ITI Bloggers July 16th, 2009

Tina Creuger and Linda Busse unveiled a few of Gale's latest products and services.

Gale, part of Cengage Learning, brought some of the comforts of home to its booth at ALA … soft chairs, books, and a blender full of smoothies. But attendees weren’t flocking to the booth for all the perks. Instead, they were asking Tina Creuger, vice president of marketing communications, and Linda Busse, director of corporate communications, about one of Gale’s latest offerings: Career Transitions. Librarians who are helping their patrons negotiate the job-hunting maze are looking for vetted resources to assist  in searches for government job banks, library career training, and business outplacement.

“With the economy today and the changing job market, people were very interested in getting more information about our new electronic resource,” says Busse. The one-stop, self-paced application guides users through the ins and outs of the job-search process. They can drill down into data about companies, industries, and career paths as well as insights about statistical information, re-training needs, and web tools, all of which are designed to help patrons in their decision-making process.

But Career Transitions was just one of the new products Busse and Creuger introduced during the conference. Check out two others …

Coming this fall:
Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia This digital version of the 17-volume encyclopedia transforms the popular pages of this opus into an interactive resource with multimedia enhancements including video, maps, photos, and links to periodicals, websites, and news. Experts worldwide will keep information on the 4,000-plus animal species fun, lively, and up-to-date. “Although geared for fifth grade and up, this is a resource that attracts just about any age,” says Creuger. “Video clips and sound bites provide a window into the animal world. Even very young kids are thrilled to hear the actual sound of a lion roaring.”

Coming this winter:
Power-Glide Language Courses, Inc. (powerspeaK¹²) As Rosetta Stone moves out of the library market and into the corporate arena, Gale will be filling the void as it distributes a new line of web-based, world language-learning products to libraries. The first five language modules will include Spanish, French, Chinese, German, and Spanish ESL. The curriculum, which blends language-learning with activities, lessons, and games, lets users  track their own progress via a dashboard. “Users can toggle between program modules to concentrate on their individual needs,” says Gale’s Mark Cormier. “If adult learners need more help with grammar or conversational skills, the course will let them concentrate on whatever they need most.” Look for language modules in Arabic, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Vietnamese on the horizon.

P.S. Thanks to Gale for providing shuttle service for attendees during the ALA Annual Conferences during the past 40 years. This year, the shuttles made the trek between the Chicago hotels and the McCormick Convention Center one less thing to worry about.

Barbara Brynko
Editor-in-Chief
Information Today

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