Apr 20
WiLS vendor partner Columbia University Press is working with Academic Rights Press to bring EntertainmentID to North America. Entertainment Industry Data is a library of Media Statistics bringing you all the professional numbers behind the industry. Entertainment ID brings together Film ID and Music ID in a single platform. For more information or for pricing and trial requests, contact Jeff Brunner ().
Apr 13
Reprints Desk invites WiLS members to register and attend Reprints Desk’s academic document delivery town hall meeting on April 16th, 2015 @ 1:00PM PT / 4:00PM ET.
The town hall is exclusively for Reprints Desk academic customers and designed to provide you and other customers with an additional forum for asking questions, getting answers, and sharing what’s on your mind.
This isn’t a disguised sales pitch or a replacement for private account-related discussions. Rather they are intended to provide you with yet another avenue for engaging with us and exploring what’s possible for external document delivery at your institution.
Reprints Desk hopes you will join this town hall event and that you will share a question or two about what you are interested in learning or hearing during this meeting.
Apr 13
At WiLS, we want to bring valuable information to our library partners, including information about the missions and big ideas of the vendors they may already do business with. Each month, WiLS will interview a vendor partner in order to bridge the gap and open the door to valuable collaborations. This month, we are delighted to share insights from Susan Gall, co-owner (with her husband, Tim Gall) of Lincoln Library Press, Inc.
These interviews are part of a series of interviews with both WiLS library and vendor partners. Your feedback is appreciated. If you have any to offer on this article, or suggestions for upcoming interviews, contact Andrea Coffin at .
Tell us about your company’s background.
Our company was originally named Eastword Publications Development. When my business partner (and husband) and I launched our business in 1992, we were book producers. Publishers hired us to develop titles. We were a turnkey operation, taking a project from an initial idea all the way through to finished pages for the printer and SGML files for online publication. We specialized in multivolume sets for libraries. We developed several dozen titles for Gale Research, now Cengage. We worked on Gale and UXL versions of the Worldmark and Jr. Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, Cities of the World, Notable Asian Americans, Women’s Firsts, Chronology of Women’s History, and many more.
In 1998 we decided to become a publisher and to produce our own titles. We began by acquiring the rights to publish the Lincoln Library titles, including the acclaimed multivolume Lincoln Library of Sports Champions and Lincoln Library of Essential Information, a single-volume encyclopedia first published in 1924. We published new editions of both titles and expanded the Lincoln Library line with a seven volume set, Lincoln Library of Shapers of Society, and a five-volume set on Greek & Roman Mythology–which won the Benjamin Franklin Award for excellence in editorial and book design. With the success of those titles we changed the name of our company to Lincoln Library.
In 2009, we launched FactCite: Lincoln Library Online – as an enhancement to Lincoln Library print titles. However, the site took on a life of its own. In 2013, Library Media Connection/ARBA named FactCite “Best Overall Reference K-12” in their Best in Reference Awards. Subscriptions were growing exponentially, and in 2014, we made the decision to stop publishing books and to focus on FactCite.
Why do you, personally, choose to work with libraries?
We have been in love with libraries our entire lives. My business partner has particularly fond memories of one of his first jobs–as a page at the main branch of the Cleveland Public Library. At one point or another he shelved books in every department, learning to “read the stacks” and stumbling across all sorts of great books. (He likes to tell the story about the time the pages spiked the punch at a staff party, and then hid the empty bottle in a part of the stacks they knew was infrequently visited.) The main branch of Cleveland Public Library was, and continues to be, a magical place.
Librarians are inspiring for their intellectual curiosity and for their fierce defense of every student’s right to learn.
I share his enthusiasm for libraries. I am a longtime member and former president of the Friends of the Shaker Library in the community where we live. One memorable accomplishment during my tenure was a multigenerational quilting project. Adult quilters and children worked together to create a quilted wall hanging inspired by Jack Prelutsky’s poem, “Children, Children Everywhere.” The quilt adorns the soffit of the children’s room in the branch library – and a framed letter from Jack Prelutsky celebrating the project hangs nearby.
A librarian who knows the best books to read and who can direct someone to the best sources of information is invaluable. Librarians are inspiring for their intellectual curiosity and for their fierce defense of every student’s right to learn. (Our daughter Lizzie is head of youth services at the Grand Rapids Public Library in Michigan. Need I say more?)
What do you like to know about the libraries you work with? What helps you better understand their needs?
We like to think of our customers (students, teachers, and librarians) as our partners. We work hard to get to know them and to learn what they need. We ask what students are studying and how we can do a better job of providing them with appropriate and challenging material.
