When the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results came out in 2012, they received more attention than usual because of the recent changes in educational policy. Measured against 64 other countries, 33 of which are other member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), American teenagers came in seventeenth in reading, twenty-first in science and twenty-sixth in math. The rankings were [...]
I cannot spell. Or, at least, I am very bad at spelling. While this is probably not the best confession to make as a budding publishing professional, I feel that it is an important part of me—that even though I have difficulty spelling, I can still write. Like how Beethoven was deaf and became one of the world’s most renowned musicians (not that [...]
When I was a kid, the best days in school were always the days we would build something in science class. I still remember the day we learned about solids and liquids by making Oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid. The concoction was a cornstarch-and-water mix that was a solid when you rolled the mess in between your hands but turned into a liquid as soon [...]
With the increasing use of ebooks and the internet, some people are asking the question: Are libraries still relevant? The answer, according to a recent Pew study, is yes. The study cites that 94 percent of Americans believe that libraries are still fundamental to our society. Today our libraries offer members more resources than ever before. In addition to being able to check out [...]
This month’s Employee Spotlight features PSG’s project manager/editor/mother/literature lover/aspiring writer/self-proclaimed irony expert. Seriously, don’t mention an unfortunate coincidence as being ironic, or I will call you out on it. I’ve been with Publishing Solutions Group since 2008, and in the office I can often be found phoning clients, emailing freelancers and updating schedules. In addition to such project management responsibilities, I also work [...]
As a graduate student in publishing, I am frequently asked the same thing by professors, peers and random people once they discover what I study. It is often some version of the question, “Where do you get your news?” While I have my go-to publications that I read extensively to keep up with popular trends and changes within the publishing industry, my first [...]
I developed my love of literature when I was a teenager in high school. I found my English classes exciting because they were the only classes, besides my history classes, that I found remotely interesting. While most of my classmates dreaded analyzing dialogue and writing papers on The Scarlet Letter or Death of A Salesman, I wished that I could spend my whole day in English [...]
The internet has undoubtedly changed the way we speak. BTW (alternatively, beeteedubs) has crawled its way into my daily vocabulary. Yesterday, my friend ended her sentence with IRL; my puzzled look led her to explain: “in real life.” Last week, I made a joke to my fifty-five-year-old father, to which he responded: “LOL.” But the internet has done more than create everyday acronyms; it has changed [...]
Recently, Georgia State University (GSU) has increased its graduation rate by 22 percent thanks to recent changes in the way it is handling its academic advising program. One of these changes includes using a new type of software created by the Education Advisory Board (EAB). The software aids students and academic advisers by sending alerts to both parties when academic issues start to arise. For [...]
Since December 2004, Google has been working to create a “comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog” by scanning thousands of books, converting the scans to searchable text, and uploading the content into its digital database. Many of these books are out of print, collecting dust and mold on the far shelves of libraries. It’s likely that without Google’s rehabilitating project, these books would eventually [...]