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) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org