Featured Online Resources: Voter Information Web Sites

November 4 is Election Day. Have you decided who you will be voting for this year?

"I Voted Sticker" by Dwight Burdett is licensed under CC Attribution 3.0 Unported.

Below, you will finds a list of resources that may help you find more information about voting and the candidates.

General Information

• US Election Assistance Commission - Resources for Voters - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and tips about voting in the United States.
• Local Maryland Boards of Elections - Lists individual web sites for Maryland counties.
• Additional Federal Government Resources - from USA.gov.

Voting Places:

• Maryland Polling Place Lookup - Use your street address to locate polling places for registered voters in Maryland.
• Vote411.org - Nationwide service to help find polling places.

Learn about the Candidates

• Project VoteSmart - Compiles information on candidates' voting records, positions, and more. 
• ISideWith.com - Uses quizzes to help voters determine where they fall on the political spectrum. Voter guides for each state match answers to candidates in that state.

Also consider accessing candidates' own web pages to see where they stand on issues.

Every week, the Ort Library brings you a new and outstanding resource from the Web or from one of the library's databases. To get an archive of all FOR entries, click here. Also, you can suggest a website that provides well-organized access to useful info.

Alzheimer’s disease: Display of Resources the Library Offers

The Ort Library has developed a display on the 3^rd floor of the library to highlight and present some of the resources that the library offers on the topic of Alzheimer’s disease. The display was developed to provide some information about the disease prior to FSU holding the Alzheimer’s Foundation’s Raise Your Voice for Care College Tour on November 5 in the Lane Center.

Some facts about the disease from the Alzheimer’s Association website (www.alz.org):

• More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, including more than 200,000 who are under the age of 65. By 2050, more than 16 million are expected to have the disease.
• 1 in 9 Americans over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s – it jumps to 1 in 3 Americans over 85 who have the disease.
• In 2010, Alzheimer’s was the 6^th leading cause of death in the US.

Special Collections Named for Dr. David Gillespie

On Thursday October 16, 2014, a ceremony was held in the Lewis J. Ort Library to formally unveil the new name for Special Collections. It will now be known as the Dr. David M. Gillespie Special Collections. Dr. Gillespie was the Library Director of the Lewis J. Ort Library for 30 years. His tireless work on behalf of the library and Frostburg State University was the impetus for the naming Special Collections for him.

Dr. Gibralter, President of Frostburg State University, was present to read the dedication to Dr. Gillespie. Dr. Gibralter and Dr. Messman-Mandicott, Library Director, unveiled the new sign proclaiming Special Collections, the Dr. David M. Gillespie Special Collections. A reception was held after the dedication in the Ort Room of the Library.

Congratulations to Dr. Gillespie for this well-deserved honor.

 All photos taken by Avalon Ledong

Featured Online Resource: bibme

This week’s Featured Online Resource is bibme (http://www.bibme.org/). Bibme allows users to create citations for books, magazine, newspapers, websites, journal articles, films, interviews, radio/tv shows, encyclopedia, or photograph. You can get citation information for MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian. You can then copy and paste the citation into your word document. Besides your work cited page, bibme will also provide information about how to cite within your paper.

 Every week, the Ort Library brings you a new and outstanding resource from the Web or from one of the library's databases. To get an archive of all FOR entries, click here. Also, you can suggest a website that provides well-organized access to useful info.

New Library Displays for October

The Ort Library is pleased to present new displays for October.

The first display, located on the 3^rd floor near the front door, highlights the 8^th annual Independent Lit Festival. In honor of festival held October 9 through 11, the library is highlighting some of the independent presses, authors, and publishers.

The second display, located on the 4^th floor near the stairs, entitled “Comics: From the Newspaper to the Bookshelves” highlights some of the comic books that Special Collections has available for use. The comics include The Peanuts and Dennis the Menace.

The third display, located on the 5^th floor, entitled “Scary Good Reads: Classic Horror Books”, highlights classic horror books and their writers including Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft. To complement the display on the 5^th floor, the 3^rd floor has a display of classic and current horror books that are available to be checked out. Are you ready to be scared?

If you have any questions about the displays, please contact Theresa Mastrodonato at ext. 4425 or tmmastrodonato@frostburg.edu or MaryJo Price at ext. 4889 or mprice@frostburg.edu.

Featured Online Resource: The National Map: US Topo

If you have an interest or need for geographic research that includes topographic maps, it will be worth your time to check out the United States Geological Survey's US Topo website.

Together, all of these "quadrangle" maps create The National Map

The library has a super collection of topographic maps, particularly for Maryland, from the USGS.  For the last few years, however, the primary source for these maps has been the US Topo website.  Some of the Quadrangles have versions dating back to the 1800's, and so browsing these maps can provide an interesting tour through history!

Locating a quadrangle map with us topo from Lisa Hartman

Advanced Mapping

If you are interested in diving a little deeper into the web site, the Government Printing Office has created a page with Tricks and Tips for Finding and Using USGS Topographic Maps.  This site gives you additional information about advanced searching and features, such as the TerraGo Toolbar, which will allow you to mark up a map for activities such as hiking.

Every week, the Ort Library brings you a new and outstanding resource from the Web or from one of the library's databases. To get an archive of all FOR entries, click here. Also, you can suggest a website that provides well-organized access to useful info.

Library Tips and Tools Sessions Oct. 13-15

Do you face challenges finding vital research information for your class paper or project, thesis, dissertation, article or book you are writing, or that workplace report you need to submit?  Dr. Seán Henry will  host three open library tools and tips sessions to help you with these, whether you are a student, faculty or staff member.

When: 

·         Mon., Oct 13: 3:30 – 5 PM;

·         Tues., Oct. 14: 6 – 7:30 PM;

·         Wed., Oct. 15: 6 – 7:30 PM

Where:  Ort Library Instruction Classroom (Library 316 – just inside the main entrance to the left) 
Light refreshments will be served!

These three sessions are open to the entire FSU community.  Even if you are a seasoned researcher, you might want to consider stopping by to see what’s new, because some library tools you may have relied on for the last decade -catalogUSMAI and Research Port - may be replaced soon!

The 90-minute open sessions will cover:

• Using expert tips to develop effective search strategies
• Finding books, eBooks, articles, and more using the library discovery tool OneSearch
• Navigating databases in your discipline at Databases A-Z
• Citing, saving, and managing  the sources you find with personalized database tools
• Creating off-campus links to database articles and journals without login glitches
• Manipulating Google Scholar to locate full-text research articles from the library databases

Questions about the sessions? Please contact Seán Henry at shenry@frostburg.edu 

October 7 - Banned Book Reading in the Library

Join the English Honors Society Sigma Tau Delta and the Ort Library at Frostburg State University on Tuesday October 7 at 7:00 pm on the 3rd floor of the library for an evening of readings from books deemed controversial enough to be challenged or banned. This event is held in conjunction with the American Library Association’s annual Banned Book Week: "Celebrating the Freadom to Read." 

A yearly list of banned or challenged books can be found here:

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 

Some books that have been challenged/banned are:

• The Hunger Games
• The Bluest Eye
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• And Tango Makes Three

If you find a beloved book on the list of banned/challenged books and you would like to read a passage from this book, please contact Dr. Mary Anne Lutz (mlutz@frostburg.edu) to let her know which book you’re interested in.

In previous years readers selected portions of books as varied as Call of the Wild, The Lorax, and The Hobbit, and The Color Purple.

For more information, contact Dr. Mary Anne Lutz in the Department of English at mlutz@frostburg.edu or Dr. Lea Messman-Mandicott, Director of the Ort Library at lmessman@frostburg.edu