Spring 2009 Voter Information

Did you know that today, May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), is the last day of Early Voting in Bexar County? The early voting site polls will be open until 8pm today. Information including links to early voting poll sites, as well as links to web sites--where available--of candidates who appear on the Bexar County generic sample ballot is included on the Voter 2009 web page. It also has information on where to vote, how to generate your personalized ballot, early voting, and several additional information sites.

And if you can't get to the polls today, Election Day is Saturday, May 9. Polls will be open from 7am-7pm. See the Voter 2009 page to find your local polling site.

Last fall, nearly 60% of registered voters in Bexar County voted. Predictions are that less than 20% of registered voters will vote this time around. What will you do to change that statistic?

Government Scientists Earn their Pay [updated]

When there's a crisis involving something technical, scientific, and complicated it's nice to know that your taxes are paying experts to keep on top of things. That's why the current swine 'flu scare is a good lead-in to our new government information display: Government Science.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have put up this informative website that's chock full of details, and links to more details, that go a long way toward explaining this scary—but, at least for now, still manageable—new threat. Scientific information from the government, while being a human-run enterprise and thus capable of containing errors of fact and judgment, is still 'way more reliable than the Center for Stuff That I Heard from Some Guy, recently reported from on the Daily Show.

One thing we've been hearing from both reliable sources and Some Guys, has been how important personal hygiene is to foil this outbreak. Note the sudden appearance of hand sanitizers all over campus, including at our Reference Desk. If there's anything more you want to know about the benefits of hand-washing, or how to do it properly, the CDC provides this factsheet.

As important a role as the CDC plays in keeping informed, it's only one of scores of government agencies working in all areas of science and technology. We pulled some samples from our tangible collection and from the voluminous government scientific web for our current display. Hope you enjoy it!

[Update: curious about our previous experience with swine 'flu? An Ohio librarian has updated a history/bibliography of the 1976 swine 'flu scare.]

Just in time for Earth Day

Now through May 1, you have free access to Environmental Studies & Policy Collection and select eBooks from Gale. Environmental Studies & Policy Collection is a compilation of over 700 journals, periodicals and magazines, which provide robust coverage of environmental issues and policies, including diverse perspectives from the scientific community, governmental policy makers, as well as corporate interests. You'll find familiar, reliable content from periodicals and magazines, such as: Audubon, Mother Earth News, Natural History, American Scientist and many more.

You also have free access to select eBook titles, including:

Gale
Climate Change in Context
Environmental Science in Context
World of Earth Science
Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America
Environmental Encyclopedia
Environmental Issues: Essential Primary Sources
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia
Weather Almanac

Macmillan
Animal Sciences
Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy
Plant Sciences
Pollution A to Z
Water: Science and Issues

U*X*L
UXL Encyclopedia of Biomes, 2nd ed.
Alternative Energy
Endangered Species
Grzimek's Student Animal Life Resource
UXL Complete Life Science Resource
UXL Encyclopedia of Biomes
UXL Encyclopedia of Landforms and Other Geologic Features
UXL Encyclopedia of Water Science
UXL Encyclopedia of Weather and Natural Disasters


Enter your search in the following box and take a test drive!

Congratulations to 3rd Annual Library Undergraduate Research Award recipients

On Friday, April 3, 2009, the recipients of the Third Annual Louis J. Blume Library Undergraduate Research Award were recognized at the Tenth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. The awards recognize student researchers who demonstrate skill and originality in the application of library and other information sources in a research project.

The First Place Award of $200 was granted to Patricia Amalia Sipes for her project, "Beth, Babel, Boibel: Robert Graves and the Ciphering of Hidden Meanings in Celtic Poetry." The faculty mentor for the project was Dr. Alice Kersnowski.

The Second Place Award of $100 was given to Kristina Kay Lindsey for her project, "The Business of Charity: The Mindsets, Marketing Trends, and Solutions of Incorporated Non-profits during Times of Financial Downturn." The faculty mentor was Dr. Stephanie Ward.

We thank all the students who took the time and effort to submit an application and proposal for the Award. We encourage students who are eligible to apply next year for the Louis J. Blume Library Undergraduate Research Award.

Congratulations to Patricia and Kristina!

News flash!

