The Official Newsletter of GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online Winter/Spring 2003
GALILEO, I Will Miss You
by Jayne Williams, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Library and Customer Information Services Office of Information and Instructional Technology, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
As many of you already know, I retired from the University System on April 1, 2003. It is with mixed feelings that I say goodbye to GALILEO, the baby that I helped birth; but I am leaving GALILEO in very good hands with a superb staff. I am very proud of their accomplishments and consider it a privilege to have worked with such fine individuals. I am comfortable that they will strive for continued excellence. GALILEO would not be where it is today without the staff and the dedicated librarians across Georgia who have collaborated so unconditionally to keep GALILEO in the number ONE
position among virtual libraries.
Our user community-- students, faculty, staff, and Georgia citizenry--should be very proud to have such a capable, dedicated, and caring staff to nurture and support GALILEO. I know the staff appreciates the user community, which has grown to love and depend upon GALILEO. Thank you, user community, for your support. The staff, including me, really enjoys hearing from you on how you are using GALILEO and how valuable GALILEO is to you. (I sort of puff up like a peacock when I hear some of your glowing comments.) Keep those cards and letters coming!
Writing this article gives me a chance to thank all of you in the GALILEO family for your support and friendship. GALILEO has provided me an opportunity not many people have in their career. I have made many good friends across the state that I will always cherish. Even though I am not a librarian by trade, the librarians in Georgia took me under their wing and accepted me as one of their own. They have taught me a lot; I am deeply grateful. I will miss the meetings, conferences, and opportunities for personal interaction. However, I will continue to be involved as a GALILEO user.
Jayne Williams
Even though I am retiring from the University System, I intend to stay abreast of the growth and maturity of our child GALILEO, who, by the way, is maturing so beautifully. Thank you all for making GALILEO a household word.
Jayne Williams: A Fond Farewell
by Merryll Penson, Executive Director for Library Services
I can't recall when I first met Jayne Williams. It seems like I've known her forever. I guess it may have been when J.B. Mathews, then Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, asked her to serve as the OIIT/BOR liaison to the RACL group. At that time Dr. Mathews was trying to encour-
age the University System Libraries to standardize on one library system. Jayne came to the RACL meetings and listened to all the reasons we couldn't. She didn't try to force the issue or tell us how to do things, but quietly encouraged us to look for commonalities. We knew then, she was our
Jayne Williams and members of her staff, both past and present, pose for a photograph during Jayne's surprise retirement party.
friend. She became an advocate for libraries and their needs in the University System Office. We had never had a direct advocate. Jayne continued to come to the RACL meetings and listen to our needs. We thought she was pretty cool as she drove from Statesboro in her flashy red convertible. She facilitated dialogue between the library directors and the computer center directors and encouraged the librarians to more actively participate in Rock Eagle, the University System Annual Computer Conference. She sought articles from libraries to include in the OIIT newsletter. When the lottery was introduced and there
was funding for technology, RACL started to consider how it could use those dollars if only someone would listen. Jayne facilitated a meeting in Atlanta with Dr. Mathews and now CIO and Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, Randall Thursby, where some initial seeds were planted for what became GALILEO.
I remember getting a call from Jayne at home about 8 p.m. one hot Thursday August evening during summer break. She said, "The new Chancellor (Stephen Portch) wants a proposal (continued, page 6)
GALILEO Planet Page 1
EBSCO and ProQuest for FY2004
During the previous
fiscal year, the GALILEO
Steering Committee was faced
with the possibility of having to
choose between two of the
most popular suites of
databases in GALILEO: those
provided by EBSCO and
ProQuest. As the costs of these
databases
increased
simultaneously with state-
mandated budget reductions,
the decision to choose either
EBSCO or ProQuest databases
seemed inevitable. Various
members of GALILEO's user
communities were asked to
contribute to the decision-
making process; GALILEO
librarians and users evaluated
the EBSCO and ProQuest
suites of databases, and the
GALILEO Electronic Collection
Development Subcommittee
reviewed user comments in
order to decide which suite of
databases should be retained.
Ultimately, however, GALILEO
was able to offer both EBSCO
and ProQuest databases for
another year. LSTA funds from
the Georgia Public Library
Service, as well as the
willingness of both vendors to
negotiate, resulted in
GALILEO's ability to offer both
suites of databases for the 2003
fiscal year.
