Does anyone else get Salem Press Research Starters as part of their EBSCO packages?

Tue Sep 1 20:30:38 EDT 2015

I have recently been working with their research starters because they are
showing up at the top of our results in our new discovery layer. At first I
was having issues because some of their images are broken and one of the
people I was working with to troubleshoot the problem pointed me at the
Barack Obama entry - and my first thought was that the picture they use for
him is super old, and that started me looking into the issue. I think that
Salem Press's entry on Barack Obama, when contrasted with their entry on
George W. Bush, is problematic. I admit that I haven't searched other
topics for similar problems - school just started and I have been busy but
I hope others take this up if it seems worth it. Many of our students are
told to use our resources as they are better than the open web, but I am
wondering about that right now. Here is my letter to Salem Press:

Hi,
>
> I am a librarian at a community college in California and your content is
> included in one of our databases. I am including WEB4LIB in this email
> because I would like to get a discussion  going of this among librarians
> who make up your customer base.
>
>
>
> I was looking at some of your research starters for a class I am teaching
> and looked at the one on Barack Obama. I have to say that having his
> picture in the entry be one from 2005, before he was President, and
> identifying him as a Senator in the caption –
>
>
> 
>
> when your entry on G.W. Bush is of him as President with a description of
> his presidency in a very positive tone, seems racist to me.
>
>
> 
>
> Just the caption for his picture contains more positive information than
> the whole description of Obama’s first term – where is a discussion of the
> stimulus or saving the automobile industry or even the banking industry?:
>
> *Obama took office as the United States’ first African American president
> amid a vast array of economic, social, and international challenges. He was
> awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that year in recognition of his “efforts to
> strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The
> award stirred controversy, since America remained heavily involved in two
> wars, and the Nobel committee was criticized by some for acting prematurely
> to honor a president mere months into his term. The committee, however,
> argued that Obama had “captured the world’s attention and given its people
> hope for a better future.” Obama’s first term as president saw him sign the
> Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
> <http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=f4bb9b3d-08dc-4b24-a5cb-34afd8442858@sessionmgr4002&vid=1&hid=4213&db=ers&ss=AN+%2289158281%22&sl=ll>
> (also known as Obamacare) into law on March 23, 2010, as well.*
>
>
>
> Here is your description of Bush’s first term:
>
> *"Although Bush emphasized cooperation between Democrats and Republicans
> and vowed to heal the divisions caused by the controversial election, many
> of his critics still doubted the validity of his presidency when he was
> inaugurated on January 20, 2001. The occasion marked the first time since
> the administrations of John Adams
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2286193805%22&sl=ll>
> (1797–1801) and John Quincy Adams
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2286193809%22&sl=ll>
> (1825–1829) that both a father and son have been elected president.*
>
> *During his first several months in office, Bush worked with a Democratic
> majority in Congress to get his tax cut proposal passed. He was criticized
> for his proposal to expand oil exploration in protected nature reserves
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2289474323%22&sl=ll>
> in Alaska, as well as for his decision to withdraw from the 1972 ABM
> (antiballistic missile) arms control
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2287321176%22&sl=ll>
> treaty. However, the biggest test of his administration came following the
> terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. During the attacks, terrorists
> hijacked four commercial jet airliners from US airports, crashing one plane
> into each of the two World Trade Center towers in New York City and a third
> into the Pentagon building in Washington DC, the headquarters of the US
> Department of Defense. A fourth plane, later determined to be headed for
> the White House
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2289409623%22&sl=ll>,
> crash landed in Shanksville
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2289400119%22&sl=ll>,
> Pennsylvania. Of the passengers on board the planes, nobody survived. The
> two World Trade Center towers collapse within an hour and a half of the
> initial impact. In addition, the Pentagon building sustained significant
> damage, and the country was gripped with a sense of nationwide panic. 2,998
> people, both Americans and foreign nationals, were killed as a result of
> the 9/11 attacks and over six thousand were injured.*
>
> *President Bush declared the attacks on the United States to be an act of
> war, and in response his administration launched the "global war on
> terror," which aimed to destroy terrorist enclaves worldwide and declared
> as a hostile entity any nation that knowingly harbored terrorist groups.
> Investigations and intelligence reviews following the attacks determined
> that they were conducted by the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist
> organization known as al Qaeda, led by Saudi Arabian exile Osama bin Laden
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2288802064%22&sl=ll>.
> Intelligence reports confirmed that the group had trained in areas of
> Afghanistan, under the auspice of that country's Islamic fundamentalist
> government, known as the Taliban.*
>
> *In October 2001, Bush ordered the US military to launch air strikes in
> Afghanistan. The military campaign toppled the Taliban regime, removing
> them as the country's central governing power. Although the military also
> targeted various al Qaeda camps, the US military failed to capture or kill
> bin Laden. Nonetheless, the operation received widespread support in the US
> and abroad. Additionally, President Bush established the federal Office of
> Homeland Security.*
>
> *As the war in Afghanistan
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2289139068%22&sl=ll>
> progressed, President Bush's approval rating in the US soared. However,
> America had entered an economic recession, and critics of the Bush
