Fabulous new titles in Gale Virtual Reference Library

The Gale Virtual Reference Library is available to all Michigan residents via the Michigan eLibrary, which is made possible by grant funds from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the State of Michigan through the Library of Michigan.

The Gale Virtual Reference Library can be accessed here and, after October 1, 2011, will be updated to include the following titles:

• Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students, 4 volumes, 2003
• African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience, 1 volume, 2003
• American Civil War Reference Library, 5 volumes, 2003
• American Home Front in World War II, 4 volumes, 2004
• American Inaugurals: The Speeches, The Presidents and Their Times, 1 volume, 2004
• American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present, 4 volumes, 2003
• Ancient Civilizations Reference Library, 3 volumes, 2006
• Ancient Greece and Rome: An Encyclopedia for Students, 4 volumes, 2007
• Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 6 volumes, 2007
• Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians Since 1990, 2 volumes, 2004
• Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America, 6 volumes, 2001
• Biology, 4 volumes, 2002
• CDs, Super Glue and Salsa: How Everyday Products Are Made, Series 3, 2 volumes, 2004
• Chemical Elements: From Carbon to Krypton, 3 volumes, 2006
• Chemistry: Foundations and Applications, 4 volumes, 2004
• Child Development, 1 volumes, 2003
• Complete Life Science Resource, 3 volumes, 2004
• Contemporary American Religion, 2 volumes, 2003
• Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 1-46, 2007
• Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 48, 2005
• Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 49, 2005
• Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 50, 2005
• Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 51, 2005
• Contemporary Hispanic Biography, Vol. 1, 2004
• Contemporary Hispanic Biography, Vol. 2, 2004
• Contemporary Hispanic Biography, Vol. 3, 2004
• Contemporary Hispanic Biography, Vol. 4, 2004
• Countries and Their Cultures, 4 volumes, 2001
• Countries of the World and Their Leaders Yearbook 2010, 2 volumes, 2009
• Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco: Learning about Addictive Behavior, 3 volumes, 2003
• Encyclopedia of Aging, 4 volumes, 2003
• Encyclopedia of Drugs and Addictive Substances, 5 volumes, 2005
• Encyclopedia of European Social History, 6 volumes, 2005
• Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, 3 volumes, 2004
• Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2 volumes, 2004
• Encyclopedia of Management, 1 volumes, 2005
• Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, 6 volumes, 2004
• Encyclopedia of Religion, 15 volumes, 2005
• Encyclopedia of Russian History, 4 volumes, 2003
• Encyclopedia of Science, 10 volumes, 2004
• Encyclopedia of Small Business, 2 volumes, 2007
• Encyclopedia of the Great Depression, 2 volumes, 2003
• Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, 4 volumes, 2004
• Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine, 4 volumes, 2009
• Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer, 2 volumes, 2010
• Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy through Adolescence, 4 volumes, 2005
• Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, 2 volumes, 2010
• Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 3 volumes, 2000
• Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, 3 volumes, 2000
• Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, 4 volumes, 2009
• Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, 1 volumes, 2003
• Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, 2 volumes, 1999
• Governments of the World: A Global Guide to Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities, 4 volumes, 2005
• Great Depression and the New Deal Reference Library, 4 volumes, 2004
• Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 17 volumes, 2004
• Grizimek's Student Animal Life Resource, 21 volumes, 2005
• Learning about the Holocaust, 4 volumes, 2007
• Major Acts of Congress, 3 volumes, 2003
• Middle Ages Reference Library, 5 volumes, 2004
• National Survey of State Laws, 1 volumes, 2005
• Psychologists and their Theories for Students, 2 volumes, 2005
• Real-Life Math, 2 volumes, 2006
• Renaissance and Reformation Reference Library, 6 volumes, 2004
• St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, 5  volumes, 2000
• Supreme Court Drama: Cases that Changed America, 4 volumes, 2005
• Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources, 1 volumes, 2005
• The Crusades Reference Library, 4 volumes, 2005
• The Sixties in America Reference Library, 4 volumes, 2005
• Vietnam War Reference Library, 5 volumes, 2004
• Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia, 17 volumes, 2007
• World of Earth Science, 2 volumes, 2003
• World Education Encyclopedia, 3 volumes, 2003
• World War 1 Reference Library, 4 volumes, 2004
• World War 2 Reference Library, 5 volumes, 2003
• World of Microbiology and Immunology, 2 volumes, 2003

Reminder: our ebooks will soon have a new look

On July 18, you'll notice that the Marygrove Library's ebooks look different from what you're used to. Their content won't change, but their interface will. This includes the colors on your screen, and the location of links and tools for turning pages and searching content. At the same time, the name that we give this collection will change from "NetLibrary eBooks" to "eBooks on EBSCOhost."