In our present economic climate, however, budget considerations continue to be a priority for GALILEO. The information industry is volatile, and it may be necessary for the GALILEO Steering Committee to choose between EBSCO and ProQuest databases for FY2004. If so, many factors will contribute to the final decision. The GALILEO Electronic Collection Development Subcommittee heard presentations from both vendors and examined their offerings, including content, indexing, unique titles, overlapping titles, ease of use, and feedback from GALILEO users in order to make recommendations to the GALILEO Steering Committee. The depth of the vendors' content is crucial; Both EBSCO and ProQuest have added more content, including journal back files, since last year's review.
Embargoes are another factor. Different publishers require varying periods of embargo for periodicals, which affect the availability of titles. Embargo periods are now entered in the title lists for EBSCO and (continued, page 7)
GALILEO's
Announcements Page
On February 14, a new "Announcements" link appeared on the GALILEO homepage in the set of blue links below the database subject category tabs. This new link takes users to our new GALILEO Announcements web page. All announcements about system status or database and interface changes that we post to the GALILEO listserv now appear on this page also. This new feature is our response to your requests for web-based access to GALILEO listserv announcements.
Status announcements related to problems in the GALILEO system or vendorhosted databases are removed from this page once all associated issues are resolved. Database and interface change announcements, however, are archived for your future reference.
If you would like to bookmark the GALILEO Announcements page for quick access, please use the following URL:
http://www.usg.edu/galileo/ status/
GALILEO's Electronic Collection
Development Subcommittee
Gail C. Anderson, Medical College of Georgia Judith Brook, Mercer University/Atlanta Susan Cooley, Sara Hightower Regional Library Mary Lou Dabbs, LaGrange College Judy Dubus, Armstrong Atlantic State University Iris Durden, Georgia Southern University Dave Evans, Kennesaw State University Lauren Fancher, Board of Regents Bob Glass, Piedmont College Beth Hedrick, Lanier Technical College Debbie Holmes, Floyd College Tracy Hull, Georgia State University Charlene Hurt, Georgia State University Julie Ligon, Columbus State University Richard Meyer, Georgia Institute of Technology Karen Minton, Board of Regents Merryll Penson, Board of Regents William Gray Potter (Chair), University of Georgia Sala Rhodes, Emory University Sharon W. Self, Hardaway High School, Columbus Brenda Sellers, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Judy Serritella, Georgia Department of Education Susan A. Smith, State University of West Georgia Jane L. Summey, Southeastern Technical College Kathy Tomajko, Georgia Institute of Technology Thedia Washington-Bryant, Ga. Southwestern State University David White, Augusta State University Toni Zimmerman, Georgia Public Library Service
A complete list can also be found at http://dbs.galib.uga.edu/cgi-bin/committees.cgi?cm=collection.
What's New?
by Karen Minton, GALILEO Virtual Services Librarian
Most database vendors feature "What's New" pages on their web sites. Many also maintain email lists to help keep users up-to-date on database changes. Here are links to the What's New pages and subscription forms for email lists for some of the most popular GALILEO databases:
Grove What's New: http://www.macmillanonline.net/ art/grove/index.htm
LexisNexis What's New: http://www.lexisnexis.com/ academic/1univ/acad/news/
EBSCO EBSCOweb Community: http://www.ebscoweb.com
Email Update List: http://www.ebscoweb.com/ archive.asp
ProQuest Email Lists: http://www.proquest.com/ em-emailnote.shtml.
SIRS Discoverer The "What's New" link is reached through the "Librarian's Corner" link on the SIRS Discoverer home page.
netLibrary Press/news Page: h t t p : / / w w w . n e t l i b r a r y. c o m / about_us/company_info/ press_news.asp
netLibrary Email Newsletter: http:/ /www.netlibrary.com/about_us/ company_info/resources.asp
OCLC/FirstSearch Lists Subscriptions: http://www.oclc.org/oclc/forms/ listserv.htm
GALILEO Planet Page 2
New Customization Features in GALILEO
by Lauren Fancher, Director of GALILEO Support Services
One of GALILEO's greatest strengths is the diversity of its audience, which in its complexity contributes to the technical and resourceintensive challenges of managing the system. Currently, GALILEO maintains 617 institution profiles for 2,000+ sites, 2,670 resource records, and 1,272 vendor records. In order to grow with its constituent institutions, the system must accommodate their needs by providing flexible tools that enable them to customize the GALILEO environment by incorporating their local resources into GALILEO menus, taking full advantage of the GALILEO authentication gateway. In this way, GALILEO can best continue to fulfill the Vision for One Statewide Library, which places GALILEO at the center of online learning.
