public libraries

Entrepreneurship: What’s Really Important

| By Matthew Miskelly | This blog is the second in my four-part series on entrepreneurship. (Actually, that line was supposed to be a joke, but in a few minutes I’ll be halfway there, so who knows?) For my first blog a few months ago, I interviewed two small business owners, Gordie Richard and James … Read more

An Inside Look at ChiltonLibrary and Car Care Programming Ideas

| By Holly Hibner | Here in Michigan, we take our automobiles pretty seriously; it is very common for laypeople to perform routine maintenance and basic repairs on their own vehicles. My husband wouldn’t dream of paying for an oil change or a tire rotation! But when both got new vehicles in 2016, general maintenance wasn’t as easy … Read more

Explore Timely Coverage of Emerging Legal Issues

| By Mike Tyrkus | The need for a layperson’s comprehensive and understandable guide to terms, concepts, and historical developments in American law has traditionally been well met by The Gale Encyclopedia of American Law. Previously published in a third edition in 2010 (in eBook format) and 2011 (in print) by Gale, The Gale Encyclopedia … Read more

Entrepreneurship: Do Your Homework

| By Matthew Miskelly | Webster’s Dictionary defines entrepreneurship as… (Nah, that’s no good.) Starting a business is a lot like… (Nope, don’t like that, either.) I’ve kept a journal since 1990, roughly five thousand entries. You’d think I wouldn’t find it so difficult starting a blog. But you write what you know, and the … Read more

Once Upon an Author: J.D. Salinger’s 100th Birthday

| Catherine DiMercurio | January 1, 2019, marked what would have been J. D. Salinger’s 100th birthday. Salinger died in 2010, having secured his place in literary history and American culture in 1951 with the publication of his novel The Catcher in the Rye. The work was a bestseller, and its angsty teen protagonist, Holden Caufield, … Read more

A Christmas Carol: Keynesian, Freudian, and Spiritualist Perspectives on a Holiday Classic

| By Gale Staff |

Most think of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843) as the heartwarming story of how a coldhearted miser turns from his ruthless and greedy ways to a life of charity and joy, embracing love and egalitarianism as a reflection of the Christmas spirit. Some scholars, however, would argue that such a reading gets it wrong. The novella, which receives thorough treatment in the digital collections of Gale Literary Sources, has been the subject of unexpected interpretations by critics who seek to illuminate its author, contextualize its composition, and explicate its allegorical content.

Read moreA Christmas Carol: Keynesian, Freudian, and Spiritualist Perspectives on a Holiday Classic

Bring the Movember Movement to Your Library

| By Gale Staff | As the men in your community forgo shaving for the month of November to bring awareness to men’s health issues, your library has the perfect resource to answer questions and shed light on these very serious topics. From authoritative information on prostate cancer to peer-reviewed journal articles on the latest … Read more

Writing on the Día de Muertos

| By Gale Staff | Día de Muertos, Day of the Dead, is observed in Mexico on 2 November, the final day of a celebration that begins on Halloween. Though practices differ from city to city, the holiday is generally an opportunity to honor deceased loved ones, for whom families prepare ofrendas, or altars, which … Read more

Write It Down

| By Charlie Close | I want to talk about the virtues of technical recordkeeping. Seriously. In my work at Gale as a data scientist, I turn our various data sets into metrics, and use the metrics to infer how to make better products and more sales. These inferences are usually expressed in the form … Read more