Election 2008 Resources

Election Resources


Hello. The 2008 Presidential Elections are fast approaching. Here in Georgia, we will vote in federal and state primaries on July 15th.
You have probably been inundated with news about the elections on television and on the radio. Need we even mention the various ads on television, radio, and now even the web.
Here are some resources related to the upcoming 2008 Elections:
Okay, first are links to local county election boards and government sites. Also included is a link to the Elections Division of the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State.
Cobb County Board of Elections
Bartow County Board of Elections
Paulding County Government-Elections Section
Cherokee County Elections and Registration
Elections Division of the Georgia Secretary of State

This next link is to a website/blog with really detailed information. It is called electoral-vote.com. This is a very well maintained website and is almost always updated daily. The key feature of this site is that the lead graphic is a map of the United States. Based on the most current polling data for each state, the particular state is shaded a degree of either red or blue. For instance, a dark blue state would mean that the state has currently polled very strong for Obama, and a dark red state would mean the opposite in favor of McCain. The colors of the states change as new polls for the state are reported. A running tally of electoral votes for each candidate is kept as new polls come in. Moving your mouse over a state you are interested in will give you even more detailed information. The website also keeps a close tab on US Senate races that are consider competitive. The website watches US House of Representative races that are competitive, though less attention is paid to these since there are so many to keep an eye on.
Electoral-Vote.com

Our next site is one that is of historical interest. This is a massive archive of results from previous Presidential elections. You may access results from these past elections in both graphical and statistical form. Results may be further broken down by state and in most cases even by county level. It should be noted that some information on this site requires a fee. Also, the author of this site reverses the red state/blue state color scheme by assigning blue to Republicans and red to Democrats.
Dave's Presidential Election Atlas

This site is a general political news site that is frequently updated. This site also provides polling data for Presidential, Gubernatorial (governor), and Congressional races. Interestingly, this site did a very clever NCAA bracket style mock tournament where users picked the Vice Presidents for both parties. The tournament featured head to head matchups of potential VPs over several weeks just like the NCAA’s. Users voting in the Republican bracket eventually picked former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as their choice for McCain’s VP and users participating in the Democratic side picked General Wesley Clark as their favorite for Obama’s VP choice.
CQPolitics
National Public Radio is public radio news service. However, they cover political stories and elections both on air and via their website. On the website you can find web articles about elections, and also listen to podcasts of related news segments.
NPR

This site is run by Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. However, the site is not updated as frequently as some others. Still has some good information though.
Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball

The following websites also explores political leanings and election predicitions. However, you have to pay for a good portion of the information.
The Rothenberg Political Report
the Cook Political Report


JF

Are we there yet?

Must be the season to look for relatives online. Dear Myrtle had "Kendall Hulet from Ancestry.com to discuss the New Ancestry.com Search options" on her podcast.

Notice in the screen shot below, Ol' Myrt has only typed in the name William, but Ancestry's computers are already working hard by comparing this with other known men by the name of William on my family tree. In this example, I was planning to research William Gist Froman (A) but if I wished to work on a client's family, I could change the tree Ancestry will search by clicking the down arrow button at (B) below. The "Advanced" button Kendall explains during this interview is shown at (C) below. If I wish to save data entry time, I can merely click the William Gist From on the list, and his birth and death info will be inserted in the new Ancestry.com search screen automatically. This certainly speeds up research time. For more info about Ancestry's new search capabilities, take the tour.

Georgia library users may access Ancestry.com at their Georgia public library. NMTC students may access Ancestry.com on campus!

You may wonder why a college student would use Ancestry? Yes, they might be doing Family Research but that's not likely. I showed the Nursing students how they could look up famous nurses in the census and note siblings, parents, neighbors. They were intrigued! It also would be helpful in American History projects - to add a touch of primary sources to the bibliography.

No need for the password to access Ancestry through GALILEO - it's only available at the library.

-kls

Search tips

Lots of folks need hints and tips on how to use a database (this is what librarians teach). Diane Haddad at the Genealogy Insider provides a few tips on searching the genealogy databases. I wonder if she's a librarian. She comments on Ancestry.com, which is available on campus through GALILEO

• Use One-Step Search Tools, which offer more-flexible searching of several databases in Ancestry.com [available on campus only-kls], Footnote, EllisIsland.org and other sites (to view results from a fee-based site, you need a subscription to the site). For example, the One-Step tools might let you search on a name fragment, more year ranges, or more combinations of terms.