The GALILEO staff have been working on a development project to provide customization features for GALILEO libraries for the purposes of integration of locally-purchased databases. The goal is an improved interface and workflow model for providing workspace to
interested libraries to create
and manage resource records
that will be merged with the
central records in the menus for
their users. The project began
two years ago with a pilot
project with the University of
Georgia. When the GALILEO-
developed Database of Online
Resources (DOOR) replaced
SiteSearch
as
the
authentication and menuing
system for GALILEO, a new
development opportunity was
presented. In the late summer
and early Fall of 2002, the
GALILEO staff began work on
what became known as the
GALILEO Local Resource
Integration system, or GLRI.
The guiding philosophy
for GLRI development
balanced the power and benefit
of institutional customization
with the need to support
centrally-licensed
and
managed resources. A key
recognition was that in order to
scale the service to the
numbers and complexities of
the GALILEO communities, the
process for GLRI must be as
unmediated by the GALILEO
staff as possible. Therefore the
system was developed to
ensure maximum flexibility and
ease to the institutions while allowing GALILEO to retain complete control over resources licensed through GALILEO contracts.
Four beta sites-- UGA, GSU, Columbus, and Berry--attended training during the first-week in October. Betatesting over subsequent weeks helped identify a number of issues for correction. The four sites are now in production and have been very enthusiastic about the easy interface and tools for their libraries to customize their GALILEO menus. One example of creative implementation is a custom database menu that can be recalled by entering a course number in the locator box or through an Express Link provided to faculty for use on a class website. Another example is the use of nested records within a collective display for subject-based ejournal menus.
A second cohort is now in production that includes Georgia Tech, Emory, Agnes Scott, LaGrange, West Georgia, and Valdosta. The process starts off with a oneday training and instruction on how to use the GLRI
What Are the Differences Between
AncestryPlus and Ancestry.com?
by Karen Minton, GALILEO Virtual Services Librarian
Ancestry.com started as an individual-subscription service in 1998. In time, they recognized the importance of the library market, and in 2001, partnered with Gale to offer AncestryPlus. Georgia and Michigan were the first two states to make statewide purchases of this database. AncestryPlus is available to Georgia citizens through their public libraries. Unlike most databases, it is not available remotely but must be accessed from an on-site library computer. Here are some of the
differences in AncestryPlus and Ancestry.com: AncestryPlus includes technology useful to libraries that individual subscribers to Ancestry.com would not use, such as the ability to keep usage statistics. AncestryPlus combines the modules from which individual subscribers select (US collections, UK collections, and U.S. Census images). US collections include immigration, vital, military, court, church, and ethnic records; Social Security Death Index; Civil War Pension
Index, and more. UK collections include census records from England and Ireland, parish and probate records, and biography records. The Historical Newspapers module, available to Ancestry.com subscribers, is not available through AncestryPlus. There are no ads in AncestryPlus. AncestryPlus offers unique Gale content, including Passenger and Immigration Lists Index and 300 city directories.
administrative interface and
training and production
workspace is released to the
participating institutions.
Features covered in the training
include the ability to create
resource records with custom
descriptive and keyword
information; tag a database as
"new" until a particular date;
brand a database with text and
a logo; provide remote access
methods; and create nested
and collective records. Sites
may send up to two staff
people, who can then re-deliver
the training and set up users
with different permissions.
Participation is free for
GALILEO
institutions.
Additional cohorts are being
scheduled each month.
Interested libraries
should contact Lauren Fancher
at Lauren.Fancher@usg.edu
for more information.
For Your
Information
To subscribe to the GALILEO listserv, send an e-mail to listproc@gsu.edu with this message in the body: subscribe galileo first name last name
To subscribe to the GALILEO Planet, send your email address to galileo.planet@usg.edu
A complete list of GALILEO Subcommittees: http://www.usg.edu/galileo/ comm/subcomm.phtml
More about the GALILEO initiative: http://www.usg.edu/ galileo/
GALILEO questions and technical support: 1-888-897-3697 or email: helpdesk@usg.edu
GALILEO Planet Page 3
GALILEO Searches for Solutions
by Lauren Fancher, Director of GALILEO Support Services
Ask any GALILEO
user what functionality they
most want in GALILEO and
they'll tell you: a single search
box to search everything at
once. While users expect easy
online access to all of their
research materials, the reality
may be that they find citations
in one database while the
related full-text resides in
another, unknown database, a
stand-alone
e-journal
subscription, or is not online at
all. Therefore, a "single search
box" poses many difficult
questions. How do two
completely different products
on different servers owned by
different vendors relate to each
other? How can users
seamlessly authenticate and
access content across dozens
of vendors? Software solutions
are emerging that attempt to
solve some or all of the
problems of presenting and
searching multiple resources
and linking to full-text content.
