So you like being "in the know" and reading SUNLINK announcements, but you're not into RSS feeds yet and you sometimes forget to visit the announcements page every day.

Don't want to miss anything? Subscribe to SUNLINK announcements via email! Just go to the SUNLINK Announcements page at http://www.sunlinkannouncements.blogspot.com and enter your email address in the field at the top of the right hand column. Then complete the registration process by replying to an email sent to you, and you'll start receiving notice of the announcements as they are posted!!

The fastest and most efficient way to do SUNLINK interlibrary loans (ILL) is with a SUNLINK e-ILL account! (And now it's even easier to manage because all interlibrary loan requests come directly to your school (or district) email account.) With a couple of clicks of the mouse, you can request to borrow an item in SUNLINK. To see how easy it is to use this SUNLINK feature, go to: http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/e-ill/eill2.html. If you're interested in using email to speed up your interlibrary loan requests, simply apply online: http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/e-ill/apply.html. You can apply at any time since application deadlines have been eliminated.

Watch your mail for the annual ILL statistics reminder form that has just been mailed to all SUNLINK schools. It has your school name and district printed at the top of the form. Please transfer your ILL statistics for the 2005-2006 school year from your work form (sent in September, 2005) to this final form. Return the completed form to the SUNLINK office by faxing it to the toll-free fax number listed on the form or by mailing it to the address listed on the form by the due date of June 1, 2006. Thank you for your cooperation!

SUNLINK training will be available in the Florida panhandle in April!

Training will be offered in Holmes County on April 26, Gulf County on April 27, and Leon County on April 28. Specific times and locations will be announced soon. This training is in collaboration with FLA (The Florida Learning Alliance) and PAEC (The Panhandle Area Educational Consortium).

(Heartland and NEFEC Consortium training dates are pending. Contact your consortium office for more information.)

Q. Why would library media specialists at schools in these districts want to attend SUNLINK training?

A. Because ALL Florida K-12 public schools are now SUNLINK schools! Library media specialists attending this training will learn about all the free SUNLINK features for them as well as features for their students and staff.

These SUNLINK features include:

• Portal pages for media specialists, teachers, students, parents, and principals
• MARC record download (get your free account!)
• Cataloged web sites (over 23,000 curriculum related sites now available)
• Searchable reading and interest level information for Accelerated Reader, Reading Counts, the Lexile framework, or general reading and interest level
• Bibliography builder
• Materials to support the FINDS research model
• Interlibrary Loan via SUNLINK
• Weed of the Month Archive
• Age of Collection feature
• Free online education for in-service points
• Message boards for Florida library media specialists via the SUNLINK Community
• QuickFlix movies tutorials on SUNLINK features
• Free promotional and instructional materials available through the eStore
• Announcements of interest to Florida’s school library media specialists to keep them "in the know!"

We are preparing a searchable database of the 500 titles with the most holdings in SUNLINK. Do you know what title has the most holdings? Do you know how many holdings the top title has? See SUNLINK Announcements at http://www.sunlinkannouncements.blogspot.com for a chance to win a few titles for your media center for the best guesses. The deadline has been extended to April 15.

The Executive Board of the Florida Library Association has extended a special invitation to members of FAME to participate in the upcoming FLA annual conference. FAME members who are not also members of FLA will receive the FLA member discount--simply select the FAME member option when registering. Information on the conference, which will be at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel near Downtown Disney in Orlando, is available at the FLA web site (http://www.flalib.org/). If you can't make the whole event, plan to come for a day and pay the one-day rate. April 18 is the preconference day and April 19-21 are the general conference days.

This year's theme is "Better Together." John Prevosk of the SUNLINK Staff will be talking about how SUNLINK can be used in the public library to help students after school hours--offering a great opportunity for you to partner with your public library. Indeed we are "Better Together!"

Are you new to Florida? Are you a new school library media specialist? Are you new to a SUNLINK school? Or maybe you're one of the Florida schools whose partial collection is now on SUNLINK by automatic vendor transfer? In any case, the current issue of Florida Media Quarterly (Winter 2005) has information you need! "SUNLINK: The Answer to Newbie Anxiety" by John Prevosk is part 1 of 2 articles designed to help acquaint you with SUNLINK and its inner workings. Still have questions? Email us (sunlink@firn.edu) or give us a call (1-800-226-0085). And welcome to SUNLINK!

http://sunlink.groupee.net/groupee

SUNLINK has established the SUNLINK Community as a virtual meeting place for Florida's school library media specialists (and media specialists-to-be) to share news and lesson plans, ask questions and exchange ideas. Although SUNLINK is one topic, there are discussions about professional development, collaborating with teachers, information literacy, reading, administration, and more.

You can always see the titles of the most recent posts on the SUNLINK Media Specialist portal page next to the SUNLINK site map (http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/mediaspecialists/). You can also learn more about the SUNLINK Community and some tips and tricks for using it in the article in the Winter 2005 issue of FMQ: "What Kind of Community Member Are You?"

It's your community! Be an active member! We don’t want a ghost town!