To make it easy for our subscribers to provide input, we have built-in ways for students to send us feedback. At the end of every FactCite article is a link that enables readers to tell us what they think. We love the feedback, even when it is a little off topic, like the one below:
<> = to HAHAHAHA!!!!
While the comments come to us anonymously, we do know which school or public library sent the comment. This helps us address the needs of students who are struggling or can’t find what they are looking for. We can contact the librarian in an effort to help. For example, a user may send a comment such as “this should be longer” or “what happened next?” If we agree, we will expand the article. Our editors love responding to student comments, and sometimes we post expanded articles within a day.
Our librarian customers tell us that it is empowering for students when the librarian is able to show them that their input helped improve FactCite. We are all in a community of learning and we like to think that our role can make a difference. What we really cherish are comments like the following:
awesome !
What big ideas are being worked on at your company? What problems are being solved?
We are constantly looking for ways to improve FactCite. In addition to our Lincoln Library content, we’ve partnered with two other publishers to bring online editions of their print products under the FactCite umbrella. For younger researchers, we’ve added Biography for Beginners, which was a popular print product for elementary schools until 2012 and is now a popular resource on FactCite. In November 2014, we launched Defining Moments in U.S. History Online, based on the 30-volume (and growing) print series from Omnigraphics. The addition of Defining Moments substantially increased our content on American History for students in middle and high schools.
Subscribers asked us for audio read along, so we added that feature. It helps younger readers and ESL/ELL students with the text. We have improved the page design to reduce scrolling. We are committed to keeping FactCite accessible for all researchers, so our screens are distraction-free. As one librarian wrote, “students like that FactCite is easy to read and uncluttered, yet still includes photos and other graphics.”
For next school year, we’ll be introducing some new features that will make FactCite even more fun for student researchers.
How can librarians become partners in product or training development?
Our “send a comment” feature at the end of every FactCite article makes it easy for subscribers to function as our partners. Librarians regularly send us suggestions, such as lists of biographies or the outline of a country report assignment, so that we can consider adding profiles or country facts not currently included in FactCite.
Do you have anything else you’d like to share?
We exhibited for the first time at WEMTA this year – and enjoyed meeting our customers and prospective customers. We have subscribers from Appleton to Rhinelander, from Eau Claire to Tomahawk, from Clayton to Winneconne. FactCite databases are affordable and accessible to students of all reading levels. FactCite displays well on Chromebooks, smartphones, tablets, and Internet-enabled e-readers, and is a low bandwidth resource that works well when an entire class is online simultaneously. And we do not have voicemail – when you call (800) 516-2656 you will always reach a person!
Apr 10
When Madison Metropolitan School District added OverDrive’s School Download Library, they were faced with a familiar challenge for school districts: how do you efficiently and effectively train 46 media specialists on the new service? Enter LibGuides! Read MMSD’s Cathy Daane’s article about this experience.
Mar 16
If you’re going to be at the ILLiad International Conference this week in Virginia, check out our new partners Reprints Desk who will be presenting there! You’ll have an opportunity to learn more about their service and then come back home and learn more about their WiLS member discount!
Feb 25
WiLS is excited to announce a new partnership with Reprints Desk! Reprints Desk provides on-demand access to articles from a huge catalog of publishers. WiLS members will be entitled to a $0.50 discount on their service. There’s no contract to sign, no recurring fees or subscription. You’ll simply pay for what you use.
WiLS is co-hosting an informative webinar and demonstration. Sign up today to attend the 1:00 PM CT webinar on Monday, March 2nd to learn more about Reprints Desk and its academic document delivery platform Article Galaxy. During this 30-minute webinar, Reprints Desk will introduce Article Galaxy’s collection of journal articles with special copyright royalty rates and show how their platform can streamline article acquisition workflows both directly and through integration with systems such as ILLiad, Odyssey and RapidILL.
To attend the webinar, email our rep Tony Landolt ().
We hope we’ll see you there!
Feb 20
On February 28, 2015, ProQuest will be upgrading its systems infrastructure to improve performance, security, and overall reliability of all products. The window is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Central Standard Time and will last for five (5) hours.
During this time access to the ProQuest products listed below will not be available and users will be re-directed to a webpage explaining the scheduled maintenance:
Feb 13
Molly Warren, Reference Librarian and Collection Development Coordinator at Madison Public Library and News Partner for CW57, told the whole wide world about how great Wisconsin’s Digital Library is! And you don’t even need a credit card….