NMTC students may get the current password via the Student E-mail login. All other Georgia residents may acquire the current GALILEO password from their Georgia librarian.

-kls

Now we are two!

The View has gained another perspective. The second librarian hired by North Metro Tech will begin adding his two cents about what it looks like from our front desk. Stay tuned for his first entry.

I'll bet you'll be able to tell us apart.

-kls (we'll add our initials in case you can't differentiate our styles)

Who has the book?

Mentioned before- but very worthwhile is the World Cat public site. This site helps you find the nearest library that owns the book you'd like to read.

Use your public library to test the worth of a book before you hit Amazon (not that I have anything against buying a book but when your library has it for you to borrow)- and they dust it and shelve it and.....well, I'm partial to using the library resources. If your library doesn't own the book you want to read - they can borrow it through Inter Library Loan!

Now's the time to wander through your library and borrow the treasures your taxes have paid for!

More suggestions

Everyone (well, lots of folks) have suggestions on what to read during the "lazy, hazy days of summer" - even The Wall Street Journal

Thanks to Sarah Hey at Stand Firm for pointing out the Wall Street Journal site.

See, everyone does have suggestions on what to read!

Still judging

Must be the start of summer- the numerous ways to judge a book are presenting themselves in a variety of locations. Just a bit ago I wrote about Zoomii and the ability to judge a book by its cover. Now, I've read useful hints and tips on judging a book from a conference participant who has had the chance to observe users selecting a book ....

The most common method is to pick up the book, look at the spine and/or cover title, check the index for a specific item, and then check for the price. I’d like to share a strategy to approach a new title that will enable you to use it more effectively...

Carolyn Barkley offers examples of why the initial approach may not work. She concludes her blog entry with

A thorough examination of a new resource is essential to its effective and efficient use. Consult the title page; don’t rely solely on the information on the spine or cover. Look at the table of contents to understand the organization of the content. Thoroughly read the introduction and/or preface to gain an understanding of the scope of the book as well as find the tips the author may provide about how to best use the resource. Consider the index carefully to understand what is being indexed and how the index entries relate to the text. I guarantee you’ll be able to put the information in the source to much better use.

I wonder if she's a librarian at heart?

Judging a book

A post on LM_NET suggested trying Zoomii. From the about section:

Why Zoomii?

"Because I love bookstores. Spending afternoons wandering the shelves. Happening across great books I didn't even know existed. But it's an experience I never found online. Online bookstores are wonderful. They've got amazing prices, huge selections, and they're open all the time. If you know exactly what you want, they're perfect. But somehow I kept coming back to the bookstore just to browse. Zoomii is my attempt to bring online as much of the real bookstore experience as possible.
-Chris Thiessen"

You have the option of a Canadian or an American version (look for the flag) - they tell you it works slowly with the new FireFox 3.0 but I didn't find any glitches. It is like browsing a book store with the covers in rows and shelf after shelf of titles. If you like browsing this might be the site for you!

Look, look

I'm catching up on reading the feeds of genealogy blogs. Yes, I enjoy the search, must be why I'm a librarian. Dick Eastman notes a graphical search engine that is in beta testing. It is pretty.

I've added this to my list of 40 search engines. Though I admit, I fall back on Google for my default search strategy.

Yes, "the search" is a large part of the fun.

Wild Thing

I did add an iRead app to the Library MySpace. It's an easy way to share what I like and what I'm reading. After 17 years in the K-12 environment, I'm quite fond of Children's Literature. The brevity, the clarity, and the illustrations keep my attention.

I'm going to add Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" to my list of books read!

Which brings me to the Britannica Blog entry by Greg McNamee in honor of the 45th anniversary of the book, "Where the Wild Things Are" and the 80th birthday of the author, Maurice Sendak.

Gnashing of teeth, rolling of eyes, but a warm meal upon arrival home. There's love for ya!

Ten days

Time flies when you're having fun.

It has been ten days since I shared. What in the world have I been doing? There has been the end of fiscal year inventory of AV materials, the spending of end of year money, the cataloging of materials found in offices, moving computers and phones in preparation of the new Librarians arrival!