See below for a screenshot of the changed interface (click image to enlarge). You still have a few days to preview the change before it goes live. Be sure to let us know what you think by calling your librarian Christy at 313.927.1378. For tutorials and other support, visit http://support.ebsco.com/ebooks/.

New tutorials: Computer & Internet Basics

The Michigan eLibrary has recently added a new LearningCenter to LearningExpress Library.  It's called Computer & Internet Basics and it helps library users who are new to computers. It includes:

1. Getting Started with Computers
2. Introduction to Windows and The Computer in Action
3. Introduction to the Internet; Email and Chat; Social Networks and Online Communities; and Web Applications and Internet Security

Access LearningExpress Library from our full list of databases (scroll down to the Ls): http://research.marygrove.edu/articles-a-databases/search-for-articles. You'll need to set up a free account to watch the tutorials.

Catalog may be briefly unavailable Thurs, July 14

The library catalog may be briefly unavailable during the afternoon of Thursday, July 14. If you run into any problems searching for Marygrove books, ebooks, or videos, just call the library reference desk at 313.927.1346 - we'd be happy to help you (and we apologize for any inconvenience)!

Keep in mind that you can also use WorldCat or MeLCat to search for Marygrove materials.

Many of our Gale databases now have a new look

Recently, you may have noticed a new look to many of our Gale databases. Gale has switched to a new version of the PowerSearch interface which is "crisp and uncluttered and offers some very nice changes and enhancements," including:

• Greater discoverability through content type limiters - no more tabs
• Sophisticated search assist with Did You Mean? functionality
• Trending topics, suggested phrases and publication recommendations
• New sidebar with recommendations and limiters for every search
• Additional interface language translation options (Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese)
• Read Speaker will read non-English documents
• Translation of foreign language documents to English
• More intuitive advanced searching with search assist on the most used indexes

For tutorials and other materials, visit http://www.gale.cengage.com/powersearch/enhanced/index.htm?grid=powersearch.

Here's a list of the affected databases (all are available from this library webpage):

• Academic OneFile
• Agriculture Collection
• Communications & Mass Media Collection
• Computer Database
• Criminal Justice Collection
• Culinary Arts Collection
• Diversity Studies Collection
• Educators' Reference Complete
• Environmental Studies & Policy Collection
• Expanded Academic ASAP
• Fine Arts & Music Collection
• Gardening Landscape & Horticulture Collection
• GLBT Issues Collection
• General OneFile
• General Reference Center Gold
• General Science Collection
• Health Reference Center Academic
• Home Improvement Collection
• Hospitality Tourism & Leisure Collection
• Info Science & Library Issues Collection
• Informe, Insurance & Liability Collection
• Junior Edition
• LegalTrac
• Military & Intelligence Database
• Newsstand
• New York Times
• Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Collection
• Pop Culture Collection
• Psychology Collection
• Religion & Philosophy Collection
• Small Business Collection
• Student Edition
• US History Collection
• War & Terrorism Collection
• World History Collection

Enjoy the new look, and (as always) if you have any questions, don't hesitate to call the library reference desk at 313.927.1346.

Who doesn't love horses?

Here's some impromptu white-board art from two of our visitors in the library this afternoon. We love it! Reminds us of some of our favorite stories, some of which are available for checkout:

• My Friend Flicka 
• The Red Pony 
• Black Beauty 
• Misty of Chincoteague 
• The Black Stallion
• The Saddle Club series
• Seabiscuit
• Hoofprints: Horse Poems

Guess who just won a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card?

Karen Berry, that's who!

Karen generously took the time to read the inaugural issue of the library 'zine, and then answered a few questions about her use of the library. She was one of 61 Marygrove College students, staff and faculty members who took the survey and were entered to win the gift card.