Feb 1
WiLS and the WiLSWorld Planning Team officially invite your proposals for programs and showcases for WiLSWorld 2015. UPDATE: The deadline to submit your proposals has been extended to Friday, March 20th. Read more
Jan 12
At WiLS, we want to bring valuable information to our library partners, including information about the missions and big ideas of the vendors they may already do business with. Each month, WiLS will interview a vendor partner in order to bridge the gap and open the door to valuable collaborations. This month, we are delighted to share insights from Gordy Hagert, Educational Sales Consultant at Cengage Learning.
If you have any questions about this interview, or would like to suggest a vendor partner for us to interview in the future, contact Andrea Coffin at or 414-979-9457.
Tell us about your company’s background.
Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, has been in the publishing industry for over 60 years. Gale has always been focused on reference and research and has been committed to serving the needs of all types of libraries. For the past 20 years, Gale has been delivering high-quality, authoritative, current content in print and electronically. As a publisher we also have the unique opportunity to create the content schools are demanding – this is what let’s us be so responsive to school curriculum.
As a former Gale customer, I’ve watched the arc of Gale’s innovation climb steadily. As other vendors and other technologies have come and gone, Gale has managed to maintain a high level of sustainability and consistency in its solutions and in innovation. Believe me, I tried almost everything out there and my students and staff simply used Gale resources more.
Why do you, personally, choose to work with libraries?
Last spring I retired after 34 years in education. My first 14 years were in the classroom as a social studies teacher, coach, and athletic director. As I worked on my master’s degree, I dabbled a bit in technology and media and when the door opened to move to the library I jumped on it. For the last 20 years, I’ve worked as a media specialist, technology coordinator, and technology coach and have experience at all levels k-12.
I’ve learned along the way just how valuable media specialists are in schools – quite simply, we are curriculum specialists, technology gurus, and superhero problem solvers. When there is a void, we fill it and few people truly realize the hats we wear. Quite honestly, it’s in our nature to help people and that’s what makes us indispensable to our students and staff.
As librarians and media specialists, we get far too few opportunities to visit our colleagues “in the wild”. For me it’s a great joy to visit school libraries, learn from others, and talk shop. After a few months with Gale, I’m reassured that our profession is in great hands!
What do you like to know about the libraries you work with? What helps you better understand their needs?
It’s always insightful to know about the level of administrative support. Self-advocacy has great value. When a media specialist can talk about their strong relationship with their principal it’s always a good sign.
It’s also of value to know where schools are on the technology spectrum. All schools have invested heavily in infrastructure, but hardware doesn’t education children – teachers armed with great content and solid pedagogy do. We know that the ground is shifting at our feet and it’s the most nimble that handle the change most easily. I always felt my obligation as a media specialist was to be more informed about technology and content than anyone else in my building so I could be a valued partner in the conversation. Discovering where a librarian/media specialist is on this scale can be important.
Finally, I think getting an overall picture of how the school manages its collection – print and digital – is important. As media specialists, we have lots of choices and most require some level of long term commitment. It behooves us to choose carefully and well as our budgets (and our jobs) can be at risk. We need to make the case that our libraries have knocked down our walls and we truly are supporting the curriculum at the classroom level in new and different ways.
What big ideas are being worked on at your company? What problems are being solved?
We’re finding that implementing technology, be it 1:1 or BYOD, is still sort of the wild, wild, west. There are 100’s of paths to successful rollout as evidenced by the number of learning management systems and online tools available. It’s imperative that your content partners are agile and nimble enough to integrate with those solutions.
I know that Gale is constantly listening to librarians, administrators, and technicians to stay on top of these issues. We think students should be interacting and engaging the content and that we need to reduce barriers to access. Bottom line is that we’ll be constantly evolving along with our school partners.
How can librarians become partners in product or training development?
I’ve joked with a few people that Gale hired me to shut me up. I expected a lot for my budget dollars. I often called Gale technical support or my sales representatives with my “great ideas” or my complaints. As I’ve begun to work with Gale I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the responsiveness to our customers. As much as we’d like to get everything right every time, we don’t. But we listen carefully to the feedback we receive. I’ve already seen numerous little changes take place based on customer feedback.
Gale frequently hosts focus groups and solicits feedback. I carry my customer’s suggestions up the ladder. If we’re not listening, we’re not partnering. Please understand some things take time, others seem great but the technology to implement them may yet be out of reach. We’ve also got a development schedule planned out many months in advance and we need to stick to a consistent plan. But never be afraid of offering suggestions!
Do you have anything else you’d like to share?
I’d just like to thank those of you I’ve met so far for the warm and gracious welcome! You’ve made me feel at home in your libraries and engaged me with great conversations. I look forward to much more of that and to meeting more of you in the years ahead!
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