And that's the best part of time flying.

The second librarian will be joining NMTC on July 1st. He has aready expressed interest in talking about his "View from the Library".

I'm looking forward to the pace of summer and the addition of another librarian!

Just the facts, Ma'am, just the facts

Genealogy is my hobby. I look for "proof" of a relationship in wills, deeds, church records, cemeteries, and old newspapers. Germaine Greer has done a remarkable job in "proving" the relationship of Ann Hathaway and William Shakespeare in "Shakespeare's Wife" [PR 2906 G74 2007].

From Ebscohost a review in Maclean's; 4/14/2008, Vol. 121 Issue 14, p80-80, 8/9p, 1c by Brian Bethune

Greer, 69, who in her day job is an academic expert in early modern English literature, waded through a mountain of poetry, plays, local court records and Tudor history.

That's what intrigued me - the noting of legitimate sources to prove the relationship. Genealogists use a "preponderance of evidence" from verifiable resources to tie people and places together. This is what Germaine Greer has done so well- used verifiable sources (and noted them) to show a better picture of Shakespeare's wife!

Wikipedia vs the others

The RSS feeds from library bloggers inspire, push and amaze me. Today I was introduced by The LibrarianInBlack to Digital Reference written by Stephen Francouer. I have added Digital Reference to my feeds.

Perusing past entries in Digital Reference, I came across a series of posts (see May 5) comparing Wikipedia to three subscription online resources.

"While most of the topics were covered in all four sources, I found it interesting which sources had a main entry on the topic vs. which ones covered the topic in some other entry. For all but two topics, Wikipedia had a separate entry on each topic. This is not surprising, given that in Wikipedia, which is born digital, there is all the space in the world for yet another page, while the other three sources are all born in print, where each additional page added means greater printing costs."

A podcast on the topic of small library marketing suggested creating ones own Wikpipedia entry for the library. I went to look at Wikipedia to do that for my library. I was surprised at the policies on verifiability and original research.

At this point Wikipedia doesn't exude the cachet of authority of a subscription resource like Encyclopedia Britannica. That shady reputation may be coming to an end as more articles in Wikipedia are footnoted with verifiable sources.

And the answers are....

1. Whom was Memorial Day originally intended to honor?
.....Memorial Day originally honored Civil War soldiers.

2. In what year did Memorial Day become an official holiday?
.....Memorial Day became an official holiday in 1971

3. Which city was the first to celebrate Memorial Day?
.....Residents of Waterloo, N.Y. were the first to proclaim a day to honor deceased soldiers on May 5, 1866

4. What was Memorial Day originally called?
......Memorial Day was originally called "Decoration Day" because of the practice of decorating soldiers graves.

5. In what year did "The Star Spangled Banner" become the national anthem?
......Francis Scott Key's "The Star Spangled Banner" became the national anthem in 1931.


Thank you to the Daughters of the American Revolution for posting the questions (and answers) in their magazine "American Spirit" May/June 2008, pg 10,12

Honor the memory

Flags are flying, cemeteries have been decorated, let us remember and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us.

The Daughters of the American Revolution, the largest womens service group in the country, was founded to honor and remember the first Patriots. "The American Spirit" is the award winning DAR magazine published 6 times a year.

The current issue has a quick quiz for Memorial Day:

1 Whom was Memorial Day originally intended to honor?
2. In what year did Memorial Day become an official holiday?
3. Which city was the first to celebrate Memorial Day?
5. In what year did "The Star Spangled Banner" become the national anthem?

I'll post the answers tomorrow but I'll bet you can find the answers through Encyclopedia Britannica in GALILEO.

Let us not forget.......

What was its name?

Do you ever wonder what a poem or story was called?

You can describe the plot, the characters - even come up with the ending...but you can't think of the title or the author so how can you find the book (or poem) at your library?

The Library of Congress has created a tip sheet with suggestions for finding that elusive title.

Fortunately, several of the resources they suggest are available to you through GALILEO. This list may help you remember the name of that favorite story!

