At WiLS, we want to bring valuable information to our library partners, including information about the missions and big ideas of the vendors they may already do business with. Each month, WiLS interviews a vendor partner in order to bridge the gap and open the door to valuable collaborations. This month, we are delighted to share insights from Miriam Gilbert, Director, Rosen Digital with Rosen Publishing.
If you have any questions about this interview, or would like to suggest a vendor partner for us to interview in the future, contact Andrea Coffin at acoffin@wils.org or 414-979-9457.
Tell us about your company’s background.
Rosen Publishing, Inc. is an independent educational publishing house, established in 1950. Our core mission is to engage and motivate students by providing compelling, just-right content, correlated to curriculum standards (state, national, and Common Core.) We bring a deep editorial and design ethos to a range of subjects and formats to impact K-12 student learning and outcomes in meaningful ways.
Rosen publishes more than 700 new non-fiction titles each year, print and eBooks, and has a backlist of more than 7,000. Our titles are the gold standard in guidance, social studies, history, language arts, science, and mathematics, as well as general high interest topics for children and young adults.
We launched our first online database, Teen Health & Wellness, in January 2007. Our award winning, critically acclaimed eBooks, Interactive eBooks, apps, games, and interactive databases are IOS, Android, and Chromebook compatible. Rosen resources are designed to empower 21st century learners with the skills to safely and effectively navigate the digital world on the path to becoming college-prepared and career-ready.
Why do you, personally, choose to work with libraries?
I have been a publisher, and worked with libraries, for 30+ years. I have had the privilege of working in all corners of the profession—editorial, marketing, sales—domestically and internationally—in scholarly/academic, STM, and now K-12 educational publishing. I was the 10th employee of netLibrary and had a ring-side seat at the “eBook revolution.”
There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about why I do what I do. Why should I get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care? Why. This is the simplest—and hardest—question to answer as a human being. For me the personal is the professional and the professional very personal—to connect learners with information, ideas, and experiences.
It is a joy and gift that as publishers and librarians we have the opportunity to be profoundly human together, in community. Together in this learning ecosystem we can change lives—and perhaps even save a life.
What do you like to know about the libraries you work with? What helps you better understand their needs?
My colleagues and I challenge ourselves daily to build and maintain trust in each other and be worthy of YOUR trust, the community we serve. Trust is hard to build and easy to lose. We take this dynamic of accountability, this shared sense of purpose, seriously. We listen to what you say, but that is not enough. We are mindful of each and every conversation/correspondence and will 1) acknowledge your input, 2) let you know what action is planned, and 3) tell you when action has been taken. As a family-owned independent publisher, small is beautiful, and we can make the time and take the time to connect with you.
Which brings me to Owl Pellets, the Boreal Forest, and the Great Lakes. At AASL last year, a teacher and librarian pair visited the Rosen booth and asked if we had information for their 4th grade owl unit. We showed them the Owl articles in PowerKnowledge Life Science. It turned out they needed coverage of Owl Pellets and quickly. We understood the importance of adding this material and our editors sourced video and accompanying content within weeks. The result was a delighted teacher, a grateful librarian, and happy students able to watch owls “do their worst” with post-meal pellets.
As for the Boreal Forest and the Great Lakes, they were covered in PowerKnowledge Earth & Space but it turned out that a partner asked us to add more to fully support provincial learning outcomes. Again, the team rolled up its sleeves, worked with the learning community to ensure the content was right, and published within the database the same season as the initial request. It was such a terrific suggestion, we created a print series on the Great Lakes, as well.
We listen. Share your ideas, and dream with us.
How can librarians become partners in product or training development?
Close collaboration with librarians informs everything we do—our innovative thinking and strategic planning. It is in our DNA to work with librarian colleagues to help craft the design, navigation, customization, and interactivity of Rosen’s digital learning solutions. For example, the award-winning Digital Literacy, named Library Journal’s Best New Database 2013, had considerable editorial guidance from Michelle Luhtala, Library Department Chair at New Canaan High School, CT. Her development of the Digital Literacy lesson plans for teachers and librarians was informed by her own innovative digital citizenship curriculum design.
It is important to underscore that this close collaboration informs not only content creation, but also our impassioned advocacy on behalf of the library profession about the vital role librarians play in the lives of their students.
What big ideas are being worked on at your company? What problems are being solved?
As Roger Rosen, our President and Publisher has said, “what most distinguishes Rosen as a publisher is how responsive we are to changing needs within the society, providing quality innovative materials that meet students’ quest for information.” Our Code Power: A Teen Programmer’s Guide print and eBook series is an excellent example of this, as is the Maker Kids series, which explores how young learners can get the most out of makerspaces to work with musical instruments, flying objects, 3D printers, and microcontrollers.
With our digital resources, our innovation speaks for itself. We have seen wide adoption of our Life Skills Toolkit: Digital Literacy, Financial Literacy, and Teen Health & Wellness databases. We have taken the time research the components of these resources and have designed them through focus groups of users, as well as consultations with librarian users through our Library Advisory Board. Gamification, interactivity, student-created content, customized local resources, text to speech, translation into 80 languages, sharing through social media, and mobile apps are just a few of the features and functionality that contribute to the experience of using our materials.
Our Digital Literacy database, for example, which won Library Journal‘s Best New Database for 2013, provides tools to guide students to become citizen journalists, to create a podcast, to film a PSA. The Teen Health & Wellness database contains a personal story project that has given teens throughout the country the chance to become published authors and share life-changing stories with their peers around the world.
Do you have anything else you’d like to share?
The great management guru Peter Drucker once said that librarians are human change agents. Their product is a child who learns; a young person grown into a self-respecting adult; a changed human life altogether.
Thank you for everything you do. We are in awe of your dedication, inspiration, and spirit of service. And thank you for this opportunity to tell the Rosen Publishing story. Let’s continue the conversation in the days, weeks, and years ahead. Connect with me at miriamg@rosenpub.com.