has a point: there’s no place like home. But, for many people, there’s nothing more invigorating than being on the open road and exploring new places.

According to the U.S. Travel Association, Americans took 2.1 billion person-trips* in 2013 for both leisure and business. That’s a whole lot of travel! 78% of those trips were for leisure purposes; 22% for business. The association also reports that trip planning sources have shifted over the last several years, with social media and mobile devices being used more often.

With members of your community looking to electronic resources to support their travel planning, what resources do you provide to support their need for adventure and exploration?

Public Libraries Get a Boost with Targeted Marketing and Data Analysis

January 21, 2015

By Kristina Massari

New Analytics On Demand Apps Improve Outreach and Provide Insights to Multi-Branch Systems

Public libraries face challenges demonstrating their value to the communities and stakeholders they serve – just 22% of Americans say they know most or all of the services provided by their public library. To help libraries overcome these barriers, Gale, part of Cengage Learning, has added three new applications to Analytics On Demand, the first affordable big data analytics solution for public libraries. The new apps, Marketing Action (for Patrons and Non-Patrons) and Branch Insights, help libraries deploy targeted direct marketing programs to current and prospective library users, as well as better understand how existing patrons are interacting with individual branches across a system.

8 Can’t-Miss Health Titles for Public Libraries

September 24, 2018January 16, 2015

Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine

There’s no doubt about it. Libraries and patrons have a relationship of trust and engagement. In fact, patrons so trust libraries as a source of credible health information that almost 50 percent of library computer users use their online time to search it out. That information runs the gamut from diet and exercise to how to deal with a serious medical diagnosis.

Whether your patrons are doing a quick search, downloading materials onto eReaders or checking out print editions, they look for authoritative content—content that Gale has been providing for 60 years. Here’s are eight new and upcoming health titles created specifically for public libraries and their patrons.

I Had No Idea! Changing How the Library is Viewed One Stakeholder at a Time

September 24, 2018January 14, 2015

By Vanessa Craig

Kate Dwyer, Education Outreach Librarian at Josephine Community Libraries, is used to hearing, “I had no idea!” She works diligently to reach out to members in her community that have no clue what modern day libraries offer.

A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that, “…forty-six percent [of those polled] say that they know some of what their libraries offer and thirty-one percent said they know not much or nothing at all of what their libraries offer.”

Kate faces this unfamiliarity when she is presenting what their library offers to various community groups. Most attendees thought they knew exactly what the library offers, but after her presentation on all the databases, services, programs, and books their libraries offer, her participants often exclaim, “I had no idea!”