> administration began to accuse the White House of violating civil rights in
> implementing certain antiterrorism measures.*
>
> *Beginning in 2002, the Bush administration began to turn its attention to
> the nation of Iraq, led at the time by dictator Saddam Hussein
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2288802165%22&sl=ll>.
> For over a year, President Bush and administration officials presented
> pieces of evidence it claimed proved that Hussein was developing and
> producing biological and chemical weapons in Iraq, also known as weapons of
> mass destruction
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2289185810%22&sl=ll>
> (WMD).*
>
> *The Bush administration's accusations regarding Iraq's weapons of mass
> destruction resulted in a series of United Nations resolutions aimed at
> establishing a rigorous schedule of weapons inspections in the country.
> However, Saddam Hussein continued to wrangle with inspections, eventually
> rejecting their entry into the country, and continued to deny the existence
> of WMD.*
>
> *In February 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the UN
> Security Council, presenting the Bush administration's evidence of WMD in
> Iraq and urging the organization to support a US-led invasion. Powell's
> request was not approved by a majority of the council, and UN Security
> approval of military action against Iraq was not granted. The governments
> of France and Germany publicly stated their opposition to any unsanctioned
> military invasion of Iraq.*
>
> *Nonetheless, a US-led full-scale military invasion of Iraq began on March
> 20, 2003. Hussein was captured by US forces in December of 2003, and
> subsequently executed by the newly established Iraq government after being
> convicted of war crimes.*
>
> *Although the Hussein government was swiftly toppled, the invasion of Iraq
> resulted in a power vacuum in the country that pitted Sunni Muslim militias
> against Shiite militias. In addition, forces loyal to the Hussein
> government implemented numerous guerilla warfare tactics against US and
> coalition forces. Over four thousand American troops and hundreds of
> coalition forces were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2012. Military
> activity in the country and the subsequent civil strife that followed has
> resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and resulted
> in the exile of hundreds of thousands of civilians who fled the violence.*
>
> *President Bush was reelected in 2004, defeating Democratic Party
> candidate Senator John Kerry
> <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=30427b61-805f-466d-b496-5f248d3fc8ea@sessionmgr198&vid=3&hid=119&db=ers&ss=AN+%2289406409%22&sl=ll>.
> Unlike the 2000 presidential election, Bush won 3.5 million more popular
> votes than his opposing candidate."*
>
>
>
> And the article in question was written in 2011, long after Obama was
> elected President, and the article was obviously updated fairly recently as
> it contains the following dismissive description of Obama’s second term,
> with no mention of any of his other impressive accomplishments.
>
> *The first half of Obama's second term focused primarily on US domestic
> issues, especially in relation to gun control following the December 2012
> Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
> <http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=f4bb9b3d-08dc-4b24-a5cb-34afd8442858@sessionmgr4002&vid=1&hid=4213&db=ers&ss=AN+%2289550643%22&sl=ll>
> in which twenty children and six school employees were fatally shot by one
> gunman. Obama also advocated for the US Supreme Court to overturn as
> unconstitutional the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act
> <http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=f4bb9b3d-08dc-4b24-a5cb-34afd8442858@sessionmgr4002&vid=1&hid=4213&db=ers&ss=AN+%2289112517%22&sl=ll>
> and California's 2008 Proposition 8, both of which opposed same-sex
> marriage, and he championed equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
> and transgendered (LGBT) communities. In September 2014, Obama announced in
> a speech before the United Nations General Assembly that the United States
> would be taking the lead in responding to such global crises and conflicts
> as the Ebola virus
> <http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=f4bb9b3d-08dc-4b24-a5cb-34afd8442858@sessionmgr4002&vid=1&hid=4213&db=ers&ss=AN+%2286194072%22&sl=ll>
> outbreak in West Africa and Russian aggression in the Ukraine. He also
> stated his administration's intent to dismantle the so-called Islamic State
> (a militant extremist group also known as ISIL) and called on the rest of
> the world to join America in training and equipping soldiers to fight the
> terrorist organization.*
>
> Your description of Bush’s second term is similarly 4 paragraphs, 3 of
> them fairly long. It contains no mention in either section of Hurricane
> Katrina and his administration’s bungling of the relief efforts in
> Louisiana and New Orleans. And while it says he faced some problems, it
> basically leaves a positive impression. I am having a hard time trusting
> your content for our students given this example.
>
The copyright notice for the Obama entry is: "Copyright of *Salem Press
> Biographical Encyclopedia* is the property of Salem Press. The copyright
> in an individual article may be maintained by the author in certain cases.
> Content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a
> listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission.
> However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
> Source: Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, January, 2014, 3p Item:
> 86193733"
> For Bush it is: "Copyright of *Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia* is
> the property of Salem Press. The copyright in an individual article may be
> maintained by the author in certain cases. Content may not be copied or
> emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright
> holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or
> email articles for individual use. Source: Salem Press Biographical
> Encyclopedia, January, 2013, 4p
> Item: 86193751"
>

Sincerely,

*Sandy Rotenberg*
*a Librarian *
*@ Solano Community College*
*4000 Suisun Valley Road, Fairfield, CA 94534*
*(707)864-7243, sandra.rotenberg at solano.edu <http://solano.edu>*

*"**Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get
if you don't.**"*

--Pete Seeger

-- 
*Sandy Smith Rotenberg*

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2015-09-01
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