There are two primary
types of software. Resource
access solutions manage
different electronic resources
for presentation and access.
They typically include the ability
to search multiple resources via
a single search box, which is
dependent on accurate "maps"
of the targeted resources. This
functionality is often referred to
as "cross-database" searching,
metasearching, or federated
searching. Linking solutions
link users from a citation in one
product to full-text in another by
checking against behind-the-
scenes title access lists.
Creation and maintenance of
vendor resource mappings and
title access lists is very labor
intensive. A primary strength of
such products is that the vendor
maintains and updates this
highly changeable data.
Software vendors are
racing
to
develop
comprehensive resource
management, search, and
linking solutions, and GALILEO
staff and librarians are looking
closely at these rapidly evolving
products for their suitability as
potential solutions for
GALILEO. During 2001-2002,
a GALILEO sub-committee
called the Electronic Resource
Access Study Group, or
ERASG, was chaired by Betsy
Griffies of State University of
West Georgia, and included
representatives from different
GALILEO libraries. Reviewing
many current and developing
products, they identified issues
and recommended guiding
principles for development in a
comprehensive report to the
GALILEO Steering Committee.
According to Griffies, "The
Electronic Resources Access
Study Group believed that an
ideal situation for users of
GALILEO online periodical
indexes would consist of
having the links-to-holdings
feature in every index, with
retrieval of holdings first
displaying those available to
that user regardless of format
(electronic, paper) or location
(via library or GALILEO)."
The work of the
ERASG committee has
provided an excellent
foundation for evaluating
competitive options. Current
resource access and linking
product suites include
Endeavor's ENCompass for
Resource Access and
LinkFinder Plus, Ex Libris's
MetaLib and SFX, and
Fretwell-Downing's ZPORTAL
and Open Linking software. A
number of additional products
offer some, but not all,
component features, including
EBSCO's
LinkSource,
WebFeat, Follett's Find-it-All,
and Gale's TotalAccess.
Several product trials have
already been conducted and
more are coming as various
products are identified for
review.
All of these efforts are
bringing GALILEO closer to
that "single search box" and
fewer clicks to full text, but
much more work is still needed.
GALILEO librarians can expect
to hear more in the coming
months about how GALILEO
can best take advantage of
these new and compelling
opportunities to improve
access for users.
Meet the Staff!
Katie Gohn
Katie Gohn is GALILEO's Support Specialist and has worked in the Athens GALILEO office since November 2002. Katie earned a Master of Science in Information Science degree in 2002 from the University of Tennessee, and works with the GALILEO Support Services staff to ensure that GALILEO is up and running on a day-to-day basis, answering questions and solving problems from GALILEO's varied user communities. Katie is inspired by her work with GALILEO. "What I like most about GALILEO is the fact that it is a library system available to so many different user communities. It is gratifying to know that I have resolved a problem that will make using Georgia's Virtual Library easier in the future."
Exemplary Media
Specialists
Every year, the Georgia Department of Education recognizes three outstanding K-12 school Library/Media programs on the elementary, middle, and high school levels through the Exemplary Media Program. While the 2003 Exemplary Media Program selection process is underway, GALILEO would like to congratulate Paula Galland and Pam Williams, media specialists from Brunswick High School, as recipients of the 2002 award. Paula Galland is a member of GALILEO's reference subcommittee whose media program has benefited from her hard work and dedication. The 2003 award recipients will be announced on May 8, 2003, at the Georgia Department of Education's state board meeting.
GALILEO Planet Page 4
Historic Homes, Haunts, and Greenspaces: The Historic
Architecture and Landscapes of Georgia Database
by Sheila McAlister, Project Manager and Digital Metadata Coordinator, Digital Library of Georgia
According to Georgia scholar and author Mills Lane in his Architecture of the Old South: Georgia, "Buildings are three-dimensional history books which reflect the comings and goings, successes and failures of real people." Not only do buildings give such insight, but gardens and other greenspaces also reflect a people's societal and cultural values. In examining the Digital Library of Georgia's newest addition, Historic Architecture and Landscapes of Georgia, users can peruse the structures and spaces shaped by Georgians.
The source of the online collection is the color slides and black and white photographs that are part of the
Hubert Bond Owens and John Linley Collections at the University of Georgia's Owens Library. Both Owens and Linley were professors at the College of Environment and Design and were well known in landscape architecture and architecture circles. Owens founded the University's Department of Landscape Architecture and later presided as Dean of the School of Environmental Design, served as president for both the American Society of Landscape Architects and the International Federation of Landscape Architects, and designed landscapes in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Michigan as well as the
Founders Memorial Garden at
the University of Georgia, which
is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.