Congratulations, and thank you, Karen, for helping us measure how we can best serve our community!

We no longer need your permission (so there!)

One of the mini-themes at the ALA conference in New Orleans was how the internet has eliminated the need to ask for permission. This theme surfaced in at least two sessions: the first was the General Opening Session featuring Dan Savage, and the second was the ACRL/SPARC forum.

---

Mr. Savage is editorial director of the Seattle newspaper, The Stranger, and writes an advice column for that publication called "Savage Love." His presentation at ALA focused on the It Gets Better Project, a collection of user-created videos that help lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender teenagers imagine a positive future. The project was founded in 2001 in response to the suicides of LGBT teens who had been bullied.

Mr. Savage's attempt to give hope to LGBT teens is not welcomed by all. Speaking in the voice of a parent (or a bully, a school, an entire culture) Mr. Savage said, "You [LGBT teens] are ours to torture until you're 18. After that you can move wherever you want, be with whomever you want, do whatever you want - except come back to talk to the kids we're still torturing." The beauty of the It Gets Better videos is that they're accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Mr. Savage frequently gets emails from kids in their teens (and younger) who watch the videos on their phone, at night, in bed, with the covers pulled up so no one can see what they're doing. By using internet as his medium, he eliminated the need to ask for permission to reach these bullied youth.

---

The ACRL/SPARC forum was perhaps less entertaining than Mr. Savage, but just as thought-provoking. Its three speakers were:

• Dr. Dieter Stein, Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Heinrich Heine University in Germany and organizer of the Berlin 6 conference
• Lorraine Haricombe, Dean of Libraries at the University of Kansas
• Jennifer McLennan, Director of Programs and Operations for SPARC and moderator of the Berlin 9 organizing coalition

Each speaker focused on emerging issues in scholarly communication and specifically on expanding support for the Berlin Declaration, which encourages "researchers and cultural heritage custodians to make all kinds of materials openly available."

Dr. Stein touched on three points in particular that sparked my imagination. One, the concept of "open access" probably wouldn't exist were it not for the internet. Two, the internet heralded not just a shift from print to electronic resources within the publishing world, but also a shift from easily commodified writing (as with a printed book or article, for example) to less easily commodified writing (as with a blog or wiki or e-article). And three, we writers, librarians, researchers, and teachers no longer need to ask permission from commercial publishers in order to spread our ideas - the open access movement has liberated (or is liberating) us from that need.

---

I love the thought that Mr. Savage and Dr. Stein planted in my brain: we no longer need permission to share our ideas, to touch the world, to set off an avalanche of positive change. I think it's a liberating, powerful, inspiring idea. What are your thoughts? Can you think of other circumstances in which we no longer need to ask for permission? What about circumstances in which we *should* ask for permission?

Email outage = blessing in disguise?

This morning the campus community received a phone message explaining that our email system was down and our provider was working to find a solution as quickly as possible. My first reaction, I admit, was something along the lines of,

"NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!"

I despaired of getting anything done today. But then, on second thought, it occurred to me that this might be a blessing in disguise. Let me explain...

Yesterday I returned to Marygrove after my delicious summer vacation, during which I visited New Orleans for the first time, accompanied my niece on a few college visits, and waged war against the squirrel who uproots my pepper plants and throws them over the porch wall. And then laughs at me.

During my vacation I did a little work from home so as to minimize the work I'd have to tackle upon returning. Still, it took me all day to sort through my email. If you're anything like me, you use email for so much more than communicating with others. I use email as my to-do list, my calendar, a way to store passwords and documents I'm working on. (I know, I know, that's what a flash drive is for. But sometimes I don't have easy access to my flash drive. Sometimes I'm not logged onto a computer as myself and so can't get to the My Documents folder. Sometimes - well, you get the point.) At times my email even serves as a memory-nudger; recently I searched my email for a price quote I received last year from a database vendor.

As essential as email is, I don't believe that spending all day sorting, tagging, deleting and responding is a productive use of my (or your) time. As I frantically plugged away yesterday, wondering when I'd be able to move on to other work, another 50 or so emails arrived. Many had no direct relevance to the work I do.

So, no, I'm not horribly upset that our email is down. I get a day's reprieve!

