** GLMA Legislative Update **

 Friday, January 30th marks day 10 of the 2008 session.  This week, the Senate Education Committee postponed a meeting that was to take place on Wednesday, while the House Education and House Appropriations Education committees met on Thursday.

The House Education Committee, chaired by Rep. Fran Millar (R – Dunwoody) while Chairman Brooks Coleman (R – Duluth) is out recovering from health issues, assigned the following legislation to subcommittees:

Academic Achievement Subcommittee

HB 149 by Rep. Jan Jones – Move on When Ready Act 

HB 215 by Rep. Steve Davis – Graduating Everyone Matters Act

Academic Support Subcommittee

HB 161 by Rep. Ben Harbin – regarding high school travel restrictions on interscholastic competitions

HB 229 by Rep. Brooks Coleman – Student Health and Physical Education Act

The House Appropriations Education Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Edward Lindsey (R – Atlanta), reviewed the Governor’s proposed FY 09 amended budget as presented by the Department of Education.  Though the Department and Committee discussed each program facing changes in the amended FY 09 budget, the biggest concerns lie with the FY 10 budget.  We expect testimony on the FY 09 budget to take place next week in the House subcommittee.  A date for review of the FY 10 budget has not yet been set by the House subcommittee.  The Senate Appropriations Education Subcommittee will also review the FY 09 amended budget next week.

To view the amended FY 2009 Budget, click here.

To view the FY 10 Budget, click here.

GLMA Legislative Action Plan

We heard this afternoon that the Governors legislative package was to appear today.  Once the legislation is available, we will forward it to you. Until then, the following is a suggested plan of action for the coming week:

1.  Contact your local legislators.  There is no time like the present to voice your concerns, as a constituent, to your legislators.  For example, share your experiences as a media specialist and teacher and how, if the expenditure controls are waived, this will impact your students.  Don’t know your legislators?  Find them HERE.  

     –  Susan Grigsby, GLMA President, states, “Advocacy is education. We advocate for understanding. We know times are tight and everyone is having to make due with less. However, please explain to me how we are expected to graduate students into a 21st century world with underfunded, outdated, and underused libraries? Better yet, explain it to the members of the education committees who can help make sure our expenditure controls remain intact.”

2.  Have members ready to examine the Governor’s legislative package when it is dropped.  This is where we expect to find language waiving the media center expenditure controls.  In addition, members should be prepared to review other education legislation and any changes the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees begin to make on the amended FY 09 and FY 10 budgets.  

3.  Register for Georgia Library Day — Thursday, February 26th!  This is a wonderful program where you will have face-to-face access to legislators.  You may even get to sit in on an education committee hearing!  To download a registration form, click here.  The registration deadline is February 13th.

Until next week, stay tuned!

Lasa & Michelle

Michelle Crider

JLH Consulting

2711 Irvin Way, Suite 111

Decatur, GA 30030

404.299.7700 Phone

404.299.7029 Fax

www.jlh-consulting.com

What if…

American teens had to spend two years in military service when they reached 18 years old? 

This is the way of life in Israel.  When I Was a Soldier by Valerie Zenatti, is a memoir of her (yes, she is a girl – both men and women serve the mandatory military service in Israel) experience as a new adult in the Israeli army, Tsahal.  She has just taken her exams to graduate from school, her boyfriend has moved away (and broken up with her), and her friends are not yet 18, so they do not have to leave for the army yet.  This is a Batchelder Honor Book.  The Batchelder Award is given to a publisher who has published a book originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States. Zenatti wrote this book in French.

Her time in service was in the late 1980s, but with the new fighting going on in Israel, this autobiography is a timely read for the new year.

Kris Woods, Media Specialist, M.A. Teasley Middle School

ALSC Awards Georgia Media Specialist

Congratulations to Georgia’s own Linda Martin!

 

Yesterday she received notice of winning the ALSC Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship from the American Library Association.

The Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship provides a $4,000 grant to a qualified children’s librarian to spend a month or more reading and studying at the Baldwin Library of the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville.  The Baldwin Library contains a special collection of 85,000 volumes of children’s literature published mostly before 1950.  The fellowship is endowed in memory of Louise Seaman Bechtel and Ruth M. Baldwin. (ALA)

Linda will be searching for stories to tie into content areas in preparation for a book.

 

Browse Books With Book Widgets!

The Happy Day, By Ruth Krauss , Illustrated by Marc Simont: HarperCollins Children’s Books via kwout

These wonderful widgets have been around for sometime, but if you haven’t discovered the fabulous “Browse Inside” widgets from Harper Collins, you need to surf over and browse the selections! These widgets, which can be embedded on MySpace, a blog, a regular web page, or wiki, allow your patrons to preview and browse a book for free!  How cool is that?

To download the code, simply scroll to the bottom of the page for the book you have selected from the search.

Love Is Hell, By Scott Westerfeld, Melissa Marr, Justine Larbalestier, Gabrielle Zevin, Laurie Faria Stolarz: HarperCollins Children’s Books via kwout

Most websites will accept the second box of code, but some online resources, such as MySpace or text boxes in WordPress, will need that MySpace code in the first box.

Here is an example of how I embedded these widgets on my library blog:

The Unquiet Library via kwout

You can also embed the code within a blog post:

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

Once you click “browse this book”, you can “flip” through the entire book!

Insert these widgets anywhere where students can easily access your web presence to help promote books you want to spotlight!

Buffy Hamilton, Media Specialist
Creekview High School
http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com

ALA Literary Awards Announced

Check here to see if your choices were awarded the distinguished honor of an American Library Association literary award.

Highlights include:

Newbery Medal: Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book

“THE GRAVEYARD BOOK,” said fourteen loud voices, and I thought, I may be still  asleep right now, but they probably don’t do this, probably don’t call people and sound so amazingly excited, for Honors books…. (Gaiman’s reaction to the news)

Caldecott Medal: Beth Krommes’ The House in the Night

Printz Award: Melina Marchetta’s Jellicoe Road

Coretta Scott King Book Award and Sibert Medal: Kadir Nelson’s We are the Ship: The Story of the Negro League Baseball