Before coming to the University,
Linley, a graduate of Princeton
U n i v e r s i t y,
practiced
professionally as an architect
for many years by designing
residences and office buildings.
Additionally, Linley is known for
his contributions to scholarship
of the architecture of Georgia.
His publications, Architecture of
Middle Georgia, The Oconee
Area (1972) and The Georgia
Catalog, Historic American
Buildings Survey, A Guide to
Georgia Architecture (1982),
have contributed significantly to
the study of the state's historic
structures. In many cases, the
slides and photographs, taken
from the 1940s to the 1980s, document structures or landscapes which have been altered or no longer exist.
In its current incarnation, the database contains 300 images of important and representative architectural sites and landscapes in the state with an emphasis on Athens and Middle Georgia. Users may search for a structure's or landscape's former owners or architects as well as its style or the materials of which it was composed. Additionally, users can discover buildings recognized in the National Register of Historic Places, the Historic American Buildings Survey, the Historic American Landscape (continued, page 8)
OIIT Customer Services:
Our Partners in GALILEO Support
by Philip McArdle, GALILEO Services Coordinator
The Board of Regents' Office of Information covers a broad spectrum: the OIIT staff fills two neighboring buildings in Athens and a good amount of the Board of Regents' Atlanta office space. The University System of Georgia's thirty-four institutions rely on the OIIT for a wide range of support, from the Banner student information
system and PeopleSoft payroll and financial applications to Oracle, UNIX, PeachNet and-- last but not least--GALILEO and GIL. If you picture each of these as a room in a (very big) house, then the members of one group are always waiting at the door to help every visitor: OIIT Customer Services.
The core of OIIT Customer Services is the HelpDesk. Dozens of calls, emails, and other submissions about every OIIT-supported area come to the HelpDesk every day, and it's the HelpDesk's job to be the customers' first stop for quick answers or their guide to the places where more information
can be found. In GALILEO's case, almost every message submitted through GALILEO's Contact Us (formerly Leave a Comment) form passes through the HelpDesk. This is the primary way in which librarians, media specialists, teachers, students, library patrons, and technical staff contact GALILEO, so the HelpDesk handles quite a lot of submissions from this form: over three hundred each month. In many cases, the HelpDesk staff members use their own knowledge of GALILEO, their workstation/ browser support expertise, and their knowledge of existing system-wide or local problems to help people immediately. At other times, they gather the necessary (continued, page 6)
The OIIT Customer Services Team
GALILEO Planet Page 5
A Window on Georgia's History and Culture:
The Georgia Historic Books Database
by Sheila McAlister, Project Manager and Digital Metadata Coordinator, Digital Library of Georgia
Did you know that renowned geologist, educator, and Sierra Club founder Joseph LeConte considered Tallulah Falls to be "the most beautiful place in upper Georgia," or that Lulu Hurst, known as "The Georgia Wonder" and "The Amazing Magnetic Girl," first discovered her special abilities in 1883 at the age of fifteen? To discover such facts, delve into the Digital Library of Georgia's database, Georgia Historic Books. Currently under development, the site will contain 300 fully searchable books and provide a window onto the history and culture of the state from its earliest days to the beginning of the 20th century.
Containing both nonfiction and fiction works, the site reveals the way Georgians and others viewed the state's and region's inhabitants and history. For example, Charles Parson's 1855 Inside View of Slavery: or, A Tour Among the Planters
functions both as an ethnographic examination of the South and as an anti-slavery tract. By contrast, in The New South, Henry W. Grady presents his vision of a reinvigorated and industrial South. J.T. Derry entices potential settlers and investors to come to the state in his 1898 Georgia: A Guide to Its Cities, Towns, Scenery, and Resources. Memorializing their own experiences, writers such as itinerant Methodist minister George Wesley Yarbrough, Civil War nurse Fannie A. Beers, and General Thomas Simpson Woodward tie their histories to that of the region. Using humor, Bill Arp, considered by some to be the "Mark Twain of the South," commented on the Civil War, Reconstruction, and agricultural life. Richard Malcolm Johnston's Old Times in Middle Georgia, Francis Robert Goulding's Sal-o-quah: Or, Boy-Life Among the
Cherokees, Joel Chandler
Harris' Stories of Georgia, and
Laura R. Fewell's Aunt Quimby's
Reminiscences of Georgia are
only a few of the works of fiction
depicting Georgia life.