- Book Collection Non-Fiction a cross-curricular research database that contains abstracts and searchable full text for more than 3,800 popular nonfiction books for youth on core subject areas, as well as information on careers, health, sports, adventure, technology, life skills, and more.
- Book Index with Reviews is a comprehensive database that provides information on over 3.8 million book titles in a wide range of formats, including large print and books on tape.
- Georgia Cat a customized, union catalog of Georgia Public Library System's bibliographic records. GeorgiaCat includes the records from the collections of all Georgia public libraries that have added their holdings to WorldCat.
-LION full-text library of over 330,000 works of British and American poetry, drama and prose.
- NoveList an online readers' advisory tool that helps readers find new books based on books they've read or on topics in which they are interested.

There are tools to help you "remember" that title!

Reading not Listening

This tip was picked up in conversation with a librarian while attending AABIG (Atlanta Area Bibliographic Instruction Group) at GSU. I had no idea I could do this.....if you open your e-mail and enter a cell-phone-number@teleflip.com as the e-mail address, then type your message, and hit send - it will deliver a text message to that cell phone number (fairly quickly)!

Quite handy if you want to send a text message to someones cell phone from your e-mail (especially if you know they need info but not conversation and your text messaging skills are rusty - or non-existent)

The caveat - and of course, there is always a caveat - my test message (I sent one to my cell phone as a test) came through twice- then I received a text message from teleflip offering me their online service. If your recipient pays to receive a text message - they won't be amused- or pleased.

Still - what a handy tool. I'll bet it could be used to share reference information....

Another reason to attend conferences- chatting with participants leads to revelations of "new to you" resources.

Click, click, click

I've started taking pictures in the library, posting them in the digital frame at the circulation desk and today....I uploaded two batches to Flickr.

Organizing the photos in "sets" is easy. My "free" account allows me three sets. I'm going for People, Places, and Things. I'll see if I can purchase a Pro Account with next years budget. It's not too pricey and it would allow me to organize the pictures in more sets. I could do award winners, events, class materials.......it could become a visual del.icio.us!

The circle grows

Thanks to Gerry McKiernan on the ili (Information Literacy / ALA) list for sharing this information that Gerry gleaned from Bernie Sloan:

OCLC and Google to exchange data, link digitized books to WorldCat DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 19 May 2008-OCLC and Google Inc. have signed an agreement to exchange data that will facilitate the discovery of library collections through Google search services.

Under terms of the agreement, OCLC member libraries participating in the Google Book Search* program, which makes the full text of more than one million books searchable, may share their WorldCat-derived MARC records with Google to better facilitate discovery of library collections through Google.

Google will link from Google Book Search to WorldCat.org, which will drive traffic to library OPACs and other library services. Google will share data and links to digitized books with OCLC, which will make it possible for OCLC to represent the digitized collections of OCLC member libraries in WorldCat.

[snip]

WorldCat metadata will be made available to Google directly from OCLC or through member libraries participating in the Google Book Search program.

Google recently released an API that provides links to books in Google Book Search using ISBNs, LCCNs and OCLC numbers. This API allows WorldCat.org users to link to some books that Google has scanned through a *Get It* link. The link works both ways. If a user finds a book in Google Book Search, a link can often be tracked back to local libraries through WorldCat.org.

The new agreement enables OCLC to create MARC records describing the Google digitized books from OCLC member libraries and to link to them.
These linking arrangements should help drive more traffic to libraries, both online and in person.

[snip]

The new agreement between OCLC and Google is the latest in several partnerships between the two designed to increase the visibility of libraries on the Web and deliver information to users at the point of need. OCLC will be working with other organizations to include digitized content in WorldCat in the months to come.

[snip]

[ http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/200811.htm ]

Gerry notes - "Thanks to Bernie Sloan for the HeadsUp! "

We keep sharing and sharing and sharing!

Does durable mean what you think it means?

When a database vendor notes a "durable" link, what does that mean?
The American Heritage Dictionary (available through Credo) defines durable as Lasting; stable
The Collins Dictionary (available through Credo) defines durable as Long-lasting; enduring.

LION offers a durable URL link to the information available - poems, etc. LION notes you may post the link in an e-mail or document. The implication is one may send the link and the recipient will be able to click on the link to access the LION document.

The durable link remains durable in the sense I think of "durable" on campus where we have direct access to GALILEO and LION. Yet off campus, the link opens up a screen in LION requesting a log in.

I'm missing something about the long lasting, stable enduring part of the the LION link.