Job Opportunity

Jefferson County Middle School is in search of an Instructional Technology Teacher for its Middle School Connections class. Contact Mr. Jason Wester at 706-367-2882 or jwester@jeffcityschools.org

by way of Judi Repman

Encourage GALILEO Usage by Linking to GALILEO Resources on Your Media Center Site

Chain Link Sculpture, Berlin

Did you know that you can link directly to GALILEO databases from your media center site – and that your teachers can link to them from their classroom pages as well? Did you know that you can also link to magazines and many articles? Let’s take a look at how you can do this.

*Linking to GALILEO*
First, let’s talk about linking to the entire GALILEO site. If you just want to use one link to GALILEO, the best URL to use is the main URL: http://www.galileo.usg.edu
When your students click this link while in the school building, GALILEO automatically recognizes your school system and allows them access (and if it doesn’t, let us know). If your students are at home, this link will just ask for their GALILEO password, and they should then be able to access any of the GALILEO databases without entering another username or password.

*Linking to Databases*
Every GALILEO database has an Express Link, which you can use on any website to take students directly to an individual database. The best thing about using Express Links is that students can access resources at school or from home. At home, they will only need their GALILEO password.

You can see a list of all of your Express Links in the High School view under Databases A-Z > Express Links. Please note the GALILEO policy related to the use of Express Links.

*Linking to Magazines*
To link to the journal or magazine of your choice in GALILEO, just go to Magazines A-Z in the High School view, search for the magazine title or a keyword, choose your title, and then copy the persistent link from the bottom of the Find It @ GALILEO page. See our handout for step-by-step instructions (the instructions use the Scholar view, but it works the same way in High School > Magazines A-Z).

If you would like ideas for magazines and journals to which you can link, we have a list of education journals and magazines on the Presentations and Materials page as well as publications mentioned in these three previous posts.

*Linking to Articles*
Finally, you can create links to articles in many GALILEO databases. There are two ways to do this. First, when you find an article in EBSCO, Britannica, the Digital Library of Georgia, or other databases, look for a permalink or a persistent link in the article information to use on your site. Or, you can build a link from a citation using the Find Cited Article tool (see this handout with instructions for doing this).

*Learning More*
All of this information has been included in a GALILEO training session. The slide presentation and archive are available in the Self-Guided Sessions section of the GALILEO Training site if you would like to see them.

Keep up with GALILEO news through the email list and the GALILEO Planet News.

As always, if you have questions or comments or need to report any problems, please Contact Us.

Courtney McGough
GALILEO Support Services
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

Chain Link Sculpture from slideshow bob on Flickr

Georgia Library Media Specialist of the Year District Winners 2011-12

GLMA and GAIT (Georgia Association of Instructional Technology) co-sponsor the Georgia School Library Media Specialist of the Year award to recognize K-12 library media specialists whose services have resulted in exemplary library media programs. Each school system may select one library media specialist for this award. From those chosen for the system level award, one media specialist is chosen as the district Library Media Specialist of the Year. (Each district represents a different region of Georgia.) The state Library Media Specialist of the Year is selected from the district winners and will be announced the Georgia Council of Media Organizations conference in October 2011.

Congratulations to this year’s district winners!

Coastal	Shannon Robertson	Southeast Bulloch Middle	Bulloch
East	Angela Dallis	GrovetownHigh School	Columbia
Metro	Susan K.S. Grigsby	ElkinsPointeMiddle School	Fulton
Northeast	Andy Plemmons	David C. Barrow Elementary	Clarke
Southeast	Beverly Brostek	BrunswickHigh School	Glynn
Southwest	Cheryl Youse	ColquittCountyHigh School	Colquitt
South Metro	Christopher R. Parker	Mt.CarmelElementary School	Henry

Update: State Education Finance Study Commission

Below is an update on the State Education Finance Study Commission from Nan Brown.

Updates have been posted on the Georgia DOE website from the State Education Finance Study Commission  meeting on June 30, 2011.  In overview, updates reflect the subcommittees set up to address issues related to funding, with initial topics and meeting dates (http://tinyurl.com/6a449mz) and topics to eventually be covered by each subcommittee (http://tinyurl.com/SEFSCtopics711   These were modified somewhat from the discussion on June 30^th, and it seems likely we will need to give input on media funding to Subcommittees 1, 2, and 4.

Subcommittee 1 will review foundational funding formulas; this covers current QBE program weights. We may want to advocate for recognition for the need for media clerk coverage as well as proportional staffing for school size.  (Media centers were mentioned in the June 30^th meeting but don’t appear in the revised notes here, so we want to make sure media centers aren’t overlooked in this funding.)

Subcommittee 2 is charged with consideration of funding support services. Media funding and personnel are included, but pretty far down the list.  This is likely where we’ll want to share the impact of the loss of staff and designated funding on media centers to date.

Subcommittee 4 will address moving from compliance to accountability models. This includes addressing whether school systems must spend funds on what they are earned for, a review of the 65% rule for direct instructional spending, and the need for expenditure controls.  (If spending funds as earned includes personnel as well as materials, this could be very important to media centers. Again, we’ll want to share recent results of the loss of expenditure controls and uses of funding for purposes other than as earned.)

White papers will be posted as education department and legislative staff complete them.  The web page for the commission, which should be updated with white papers and information from subcommittee meetings, may be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/DOEpageSEFSC

If you have information or stories to share, please continue to send those to me.  Again, we will only relate stories to general geographic areas and level (elementary, etc.), but stories of how students are impacted by cuts resonate particularly with the legislators.

If you live and/or work in the area covered by one of the commission members, please also consider contacting that person directly with your perspectives.  Remember, “all politics is local!” (Thomas P.  O’Neill, Sr.)