Monthly Archives: November 2010
Finding Georgia Authors in GALILEO
Looking for Georgia authors? Let’s take a look at a few of the resources in GALILEO that can help.
The New Georgia Encyclopedia offers articles about many Georgia authors. Just browse through the Literature section to General Topics to find an overview of literature in Georgia as well as a list of Georgia authors and Georgia works. Several articles include video clips of the authors as well as links to additional resources. Also, check out the 12 Great Works of Georgia Fiction feature for a quick list of famous works about Georgia. GeorgiaInfo also includes a Georgia Authors page. Some of these links go to the New Georgia Encyclopedia article, but some go to the author’s site, while a couple of links, such as those for Sidney Lanier and Margaret Mitchell, provide additional resources.
The Digital Library of Georgia is a good place to look for historical images and other items about Georgia authors. For example, a search for Joel Chandler Harris or Corra Harris reveals an image of the author’s home and links to the full text of some of his or her works. The Reference Shelf section of the Digital Library of Georgia includes a short list of Georgia authors with links to their Georgia Writers Hall of Fame entries as well as the full text of a few chapters of Georgia Authors 2002: A Reference Work, which offers lists of nationally recognized Georgia authors, African American authors of Georgia, and Georgia authors who have published children’s books.
Other language arts resources, such as NoveList and Literary Reference Center, include information about Georgia authors, although there isn’t an easy way to limit searches to Georgia authors. A search for an author name or title of the work in Literary Reference Center generally provides biographical information and reviews of works as well as literary criticism. In some cases, you may also find full-text classics, generally for works in the public domain. Finally, while you can’t limit your search just to authors from Georgia, you can limit your search to works set in Georgia. Just go to the Advanced Search page, leave the search box blank, and type Georgia in the Literary Locale field (you’ll need to scroll down to see it).
NoveList also includes book reviews and recommendations for fiction by Georgia authors. Just search by the author or the title of the work to see these. Also, a search for Georgia will provide results that mention Georgia in the book information, and, by choosing the setting in the Location section on the left of the NoveList screen, you can further limit the search to places in Georgia. Finally, although these lists aren’t limited to Georgia authors, NoveList includes a list of several Georgia book awards, such as the Georgia Children’s Book Award for Children’s Books and Picture Storybooks and the Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers.
Please see our handout and a link to the archived webinar for more information.
As always, if you have questions or comments, please Contact Us.
Courtney McGough
GALILEO Support Services
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
Article and search links may not work off site. Click the database name first for access.
Express Links for Databases Mentioned in this Post:
New Georgia Encyclopedia: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=ngen
GeorgiaInfo: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=gnfo
Digital Library of Georgia: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=dlg1
NoveList: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zknl
Literary Reference Center: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zblr
Find All Your Express Links (what’s this?)
Images from the New Georgia Encyclopedia
Authors pictured from left to right: Flannery O’Connor, Joel Chandler Harris, James Dickey, Raymond Andrews, Margaret Mitchell, Anthony Grooms
Pre-K Forecasters
I’m often asked by teachers and other media specialists about ways to use technology with the youngest of students. I’ve just started an exploration with a pre-K teacher and her students on weather. Ms. Hocking is always listening to her students and looking for ideas that interest them. She often takes one small idea that comes from the class and branches that idea into several weeks of explorations and projects. Her most recent venture is with weather forecasting. She contacted me via email to begin brainstorming what might be possible for her students. After many exchanges, we came up with a plan that has just begun. Here’s what we’re going to try:
- In class, she is showing the students multiple weather forecasts for all kinds of weather on the smart board. The purpose is to build some background knowledge and familiarity for her students on what happens in a weather forecast.
- Lesson 1 in the media center: Students will view a local weather forecast for two purposes: deciding what jobs need to be done to create a forecast and creating a web of weather words that might be used in their own forecast. This lesson is already complete. We used open mind to create a brainstorm web of jobs and weather words. The students offered words and jobs that they heard and thought of and the teachers and I filled in other jobs and words. It was truly a collaborative experience where everyone in the room was offering ideas.
- In class, Ms. Hocking will continue to look at the words that students brainstormed and build their familiarity and understanding of the words
- Lesson 2 in the media center: We will explore how meteorologists decide what they will say on the air. We’ll look at the weather channel website and explore tools that meteorologists use. Then, we’ll narrow our focus to what students will include in their own forecasts and begin a skeleton script.
- In class, Ms. Hocking will continue to work on scripts of what students will say in their forecasts.
- Lesson 3 in the media center: Students will explore how meteorologists remember what they are supposed to say. We’ll look at cue cards and create some picture cue cards that will trigger certain responses on camera. For example, a picture of the sun would mean “sunny”
- In class, Ms. Hocking will finish the cue cards, assign jobs to students, and begin practicing with students.
- Lesson 4 in the media center will be exploring the equipment in our morning broadcast studio. Students will see all the equipment used to do a morning broadcast and will record their own weather forecasts in small groups. Our hope is that students will actually be the ones using the equipment to record.
- The final step will be to share their forecasts on our morning broadcast and possibly on a teacher tube account.
I feel like this is an ambitious endeavor, but we have no idea what works with these youngest students until we take a step and try things out. I can’t wait to see what successes we observe and what hurdles we face along the way.