Government launches new ‘Print Your Own Money’ website! Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink! Redcoat Holdouts Still Fighting American Revolution! Shaq Finds Mysterious Inscriptions Written On Basketball!

Sound a little fishy? But they are headlines! I found them on the internet!

In honor of April Fools Day I made this selection of headlines from fake news sites (plus the one that's linked—it's from a real site, but a very clever April Fools joke). Feel free to pass any of them on to gullible friends!

Fake news makes for great comedy, as fans of the Daily Show know. The Onion and NewsBiscuit are internet sites that churn it out, too. And while the news tidbits featured on NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, aren't fake, they're awfully funny and crazy enough to be fake. Fans of fake news will tell you, though, that the more real news you know, the funnier the fake stuff is—good motivation to keep current with current events.

Presumeably readers of and viewers of the foregoing know when they're hearing fake news, but what if you come across something you're not sure of? Snopes is a good site for sorting true from false stories, and Museum of Hoaxes has good stories about hoaxing as well. And there was an InBlume post a while ago with other ideas of places to check to debunk (or confirm) urban legends.

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On a more serious note, a group of concerned bloggers have made a cute pun and are encouraging donations to local food banks today. Check it out at April Food Day. Many of these organizations are hurting due to increased demand for their services and reduced resources. The San Antonio Food Bank website gives you an easy place to join this effort—and if you want to help more, there's information on volunteering with them. InBlume is happy to do its blog-bit in this worthy cause.

Help understanding the financial crisis

Has the complicated financial news lately got you scratching your head? Need some help telling TARP from ARRA from FDIC?

Some industrious librarians offer these well-organized collections of reliable, authoritative links to helpful information on the subject. Louise Feldmann, at Colorado State University, has made this comprehensive guide available. Jason Phillips, a reference librarian at Mississippi State is working on another extensive guide, which even includes links audio and video resources. (Note that not all sub-topics have content yet.) Speaking of which, here is National Public Radio's Economy page, which provides access to many of their news stories and analysis programs. And another Colorado library, the Jefferson County Public Library in Lakewood, has put together this page on the crisis.

In addition to these library projects, the Federal Reserve branch in St. Louis, which provides oodles of good economic data in the best of times, too, has developed this Financial Crisis Timeline. The site also includes links to analytical papers and reports, data, and a handy FAQ.

The financial news might be gloomy, but it's always better to know more about a problem than just to ignore it and hope it goes away. We hope these links will help!

Women's History Month 2009 - Saving the Planet

Women’s History Month is a time for us to reflect on the accomplishments of women and the continuing challenges facing women in our world. The national theme for this March is “Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet” which highlights the ways in which women having contributed to environmental awareness, sustainability, and the green movement. St. Mary’s University’s Women’s History Month Planning Committee will be presenting several public programs inspired by the national theme. For more information about campus programming, check out the St. Mary’s Women’s History Month page and the March 2009 program brochure.
The Blume Library’s March book display offers books demonstrating women’s contributions to identifying and solving the most difficult problems in our natural world. For example, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, arguably the book that started the environmental movement, is just one of the great works on display. All display books are available for checkout. Take this opportunity to learn about women’s contributions to environmental awareness!

If you are looking for online material, several websites offer information, and fun facts, about women’s history. The U.S. Department of State highlights the 2009 national theme on the department’s Women’s History Month pages. More information about Women’s History Month, and research collections relating to women’s history, can be found on the Library of Congress’ Women’s History Month site. The U.S. Census Bureau posts a Women’s History Month feature each year that gives some current statistics about women. An example of the 2009 data includes that fact that “28.2 million women 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or more education in 2007, more than double the number 20 years earlier.” Obviously, women continue to take advantage of the educational and career opportunities available to them thanks to the efforts of equal rights activists of the past and present.

For something on the lighter side, quiz yourself about women’s history. There are several online quizzes that are fun but also let you know how well you know women’s history. About.com offers a great Women’s History Month website with a related quiz. Or, try the quiz on the National Women’s History Month Project site. While your there, take one last opportunity to reflect on the national theme by reading a few biographies of contemporary women who are working to save our planet.


~Necia Wolff

(Beautiful "Love Your Mother" photograph courtesy of Cayusa on Flickr.com. Photo listed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license.)