In the meantime, given that email outages on campus are very rare, I'm trying some new techniques to reduce feelings of despair and distraction:

• reading and responding to email during a strict half hour in the morning, mid-day, and late afternoon (as a non-administrator, I have the luxury of spending the rest of my time *logged out*)
  
• using websites like BaseCamp and Google Docs to manage my projects and collaborations
• picking up the phone or visiting someone's office rather than sending an email and waiting for a response
• using social media such as Facebook and Google Reader to share interesting headlines with my colleagues
• using the library's zine or blog to communicate our news to the campus community
  

Here are links to others who've weighed in on The Email Problem:

• Five Methodologies to Deal with Email Overload (ReadWriteWeb): http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/five_methodologies_to_deal_with_email_overload.php
• How to Take an Email Sabbatical (Danah Boyd): http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2011/07/06/how-to-take-an-email-sabbatical.html
• Is It Time You Were Reliably Unreliable? (Chronicle Of Higher Education): http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/is-it-time-you-were-reliably-unreliable/27890
• Reducing Email Overload (Productivity 501): http://www.productivity501.com/reducing-email-overload/6686

I'd love to hear how you handle this problem. Share your ideas in the comment section below.

Marygrove Library resources go viral!

Well, almost viral...

On June 22, a librarian from Kaplan University Hagerstown sent the Marygrove librarians this question via our Email-A-Librarian service. He wrote:

I would like permission to link to your APA website on our library research page. This page is a great help to our students. Thank you.

Specifically, he wanted to link to the document created by librarian Jennifer Meacham, titled "Microsoft Word 2007: Formatting Your Research Paper using APA Style." What's unique about this document, as opposed to most other APA guides, is that it includes detailed instructions for students using Microsoft Word. Here's a screenshot:

 Of course we were happy to give him permission. But guess what? It turns out Kaplan isn't the only university to recognize the value of Jennifer's work. Here are a few other places that link to us:

University of Kentucky School of Education
University of Florida School of Nursing
McKinney Independent School District (Texas)
eHow.com
answerbag.com

To view the full APA guide, as well as guides for MLA and Turabian styles, visit this Marygrove Library webpage: http://research.marygrove.edu/research-help-a-guides/apa-mla-a-turabian-styles.

As always, if you have questions don't hesitate to leave a comment below, or give us a call at 313.927.1346.

Black No More: Skin Bleaching

In a recent Facebook post, Humanities professor Dr. Karen Davis refers to the latest issue of the Journal of Pan African Studies (volume 4, number 4), which is devoted to skin bleaching. This issue is available for free here: http://www.jpanafrican.com/currentissue.htm. (The title of this blog post is taken from the title of one of the articles in this issue.)

Dr. Davis writes, "I've been compiling resources on global history and practices of skin bleaching for about a year now, starting with the Jamaican controversy over Buju Banton's song "Love Muh Brownin" in the 1990s, followed by Nando Ranks' anti-bleaching response, "Dem a Bleach," a hugely popular club song in the 1990s."

The resources that Dr. Davis has compiled are available upon request; they include videos, journal articles, song lyrics, books, images and websites on the practice of skin bleaching. For a copy of these resources, please contact librarian Christine Malmsten (313.927.1378 - cmalmsten@marygrove.edu) or Dr. Davis (313.927.1352 - kdavis@marygrove.edu).

"Very impressed by all of you in the library"

"Finally got a chance to read this first issue [of the Marygrove Library 'zine].  Very impressed by all of you in the library.  Please pass along to the others that I think you are all awesome!!!!  Keep up your good work and efforts to improve what Marygrove has to offer."

Sue
June 9, 2011

"She's awesome! Thanks for the help!"

"Andrea is a great assistant. She referred me to the resources necessary to ensure materials needed. She's awesome! Thanks for the help..."

A Marygrove student
June 27, 2011

Your librarians are in New Orleans...Want to know why?

We're presenting a poster session at the American Library Association's 2011 conference about our use of WordPress and Joomla to market the Marygrove College Library. Stay tuned for details! (But we'll leave you with this: jambalaya, gumbo, and po' boys are all made in heaven.)

