Colleagues,
This is new product from Gale that has many fine features
in terms of its flexibility. It is rich and covers many
topics. But unfortunately it does have a bias that does not please
anyone who cares about Israeli coverage and an unbiased look at the
Middle East. Granted there are many fewer news resources from
Israel than there are from all of the Arab world and Middle East in
general, but this product so far has one newspaper from Israel. It
is' Globes- Tel Aviv', an economic newspaper. That is it.
Over the past 2 days, I've been bringing this fact to the attention
of hasafran and the members of HVLA, the Hudson Valley Library
Association of which I am a member. What follows is a letter by one
of the HVLA librarians who was equally disturbed by this
realization. Her letter to one of the product managers at Gale, the
producer of this product, tells how she feels. She has given me
permission to share this with you for your information.
I have been in touch with several people at Gale who say they are
working on remedying this situation. The product is brand new and
hopefully shortly they will have multiple Israeli sources as part
of the resources from which they draw their information and which
they offer to their subscribers. We can never rely completely on an
aggregator, but their should have some attempt to cover more than
just one side from the locale and all references to the other from
external sources.
I'm sorry that I have to inform you of this. I like the product and
hope that they will come through with acceptable Israeli sources.
Marion Stein
Marion M. Stein, Librarian
The Abraham Joshua Heschel High School
20 West End Avenue
New York, NY 10023
mar...@heschel.org
(212) 246-7717 Ext 11639
"Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe
corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us,
by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation,
like that of the air we breathe in." Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
----- Original Message -----
Hi Craig:
Happy New Year! Sorry I didn't return your message; it's my 1st week back
from break, and I'm still digging out.
To be honest, I'm concerned about the bias in your products. I previewed
"Global Issues in Context" and I noticed that Gale does not provide
articles from major Israeli news outlets about the conflict in Gaza. Why
is the coverage unbalanced?
Moreover,Hamas members are described as 'militants'. I believe that the
US, along with other nations has classified Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The same bias exists in your "Custom Newspaper" database; there is minor
representation of Israeli media. I would think that Gale would make an
effort to include more stories from a country that has such a vital role
in world politics.
After the "Encyclopedia of Racism" fiasco, I would think that Gale would
have made more effort to provide fair and balanced views on world issues.
Rhonda Rigrodsky
Director of Library Services
The Birch Wathen Lenox School
210 E. 77th St.
New York, NY 10075
Phone:(1-212) 861-0404
Fax: (1-212) 879-5309
E-board: http:rrigrods.bwl.site.eboard.com
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
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