Correction–Free Webinar November 30: TRAILS–Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills
21st Century Resources: TRAILS–Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills
November 30th 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST
Join Barbara F. Schloman, Ph.D., TRAILS Project Director; Associate Dean, Kent State University Libraries and Julie Gedeon, Ph.D., Coordinator of Assessment, Kent State University Libraries as they discuss ways to use the free TRAILS assessment tool to address student 21stcentury information literacy skills. Appropriate for librarians, curriculum directors, administrators and classroom teachers. You will need a telephone and computer with Internet access. No registration necessary.
To join the webinar audio:
Dial ReadyTalk phone number: 8667401260 (US) Enter 7-digit access code: 9166474
You will be placed on music hold until the Chairperson starts the conference
To join the webinar Web Conference. Click here to automatically login:
https://www.callinfo.com/prt?host=readytalk&ac=9166474&an=8667401260
Enter your name, email, phone and employer. You will view a “Lobby screen” until the Chairperson starts the Web Conference.
To test your browser and network connections for compatibility prior to the conference, go to: http://test.callinfo.com
Thank you, Sarah
Sarah Hale, whose relentless letters and 38 years of petitioning presidents, secured Thanksgiving’s status as a national holiday.
Writer Sarah Josepha Hale, was born in Newport, New Hampshire in 1788. She had no formal education, but her family encouraged her to read. Her husband died when she was 34 years old, leaving her with 5 children. (image from www.hsp.org )
In Northwood (1827), a novel about slavery and its harm to every part of society, she described the abundance of a Thanksgiving dinner:
“The roasted turkey took precedence on this occasion, being placed at the head of the table; and well did it become its lordly station, sending forth the rich odor of its savory stuffing, and finely covered with the froth of the basting. At the foot of the board, a sirloin of beef, flanked on either side by a leg of pork and loin of mutton, seemed placed as a bastion to defend innumerable bowls of gravy and plates of vegetables disposed in that quarter.
“A goose and pair of ducklings occupied side stations on the table; the middle being graced, as it always is on such occasions, by that rich burgomaster of the provisions, called a chicken pie. This pie, which is wholly formed of the choicest parts of fowls, enriched and seasoned with a profusion of butter and pepper, and covered with an excellent puff paste, is, like the celebrated pumpkin pie, an indispensable part of a good and true Yankee Thanksgiving; the size of the pie usually denoting the gratitude of the party who prepares the feast. The one now displayed could never have had many peers. [...]
“Plates of pickles, preserves and butter, and all the necessaries for increasing the seasoning of the viands to the demand of each palate, filled the interstices on the table, leaving hardly sufficient room for the plates of the company, a wine glass and two tumblers for each, with a slice of wheat bread lying on one of the inverted tumblers. A side table was literally loaded with the preparations for the second course, placed there to obviate the necessity of leaving the apartment during the repast. [...]
“There was a huge plum pudding, custards and pies of every name and description ever known in Yankee land; yet the pumpkin pie occupied the most distinguished niche. There were also several kinds of rich cake, and a variety of sweetmeats and fruits.”
Sarah Josepha Hale was a vocal supporter of the cause to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She wrote letters to one president after another — Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and finally Abraham Lincoln, who did, in fact, listen to her. You can read Sarah’s letter to Lincoln from the Library of Congress at http://goo.gl/UkXq5 .
On October 3, 1863, he issued a proclamation, saying, “The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible.” He proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday, celebrated that year on the last Thursday of November.
We have Sarah Josepha Hale to thank for Thanksgiving, as well as for writing the nursery rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb.” You can read her story in the picture book Thank you, Sarah: The Woman who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
New from YALSA: Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults
The Young Adult Library Services Association has launched the inaugural issue of its open-access, peer-reviewed electronic research journal, the Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults at http://yalsa.ala.org/jrlya. Visit the web site to read the articles &/or subscribe to the RSS feed. The journal will be published quarterly beginning in November 2010, with issues following each February, May and August.
The first issue highlights paper presentations from YALSA’s Young Adult Literature Symposium, held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Nov. 5-7 with a theme of Diversity, Literature and Teens: Beyond Good Intentions. The papers in the issue are:
- Cultural Inquiry: A Framework for Engaging Youth of Color in the Library, by Dr. Kafi Kumasi
- “Teens Today Don’t Read Books Anymore”: A Study of Differences in Interest and Comprehension Based on Reading Modalities: Part 1, Introduction and Methodology, by Jessica E. Moyer
- Pushing the Envelope: Exploring Sexuality in Teen Literature, by Eleanor Wood
The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults disseminates research of interest to librarians, library workers and academics who focus on library service to young adults, ages 12 through 18. It will also serve as the official research publication of the association, publishing annotated lists of recent research from YALSA’s Research Committee, Henne Award–winning research, papers from YALSA’s biennial Young Adult Literature Symposium and papers presented at YALSA’s annual Past Presidents’ Lecture (held each January at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting).
Those interested in submitting a paper to JRLYA for future issues are encouraged to contact the editor at yalsaresearch@gmail.com. Author guidelines and more information can be found at http://yalsa.ala.org/jrlya. Individuals interested in serving on the journal’s advisory board, which facilitates the peer review process, should fill out a volunteer form at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/joinus/committeevolunteer.cfm. Appointments to the 2010 – 2011 advisory board will be made in February and March by Sarah Flowers, YALSA’s President-Elect, and the group’s work begins in July. The group’s work is 100% virtual—attendance at ALA conferences is not required.
Stephanie (Stevie) Kuenn
Communications Specialist
Young Adult Library Services Association
v: 312.280.2128
f: 312.280-5276