Follow the conference on Twitter: #ala11

This post was updated June 30, 2011:

Library assistant Laura Manley (who's this close to finishing her library science master's degree and becoming a full-fledged librarian), along with fully-fledged librarian Christine Malmsten, had the privilege of presenting a poster session on marketing the Marygrove College Library this past weekend in New Orleans.

Their session was titled, "If You've Got It, Flaunt It! Marketing Your Academic Library with Wordpress." Laura and Christy described how they created an online magazine (a 'zine) to showcase the library's services, especially those that aren't well known. They also presented the results of a survey designed to figure out who's using library resources, who isn't, and why.

What frustrated them during this process? Having to switch 'zine software halfway through. They originally began designing the 'zine using OpenZine.com, but due to (un)usability issues and the fact that it's supported by advertising, they switched over to WordPress.com.

What delighted them about this process? Two things in particular: first, sharing experiences with other information professionals at the conference (including some international librarians); and second, the large number of students, staff and faculty who took the survey. These members of the Marygrove community sent a flood of positive feedback. Sample comments: 

• "The library staff is very warm and welcoming" 
• "I have found the all of the Library staff to be very personable and knowledgable"  
• "I do find the reading room a great place to study with my laptop, so if I have a block of time, I will head that way"
• "I enjoy spending time in the library, it takes me away from the stressful vibe of the academic setting. I meet up with friends and we discuss upcoming assignments and use the computers. It is a necessity on campus"
• (and our personal favorite) "I love the library"

More details about Laura & Christy's presentation as well as full survey data are available upon request. You can reach Christine Malmsten at 313.927.1378 or cmalmsten@marygrove.edu. You can reach Laura Manley at 313.927.1540 or lmanley3312@marygrove.edu

March 2011 report from the Association of American University Presses

The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) published a report in March titled, "Sustaining Scholarly Publishing: New Economic Models for University Presses." From the AAUP website:

This report a) identifies elements of the current scholarly publishing systems that are worth protecting and retaining throughout this and future periods of transition; b) explores business models of existing projects which hold promise; c) outlines the characteristics of effective business models; d) addresses the challenges of the transitional period we are entering; and e) arrives at recommendations that might allow us to sustain high-quality scholarship at a time when the fundamental expectations of publishing are changing.

You can read the full text of the report here (PDF).

The authors make five recommendations:

1. Prevent wasteful duplication of effort and ensure that significant developments are not lost in the clutter.
2. Existing partnerships should be supported and the development of new ones encouraged.
3. The role of agencies outside the presses in providing funds to work toward the digital future has  been, and will continue to be, crucial.
4. The trend toward more open access publishing is clear; but it will not succeed unless sustainable business models can be developed to support it. Nonprofit publishers, especially university presses, should become fully engaged in this discussion with the support of their parent institutions.
5. Proposals and plans for new business models should explicitly address two issues: the potential impact of the new model on existing parts of the press’s program and the requirements, both operational and financial, for making the transition to the new model. Ideally the consideration of these issues would involve the relevant author community as well as the press, its partners such as libraries or societies, and the funding agency.

Open (and free and scholarly) resources - thx to eCornucopia conference

On Thursday, May 26, one of your Marygrove College librarians attended e-Cornucopia Conference 2011. She participated online from Marygrove's campus, and at least one other Marygrover was on site at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan: Dr. Teddi Williams of the BUS/CIS department.

The theme of this year's conference was the Open Digital University. From the conference homepage,

Open Education is a current theory that knowledge should be transparent and accessible to anyone who wants to learn. Technology and the Internet have increased the global community's access to knowledge. The hope is that openness will help create a more democratic and equitable global society, as our information networks dissolve traditional geographic and cultural boundaries. Benefits, however, must be weighed against possible complications. The public nature of this work can lead to privacy and security abuses, global communication might have to contend with local law, and democratic organizations, although they may lack the built-in abuses of hierarchies, can lead to chaos and inefficiency. This conference will examine specific examples about how openness is implemented in higher education and the resulting successes and problems. The three tracks will be about open education, open access (journals), and open source (computer code).

