Gale

Type	Private (subsidiary of Cengage Learning)
Founded	1954
Founder(s)	Frederick Gale Ruffner[1]
Headquarters	Farmington Hills, Michigan, U.S.
Employees	1,232 (2007)
Parent	Cengage Learning
Website	Gale website

Gale is an educational publishing company based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the United States, in the western suburbs of Detroit. It was part of the Thomson Learning division of the Thomson Corporation, a Canadian company, and in 2007 it became part of Cengage Learning and is now called Gale, part of Cengage Learning.

The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale Group, is active in research and educational publishing for public and academic libraries, schools and businesses. The company is probably best known for its full-text magazine and newspaper database InfoTrac; for its multi-volume reference works, especially in the areas of religion, history and social science; and its online databases commonly available in schools and libraries.

It was founded in Detroit in 1954 by Frederick Gale Ruffner. In 1985 was acquired by Thomson.^[2]

Contents 1 Imprints 2 Gale databases 3 See also 4 References 5 External links 5.1 Thomson Gale-owned sites and services

[edit] Imprints

Gale print imprints include the reference brands Macmillan Reference USA, Charles Scribner's Sons, Primary Source Microfilm, Scholarly Resources Inc., Schirmer Reference, St. James Press, The TAFT Group and Twayne Publishers. Five Star Publishing is Gale's fiction imprint, with hundreds of books in print in the Western, Romance, Mystery and Science Fiction & Fantasy genres. Gale also sells into the K-12 market with several imprints, including U·X·L, Greenhaven Press, KidHaven Press, Lucent Books, and others.

In 1999, Thomson Gale acquired Thorndike Press, a publisher of large print books. In 2000 it acquired the Munich-based K.G. Saur Verlag, but then sold it to Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG in 2006. Gale also owns large print publishers Walker Large Print and Wheeler Publishing.

On October 25, 2006 Thomson Corporation announced that it intended to wholly divest the Thomson Learning division, because, in the words of Thomson CEO Richard Harrington, "it does not fit with our long-term strategic vision". Thomson has said that it expected this sale to generate approximately $5 billion. Thomson Learning was bought by a private equity consortium consisting of Apax Partners and OMERS Capital Partners for $7.75 billion and the name was changed from Thomson Learning to Cengage Learning on 24 July 2007.^[3]

In October 2007, Cengage Learning announced the appointment of Patrick C. Sommers as president of Gale, effective October 22, 2007.^[4]

[edit] Gale databases

Gale provides access to over 600 different online databases, some of which are updated daily. Some databases have overlapping information but are targeted towards different markets such as K-12 schools, or public libraries. Clients choose which databases they wish to subscribe to, such as:

• HighBeam Research (acquired in December 2008)
• Book Review Index - Index of book reviews and literary criticism, found in leading academic, popular, and professional periodicals, published since 1965.
• InfoTrac
• Gale Virtual Reference Library - Database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources
• Military & Intelligence Database
• GaleNet - Numerous databases providing in-depth articles and analysis in a variety of subjects including business, literature, genealogy, history, health, social sciences and science
• History Resource Center - Journals, Reference titles, and primary source documents
• General OneFile - One-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics. Millions of full-text articles from 1980-present, many with images.
• Associations Unlimited - Database with 460,000 international and U.S. national, regional, state, and local nonprofit membership organizations in all fields, including IRS data on U.S. 501(c) nonprofit organizations
• Health and Wellness Resource Center - Access to medical reference materials, including nearly 400 health/medical journals, reference volumes, and over 700 health videos from partner Healthology, Inc. Also indexes hundreds of pamphlets and health-related articles from 2,200 general interest publications, as well as some other Gale reference titles.

[edit] See also

• AccessMyLibrary — web access to Gale databases for patrons of public and school libraries
• Cengage Learning - current corporate entity
• Dictionary of Literary Biography published by Gale
• Encyclopaedia Judaica published by Gale
• New Catholic Encyclopedia published by Gale

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gale website

[edit] Thomson Gale-owned sites and services

• Gale Directory Library – dozens of print directories on a digital platform
• Goliath – site with company information
• WiseTo Social Issues – new reference website covering social issues