In
a
future
enhancement, the Georgia
Historic Books database will
include not only narrative
depictions of the state, but also
pictorial ones. Images will
include photographs of the
people, communities, and
landscape as well as artistic
interpretations related to
Georgia. For example, one will
be able to find "Smiling Georgia,"
Annie Sharp's personification of
the state of Georgia and its
agricultural products, published
in 1916 in Louis Napoleon
Geldert's Facts About Georgia.
Other notable illustrations
include the drawings of A. B.
Frost, J. M. Conde, and Frank
Verbeck, which bring to life Joel
Chandler Harris's Told by Uncle
The Georgia Historic Books logo
Remus: New Stories of the Old Plantation.
Georgia Historic Books currently contains eighty titles; an additional 200 books will be added to the database by the end of 2003. Visit the database at http://www.galileo.usg.edu/ express?action=link&link=zlgb and take a glimpse into Georgia's past.
("Jayne WIlliams," from page 1) from the librarians, and he wants a BIG proposal that uses technology and benefits all, maximizes costs, and he wants the proposal Monday. And you can't tell anyone." You can imagine our surprise that someone wanted a proposal from librarians. We knew Jayne had to be special if she could make folks understand our needs. And we knew she was a miracle worker when the proposal actually went forward to the Gen-
eral Assembly. From that point on, Jayne and I have faxed, emailed, and called each other almost every working day as GALILEO has grown and expanded into GIL and as I began reporting directly to her in a new role.
Another great thing about Jayne is that she came with assets. Her spouse was the computer center director at Georgia Southern and not only did Jayne work with us, but Ken did
Meet the Staff! Jay Forbes is a Web Developer who joined the GALILEO team in September 2002. Based in Atlanta at the Board of Regents System Office, Jay is responsible for maintaining GALILEO's Internet Resources and the information in "About GALILEO." Maintenance can range from fixing broken links to creating graphics and new Web pages.
Jay Forbes
Jay received his Master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Texas in 1999. "The most rewarding aspect of my job is that it allows me to apply my skills and training toward a project that helps people further their education and understanding of the world. GALILEO is a wonderful example of what you can do with the Web, and I am proud to be a part of it."
too, serving on the GALILEO and GIL Technical Committees and a host of other task forces related to these projects. It isn't surprising that Ken would help Jayne out, since Jayne met Ken when she needed some help with a chemistry assignment when she was a freshman at UGA and he was a graduate assistant. Those of you that know those two know that chemistry still exists!
She knows where every dime is, and I do mean every dime. "Good enough for government work" could never apply to her. She is also tireless. I don't know of too many people that you can e-mail almost anytime from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.,
("OIIT," from page 5) information to help GALILEO Support Services diagnose more complex problems. In both cases, the HelpDesk plays an essential role in keeping GALILEO up and running for users all around the state.
The "Contact Us" form isn't the only way to reach OIIT Customer Services for GALILEO issues. The HelpDesk is available from 8:00
seven days a week, and get a response immediately.
A few years ago, Jayne and Ken sold their Statesboro home and made Hilton Head their "official residence." We had been hoping to have our GALILEO Meetings there, but she would just laugh and give us that great big smile and head out to Hilton Head without us. We got over it because we knew she'd be back in Atlanta soon or would be available by e-mail. I don't know that we will get over her leaving for good, but she has sworn that she will come back and haunt everyone who doesn't do GALILEO justice. I do know we will miss her terribly.
am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, at 888-875-3697 or helpdesk@usg.edu, and you can find the HelpDesk online at http://www.usg.edu/ customer_services/. The next time you have a question about GALILEO, try any of these avenues to get in touch--we're sure you'll get the help you need.
GALILEO Planet Page 6
ERIC in GALILEO
by Karen Minton, GALILEO Virtual Services Librarian
What is ERIC?
ERIC (Educational Resources
Information Center) is a
database funded by the U.S.
Department of Education. It
provides more than a million
bibliographic citations and
abstracts of professional
journal articles, research-
related documents, curriculum
guides, digests, and other
materials related to all fields
of education, including
libraries.
ERIC is available on
the Web, but it is also made
available freely to GALILEO
users through various
vendors. EBSCOhost,
FirstSearch, Cambridge
Scientific Abstracts, and
AskERIC
(http://
www.askeric.org/) all offer the
ERIC database with their
native interfaces. The
database is the same in all
these versions; only the
search interface differs.
