Gale Expands Product Strategy and Bolsters Publishing Program to Address Critical Library Needs

New STEM eBooks from Springer and Elsevier bring first of many changes to GVRL

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Mar 03, 2014, 03:15 ET

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Gale, part of Cengage Learning and a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses, today announced expanded product and services initiatives, new publishing program and the addition of industry-leading STEM content from partners. These updated strategies and partnerships usher in a new era of resource development that will help libraries and their users thrive in today's education landscape.

"We believe in engaging learners of all kinds and challenging the status quo to improve lives and communities," said Jim Draper, vice president and general manager, Gale. "Our new products and services, like those announced today, and Career Online High School, which launched in January, have broadened our scope beyond traditional library resources to help libraries solve real and emerging problems and create tangible outcomes for their users."

STEM Monograph eBooks on GVRL for the First Time
As a part of the expansion Gale will now provide science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) eBook collections from Springer and Elsevier through the Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL).

Gale offers this in-demand STEM content to meet the growing needs of the hard science disciplines. The U.S. Department of Commerce states that STEM occupations are projected to grow 17 percent by 2018. The availability of more than 2,900 titles from Springer—combined with Elsevier content—provides library users with a single point of access to the most esteemed STEM publications.

Accessing this content through GVRL, as opposed to other eBook platforms, grants users the added flexibility of viewing and downloading content in multiple formats in addition to other unique benefits of Gale's platform, such as ReadSpeaker text-to-speech technology and translation of content into other languages.

70 New eBook Collections Now Available for Purchase
Gale has launched 70 new eBook collections covering STEM, humanities and social science disciplines, as well as general interest topics like travel and do-it-yourself. Unique collections are now available to meet the specific needs of academic, public and school libraries. Additional collections will be added in the future, underscoring Gale's commitment to being the largest eBook provider to libraries.

New Future, New Name for GVRL
In addition to the new content, Gale will rebrand GVRL, which was named Best Database by Library Journal in 2012 and is a research staple for students, professionals and general readers. The company plans to combine the reference content from its 90 publishing partners with monographs and multimedia content, such as videos, to make GVRL the only library platform delivering this broad cross-section of research support.

Launch of Proprietary Monograph Publishing Program
Monographs—specialized studies on a single subject—are also a core part of Gale's product strategy moving forward. The company is launching a new proprietary monograph publishing program that, when combined with Gale's existing collection of over 350,000 monographs, will deliver unrivaled benefits to scholarly and general researchers. The program will combine the best works available from our partners covering the humanities, philosophy, religion and social science disciplines matched with Gale's core strength across these content areas, resulting in the ability to better discover and understand the research. The outcome is increased critical thinking in circulating essential and current ideas among the communities we serve.

"The idea of improving lives through libraries has been at the heart of Gale for 60 years," says Draper. "We have big visions for the future— for Gale and for libraries—and look forward to reimagining and reinventing ourselves to help libraries as they continue to evolve in this digital age."

For more information on these new announcements from Gale, please visit www.gale.cengage.com or contact Lauren Eddy at [email protected].

About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning is a leading educational content, software and services company, empowering educators and driving learner engagement through personalized services and course-driven digital solutions that bridge from the library to the classroom. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs – from homework help to health questions to business profiles – in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.cengage.com.

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SOURCE Cengage Learning