SLS Weekly Reader

Happy New Year! I think many of us will look back at 2016 as a year of challenges, celebrations and changes, especially as we think in terms of education and politics. At SLS, we have certainly had our share of all three. We’ve added two new team members, Marina and Andrea, who have brought a great deal of knowledge and new ideas! We’ve introduced a new Union Catalog that had a bumpy start but is well on the way of becoming a great asset to our region. We’ve had some districts pilot and switch to new automation systems. We are seeing a tremendous amount of growth in the usage of eBooks particularily with OverDrive. We’ve taken over the MediaConnect service and look forward to adding more content for the 2017-18 school year. The Mobile Maker Labs are continuously being used in our schools and we just received resources to create five more labs. Our Mentors Across Borders and our Bridging the Gap programs continue to grow thanks to the passion and dedication of so many of our school librarians. We have much to be grateful for and to be proud of so as I reflect on 2016 and look forward to the new year, I’m going to share with you my word to live by for 2017. I’ve chosen “possible” as I truly believe that with great passion, dedication and a great team, anything is possible! What word would you choose?

From the Desk of Allie Comes:

Chrome Tips and Tricks

Force the user to make a copy:
If you are navigating the students to a template or a Google Doc that you want them to put on their own Drive and you wish for them to copy, all you have to do is edit the URL! Remove the /edit at the end of a Google Apps URL and change it to /copy.

Example:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/
1tbv3ZkQoBCnULsCbvZd7qI3y7Hqj4
nzK1PO6iF2bvGg/edit

Should become:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/
1tbv3ZkQoBCnULsCbvZd7qI3y7Hqj4
nzK1PO6iF2bvGg/copy

Managing multiple Google Accounts:

This video from Kasey Bell over at Shake Up Learning shows you the benefits of using multiple Google Profiles and the time it can save you! Looking for a way to easily distinguish between the two? Try using themes.

Like to use keyboard short-cuts? There are a number that work well in Chrome:

For Windows:

Ctrl+Tab Toggles between open Chrome Tabs
Ctrl+T Opens a new tab
Ctrl+Shift+B Toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.
Ctrl+H Opens the History page.
Ctrl+J Opens the Downloads page.
Ctrl+Shift+Esc Opens the Task Manager.
Ctrl+Shift+M Switch between multiple users.

For additional resources regarding Google Apps for Education try out these sources:

Kasey Bell- Shakeup Learning
Alice Keeler
EdtechNut's Google Guides- Kelly Fitzgerald
Control Alt Achieve- Eric Curt’s Phenomenal Website of Google and More!
Teacher's Tech

The NYS Education Department is currently accepting applications for the 2017 New York State Summer School of the Arts. I’m sure you have many talented students that should apply!

Don’t forget about the New York State Archives Student Research Awards! If you didn’t get a poster for your library, let Mary Ann know and she’ll send you one. You can also print one off along with the applications and guidelines by visiting the NYS Archives website.

Did you read the 10 most viewed Education Week stories in 2016? You can find them all here!

From the Desk of Allie Comes:

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