All ERIC records
begin with an accession
number that will have the
letters EJ or ED at the start:
EJ637512 ED464120
"EJ" represents records for journal articles. "ED" represents records for non-journal documents, such as research and technical reports, conference papers, teaching guides, books, and theses. When you search the ERIC database, you are searching both the journals (EJ) and documents (ED) at the same time.
includes a link from the ERIC citation to the ASP full-text article.
ERIC Documents (ED)
ERIC documents (ED numbers) are available on microfiche in an ERIC Resource Collection in many libraries. If your library does not house this microfiche collection, you can locate a library near you that does in the online directory at http:// oeri4.ed.gov/BASISDB/EROD/ eric/SF. Some libraries also subscribe to E*Subscribe, which grants electronic access to some ERIC documents.
Who Uses ERIC? ERIC is often
perceived as a research resource for education students; however, information in ERIC is useful to a much larger population. Certainly education students, both undergraduate and graduate students, find essential information in ERIC. It is also appropriate for librarians and media specialists, teachers, and administrators. Teachers working on their graduate degrees, librarians looking for program ideas or statistics, and teachers looking for lesson plans can all find help in ERIC.
Sample Searches
Search One In the EBSCOhost
ERIC basic search screen, type "galileo" in the search box. In the results list, find Helping Students Use Virtual Libraries Effectivelyby Mary Ann Fitzgerald.
ERIC Journal Articles (EJ)
The ERIC database does not include the full text of either journal articles or documents; however some full-text journal articles are found in EBSCO. For example, Academic Search Premier carries many full-text education-related journals. If an article cited in ERIC is from one of those journals, EBSCO
1. Click on the "Linked Full Text" link. This will retrieve the full-text article from Academic Search Premier.
2. Click on the title of the article. This wll take you to the ERIC citatio screen, which includes fieldsnot found in other journalcitation screens. One important field in the citation is the escriptors field. ERIC uses a controlled vocabulary of
descriptors that are useful in focusing a search. A searchable thesaurus of descriptors is available by clicking the Thesaurus button in the green bar.
Search Two In the EBSCOhost
ERIC basic search screen, type "norm referenced tests" in the search box. In the results list, find A State Perspective on Multiple Measures in School Accountability by William D. Schafer (ED464120).
1. Click on "Full text from EDRS." This will take you to an order form at ERIC Document Reproduction Service where the document can be purchased. Remember that a library close to you has the document available in their microfiche collection. Also the document may be available through interlibrary loan.
2. Click on the title of the document. This will take you to the ERIC citation and abstract. Here you will find that this is an eight-page conference paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education in 2002.
For more information about ERIC, visit the ACCESS ERIC Frequently Asked Questions page at http:// eric.ed.gov/faq/faq.html .
OED
Online
Updates
The Oxford University Press publishes quarterly updates for the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary at www.oed.com. The OED Online is available through GALILEO to University System of Georgia institutions and Georgia's technical colleges.
DOE
Educational
Technology &
Media Newsletter
The Georgia Department of Education's Educational Technology and Media division produces a monthly newsletter containing information of interest to GALILEO's K-12 user community. To view the newsletter, visit the following URL: http://techservices. doe.k12.ga.us/edtech/
("EBSCO," from page 2) ProQuest databases. To find ProQuest embargo periods, go to the ProQuest Title Lists at http://www.il.proquest.com/tls/ jsp/list/tlsSearch.jsp and search by database or subject. For EBSCO embargo periods, select the "Choose Databases" tab on the EBSCO search screen, and then select the "Title List" link by the specific database; information on embargo periods will be included in the journal description.
GALILEO's Electronic Collection Development Subcommittee met on January 17, 2003, in McDonough at the Henry County Public Library to review presentations from both EBSCO and ProQuest; recommendations were then presented to the GALILEO Steering Committee.
Although no decisions about either EBSCO or ProQuest have yet been made, GALILEO librarians and users should be prepared in case a reduction in database offerings is deemed necessary. Options could include the entire suite of either ProQuest or EBSCO or certain databases from both aggregators.
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Database Spotlight:
SIRS Discoverer and Searchasaurus
by Karen Minton, GALILEO Virtual Services Librarian
SIRS Discoverer and
Searchasaurus are both great
databases for elementary and
middle school students. You can
access both through the
GALILEO
kids' page (kids.galileo.usg.edu)
or through the regular GALILEO
site (www.galileo.usg.edu).
SIRS Discoverer
features a database of articles
digested from more than 1600
journals,
newspapers,
government documents, and
other sources. Titles of these
sources range from Cricket to
Consumer Reports for Kids to
the Atlanta Journal and
Constitution. Keep in mind that
SIRS does not try to offer the text
of the entire periodical, but
selects appropriate articles to
include in the database.