Open (and free and scholarly) resources abound on the internet. For your reading and scholarly pleasure, here are a few of those resources offered by the University of Michigan, which was represented at e-Cornucopia by presenters Emily Pucket Rodgers ("Open, Share, Learn: The University of Michigan's Open Educational Resources"), Alissa Centivany ("Rethinking the Relationship between Copyright, Open Access, and Scholarly Publishing"), Greg Grossmeier ("Open Research Data), and Bobby Glushko ("Empowering Access through Understanding Copyright").

• Open.Michigan is a University of Michigan initiative dedicated to creating and sharing knowledge resources and research created at U-M with the global learning community: http://open.umich.edu/
• Search open content repositories to find content that is licensed for sharing: https://open.umich.edu/wiki/Open_Content_Search
• Create your own open content (PDF): http://open.umich.edu/sites/default/files/open.content.howto-infosheet.pdf

Gale databases unavailable 12 am-12 pm on Saturday, June 4

Gale will be performing infrastructure maintenance during a twelve hour period on Saturday, June 4, 2011. The window will take place from 12 am to 12 pm. During this time, all Gale products and services will be unavailable, including:

• Academic OneFile
• Agriculture Collection
• Biography & Genealogy Master Index
• Books & Authors
• Business & Company ASAP
• Business & Company Resource Center
• Chilton Online Auto Repair
• Communications & Mass Media Collection
• Computer Database
• Criminal Justice Collection
• Culinary Arts Collection
• Diversity Studies Collection
• Educator's Reference Complete
• Environmental Studies & Policy Collection
• Expanded Academic ASAP
• Fine Arts & Music Collection
• Gardening, Landscape & Horticulture Collection
• Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Issues Collection
• General Business File ASAP
• General OneFile
• General Reference Center Gold
• General Science Collection
• Health & Wellness Resource Center
• Health Reference Center Academic
• Home Improvement Collection
• Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Collection
• Information Science & Library Issues Collection
• Informe
• Insurance & Liability Collection
• Junior Edition
• Kids InfoBits
• LegalTrac
• Literature Resource Center
• Military & Intelligence Database
• Newsstand
• New York Times
• Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Collection
• Pop Culture Collection
• Psychology Collection
• Religion & Philosophy Collection
• Small Business Collection
• Student Edition
• U.S. History Collection
• Virtual Reference Library
• War & Terrorism Collection
• World History Collection

Use MeLCat to request materials from 400+ libraries (video)

MelCat is a state-wide library catalog that lets you find and request materials from over 400 Michigan libraries, and have them delivered to your home library. Jeff Zachwieja, a librarian at Oakland Community College and a former Marygrover, has put together a video demonstrating how to use MeLCat. Take a look and - as always - let us know if you have any questions: 313.927.1346.

No surprise - Andrea helps us maintain our standard of excellence

A comment we received today:

"I am a faculty member @ Wayne State University and needed to find a book that our library does not carry. Andrea Hanserd was extremely helpful. She pointed me in the right direction and helped me make copies. This kind of service is not often found in most libraries. You are smart to have her. Thank you. Dr. Monica White"

Good going, Andrea!

New open access publication from SAGE

We just learned about a new open access publication from the SAGE publishing company, called SAGE Open.

"SAGE Open publishes peer-reviewed, original research and review articles in an interactive, open-access format. With more than 400 manuscripts already submitted since January 1, 2011, articles span the full spectrum of the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities." Learn more.

We're excited to see the publishing world making a greater commitment to open access, and hope to see the trend continue. Open access refers to free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals (www.doaj.org/). It's an especially important way to disseminate scholarly information, as fewer library budgets are able to cope with escalating journal costs.

Here's a sampling of articles from the first issue of SAGE Open:

• A Transformative Collegiate Discourse by Evan Ortlieb
• Lars and the Real Girl: Lifelike Positive Transcendence by Ted Remington
• Fostering Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Research in Adult Education: Interactive Resource Guides and Tools by  Elizabeth Anne Erichsen and Cheryl Goldenstein
• Intangible Heritage of Standard English Learners: The “Invisible” Subgroup in the United States of America? Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap by Ogo Okoye-Johnson
• Designing for Explanation in Health Care Applications of Expert Systems by Keith W. Darlington
• Personal Meaning Orientations and Psychosocial Adaptation in Older Adults by Gary T. Reker and Louis C. Woo

Happy reading!