May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, so here’s your excuse to get out and enjoy the great weather!

If you need ideas or tips to get you started in the right direction, GALILEO offers access to the full text of several popular sports and fitness magazines, such as Sports Illustrated, Men’s Fitness, Running and FitNews, and Shape, and it also includes some publications for those more serious about exercise, such as American Fitness, Bicycling, DIRTSports, Joe Weidner’s Muscle and Fitness, Swimming World, and Runner’s World. Just go to Magazines A-Z to search for these or magazines that you like. If you want to know when a new issue is added, you can set up a journal alert.

In addition to the magazines, you can find many more articles, fact sheets, and more in several databases, such as MasterFILE Premier, Consumer Health Complete, or Research Library. Just search physical fitness, sports, or exercise in these or other databases listed in the Exercise subject area of GALILEO. If you have a particular topic that you like, you can set up a search alert so that you will receive emails when an article about your topic is added.

Some links may not work off site. Log in to GALILEO first for access.

Image from Encyclopædia Britannica

HeritageQuest Online now includes over 7,000 titles from the American Antiquarian Society bringing the total number of genealogy and local history books to over 28,000.

To see digitized images of these books, go to HeritageQuest Online and click on Search Books to find genealogies and local histories.

National Train Day is coming up on May 12th. We thought this would be an excellent excuse to show off all things train-related in GALILEO.

The railroad was an influential part of Georgia’s history. For a review of the expansion and decline of the railroad in Georgia, take a look at the Railroads article in the New Georgia Encyclopedia. You can even find out how the origin of Atlanta is connected to the railroad. For a lot of wonderful historical images, take a look at all the trains in Digital Library of Georgia.

History Reference Center offers articles, images, and videos on the history of the railroad, including how the development of railroads impacted the West and how they took the “Wild” out of it. Annals of American History offers a first-hand perspective of the railroads in America with letters, government documents, and other primary sources, including this letter describing the birth and explosive growth of the railroad towns that would spring up around the rail lines.

For a deeper look at train cars, rails, and the operation of them, take a look at the Railroad article in Encyclopædia Britannica.

Some links may not work off site. Log in to GALILEO first for access.

Image from the Vanishing Georgia collection in the Digital Library of Georgia

HeritageQuest Online now includes a Learning Center with over sixty genealogy training videos and slide presentations for users. Beginner researchers will find videos to help them get started in genealogy research, and intermediate and advanced users will find information on many topics, such as conducting courthouse research, finding military records, using church records for genealogy, searching newspapers, and much more.

To access these training videos and presentations, go to HeritageQuest Online and choose any of the sections (e.g., Search Census, Search Books, etc.). Look for the Learning Center link at the top of the screen.

Although summer is just around the corner, there are still plenty of spring vegetables to be savored. If you’re looking for fresh ideas to make the most of them, GALILEO resources have plenty of appetizing recipes for a delicious meal.

Just go to MasterFILE Premier or Research Library and search for recipes and the veggie of your choice. You can find recipes for delectable in-season veggies, such as tasty artichokes, yummy asparagus, earthy beets, zesty radishes, crispy lettuce, and sweet, snappy peas.

Image from Encyclopædia Britannica

Some links may not work off site. Log in to GALILEO first for access.

Vidalia onions are in season now. Ever wondered what makes an onion a Vidalia onion? Find out in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Image from the New Georgia Encyclopedia

NASA Images, a collection of images from Earth, the solar system, and more, is now available through GALILEO. More information is included below.

Express Link: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=nasa

NASA Images was created through a partnership between NASA and the Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library based in San Francisco, to bring public access to NASA’s image, video, and audio collections in a single, searchable resource. The site includes classic photos, educational programming, high-definition video, and more. New and archived media from all of NASA’s centers are continually being added.

If you have any questions or need more information, please use the GALILEO Contact Us form or contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@usg.edu or 1-888-875-3697.

If you’re looking for a poem for Poem in Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 26, 2012 (that’s tomorrow!), here’s a quick tip for finding poems. In Literary Reference Center, go to Advanced Search and type “poem” in the search field (or a topic that you like) and then limit your search to Poem in the Document Types section. Click the Search button, and you have thousands of poems at your fingertips.

Image from Poem in Your Pocket Day site

American Memory from the Library of Congress, a collection of primary sources including images, maps, sound recordings, and more, is now available through GALILEO. More information is included below.

Express Link: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=amem

American Memory from the Library of Congress is a gateway to the Library of Congress’s vast resources of digitized American historical materials. Comprising more than 9 million items that document U.S. history and culture, American Memory is organized into more than 100 thematic collections based on their original format, their subject matter, or who first created, assembled, or donated them to the Library.

The original formats include manuscripts, prints, photographs, posters, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, books, pamphlets, and sheet music. Each online collection is accompanied by a set of explanatory features designed to make the materials easy to find, use, and understand.

If you have any questions or need more information, please use the GALILEO Contact Us form or contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@usg.edu or 1-888-875-3697.

A new interface for History Reference Center is now available in GALILEO. Users can now browse subjects and popular resources as well as searching for historical topics. To limit to a time period or a Lexile reading level range, click the Advanced Search.

If you would like to link to the new interface on your library or media center site, here is the new GALILEO Express Link for History Reference Center: http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbht

Users can also access History Reference Center articles through the EBSCOhost interface by choosing History Reference Center (EBSCOhost) from the Databases A-Z list.

If you have any questions or need more information, please use the GALILEO Contact Us form or contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@usg.edu or 1-888-875-3697.