Government documents in SIRS
include Safety Tips for
Hurricanes from the Federal
Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA), Outline of the
History of Fingerprinting from the
FBI, Descriptions of U.S. Cabinet
Departments from the U.S.
Information Agency.
SIRS
includes
additional content in the form of
a Country Facts collection of
information on countries,
including population statistics,
government information, and
history; a Biographies collection,
which includes presidents, world
leaders, historical figures,
athletes, and more; and a
Current Events collection of
articles selected for their timely
information concerning domestic
and international events. The
Maps of the World collection is
a great tool for librarians, as well
as kids. It contains over 300 full-
color maps of states, countries,
and regions of the world in a
printable PDF or GIF format.
Searchasaurus is
EBSCOhost's kids' database.
Within the Searchasaurus
interface are Primary Search for
elementary school students and
Middle Search Plus for middle
school students. Each of these
is a separate article database
filled with articles from separate
title lists. Content in each of
these databases is age-
appropriate for the intended
audience, as are the reading
levels in each. Journal titles
include kids' magazines, such as
Humpty Dumpty's Magazine in
Primary Search and Science
News in Middle Search Plus.
Middle Search Plus also
contains many adult magazines
that appeal to kids, such as
Smithsonian and Soccer Digest.
EBSCO databases include the
full text or abstracts from most
of a journal issue, rather than a
selection of articles from an
issue, as is included in SIRS
Discoverer.
Included
in
Searchasaurus title lists are also
many full-text books. These titles
include Events & People of
African American History, Kid's
View of Colonial America, and
World Almanac & Book of Facts.
The World Almanac & Book of
Facts is also available in SIRS
Discover as a separate
searchable feature.
A neat feature in both
SIRS Discoverer and
Searchasaurus is the picture
collection. Kids and librarians
continually need pictures for
school reports, science projects,
and just for satisfying curiosity.
Publication Information
The GALILEO Planet is published quarterly as a web-based newsletter reporting on GALILEO-related information.
Suggestions and contributions are encouraged.
E-mail: galileo.planet@usg.edu Website: http://www.usg.edu/galileo/news.phtml
GALILEO is an Initiative of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
The picture collections include portraits, diagrams, paintings, current events photographs, maps, and more. Recent searches turned up images of the Parthenon, a poison dart frog, a Baobab tree, Shakespeare, historical maps of Israel and Palestine, and a diagram on how a volcano works.
Both databases assign reading levels to articles. SIRS Discoverer articles are assigned a reading level - Easy, Moderate, or Challenging - based on ageappropriateness, educational content, interest, and level of readability. Searchasaurus uses Lexile codes. The Lexile Measure is a number indicating the reading demand of the text in terms of vocabulary and sentence length. In both SIRS Discoverer and Searchasaurus databases, searches can be limited by reading level.
Just because these are kids' databases, don't think you won't learn anything from the tutorials. Colorful tutorials are featured in both databases. SIRS also offers student workbooks and an Educator's Guide in printable PDF format.
SIRS Discoverer and Searchasaurus are great for kids, teachers and librarians, ESL students, literacy students, and education majors.
("Historic," from page 5) Survey and Historic American Engineering Record. Other features of the site are essays on Owens' and Linley's role in landscape and architecture in the state, a brief history of architectural styles in Georgia, a bibliography, and a list of related links. By June the database will grow to 1,500 images.
To access Historic Landscapes and Architecture, go to this URL, http:// www.galileo.usg.edu/ express?action=link&link=larc, and see how Georgians influenced their physical environment and how it influenced them.
Meet the Staff!
Jeanette Morgan
Jeanette Morgan is the Digital Project Manager of the "Vanishing Georgia" database, a collection of photographs that are part of the Georgia HomePLACE project. Located in the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) at the University of Georgia's main library, Jeanette worked on various DLG projects before beginning her current role in April 2002. The "Vanishing Georgia" collection, housed in the Georgia Division of Archives and History, includes over 1,800 photographs taken between 1977 and 1996 through the Vanishing Georgia Heritage Photography Project. The photographs document the economic, social, cultural, and political history of Georgia.
Jeanette is excited to be a part of the Vanishing Georgia project. "The best thing about this job is working with this amazing collection. Every day is a process of discovery as layers of history reveal themselves and stories unfold. And the completion of this project would not be possible without the tremendous support of my coworker Mary Willoughby and the assistance of our student workforce. I have been amazed by the dedication and hard work the students have put into this so far."
GALILEO Planet Page 8