Voting Resources: or Educate Yourself With Interactive Inforgraphic Fun

Election Day (November 2nd) is around the corner! Still trying to make up your mind? Here are some resources available online and in the library.

Vote Easy is an interactive website that helps you figure out which candidate best aligns with your values. It's a very useful tool with the election coming up next week. After you choose your location, the VoteEasy site looks up the candidates specific to your area.  By entering your opinions on 12 critical issues and how important each issue is to you, the site shows you which candidates most closely match your beliefs.  Some candidates have submitted their answers, and the rest are inferred from the public records. The site is designed by Project Vote Smart.

Can I Vote? - Run by the National Association of Secretaries of State, Can I Vote contains state-by-state voting and voter registration information including polling places, and absentee voting.

FactCheck.org - A nonpartisan, nonprofit "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. They monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Rock The Vote - Rock the Vote has combines efforts from those in the entertainment community with youth activities to encourage young people to be involved in the political process.

and just for fun:
The Living Room Candidate - This site is operated by the American Museum of the Moving Image and provides an archive of historical Presidential television ad campaigns.

Want to learn more? Check out VU Webcat for some books on voting and its trends and history!

• Connery, Michael. Youth to Power: How Today's Young Voters Are Building Tomorrow's Progressive Majority. Brooklyn, N.Y: Ig Pub, 2008. [Shake Library Call Number: 324.973 C752y 2008]
• McCaffrey, Paul. U.S. Election System. The reference shelf, v. 76, no. 4. New York: H.W. Wilson, 2004. [Shake Library Call Number: 324 U58e 2004]
• Percy, Herma. Will Your Vote Count?: Fixing America's Broken Electoral System. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2009. [Shake Library Call Number: 324.6 P431w 2009]
• Thernstrom, Abigail M. Voting Rights-and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections. Washington, D.C: AEI Press, 2009. [Shake Library Call Number: 324.62 T411v 2009]

Saving Money, Saving Energy

October is Energy Awareness Month. Here are some cool tools you can use to discover your energy usage and savings:

Tax Credits - Who doesn't love a tax credit? Find out about 2010 tax credits for purchasing energy efficient items. A how to guide and a handy product listing is included in this website.

Energy Savers - Download this PDF booklet and find out how to save energy and money at home.

Energy Calculators and Software - Use these tools to discover ways to save home or vehicle energy.

Emissions Calculator - Find out how much your household’s greenhouse gas emissions are, how to reduce them, and about how much money each energy saving step can put back in your pocket.

Want to learn more? Search VU WebCat, our online catalog, for books in print and ebook formats.

You can Recycle lots of your household good for free in Vincennes.

Free recycling drop-off service for Vincennes City residents is also available at Republic Services, 2706 North Second Street in Vincennes. And you don't even have to seperate the different types of recyclable materials! The drive-thru recycling drop-off center is open from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8:00 a.m. until noon on Saturdays.

Simplify your life: Or why I stopped bookmarking and love RSS

Today, I’m going to explain how RSS can help you live your best life online.

We're all busy people: Jetting to class, meeting with advisors, working, taking care of family responsibilities. One of the fun parts of my day is surfing my favorite websites. And yes, I can hear you all laughing out there, "well duh! of course our Califonia grown librarian loves to "surf" everyday." In fact, I do not surf and that's probably due to the fact that I was chased by a baracuda when I was 10. But that's another story completely! Anyway, web surfing is fun but it can take hours going to visit every single website you like, and sometimes they don't even update! Wouldn’t it be great if you could just get all the headlines and stories from all your favorite websites in one place?

Well you can! and it is called RSS feed. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”, an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. For us non-techies out there it is just a fancy way of saying you can get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place online.


Suppose you have 30 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. If you go back to your bookmarks for each one, everyday, it will take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to a website or blog, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 30 sites and blogs in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours. Thereby simplifying your life! TaDa!

That one place where your RSS list is created is called an RSS Reader, and it gathers all the headlines from all the websites and blogs you have subscribed to. We at Shake Library use Google Reader because it's free, easy to use, and easy to view via a smartphone (but there are lots of others out there). If you already have a Gmail account you can use the same login and password to get into your own Google Reader. 

So how do you add a RSS feed to your RSS Reader? Well first head on over to your favorite website and look for one of these icons (above on the left) or the most traditional one (above on the right). Once you see this button click it and follow the directions given. If none are there go ahead and copy the URL from the search box and add the subscription directly into Google Reader by logging in and then clicking the "Add a Subscription" button on the top left corner.

(Circled in Red below)

So now, all you need to do is log into your Google reader and check out all the updates on those websites. Simple! 

Now because we're in college, i'd like to share with you how you can use this for school as well as for fun. Lets say you're taking a class on Homeland Security or Computers or Nutrition. This makes it really easy for you to keep up on current events because you can just "subscribe" to RSS feeds from places like the Department of Homeland Security, or TechCrunch.com or Nutrition.gov. Then, when your professor brings up current events in class (Which they WILL! Trust me!) You're going to be familiar with the topic or people in the news. You'll impress, they'll remember, and you're that much closer to getting that perfect grade! Simple!

If you do decide to use Google Reader head over to the "Browse for Stuff" link on the left hand side navigation once you're logged in. There you will find some bundles that have already been put together by subject. It's a great place to start! and if you want... you can stay on top of lots of Homeland Security News by following the Shake Library created bundle called Homeland Security Feeds. It's managed by your friendly librarian. 

Got questions on using this type of resource? ask! 

and leave us a comment on what types of bundles you'd like us to create for you next!



Save your Sanity during Midterms: A How To Guide

When midterm exams rolled around there were usually two things I was thinking of: How can I ace this exam, or at least get a decent grade? and how can I keep sane? Fortunately, I managed to survive and get decent grades that got me my diploma and eventually my first job. These are tried and true ideas that have helped me stay sane and pass a class:

The first tip you always hear about is Time Management. Theoretically you were supposed to plan and schedule your midterm study sessions before midterm week. If you did this, you are awesome! If you're like me, you were probably trying to stay on top of the reading load and first written assignment, and now midterm exams have snuck up on you. So what can you do now? Organize your life for one Midterm week. I like Google Calendar Why? because you get it for free if you have a Gmail account and it syncs easily to your iPhone. I'm a very visual person and I always found it easier to visualize how I was going to study during Midterm week if I had a roadmap I could pick up and read.

So, Here's what you do... on your Google Calendar, Schedule your Midterms and other classes first.

Next,  Schedule time to Eat! I can't stress this enough... if you don't eat, your brain will give up on you mid-study session, you'll be grumpy with study exam buddies, and you'll remember less. Eat, trust me it works. Put 30-45minute eating breaks for breakfast, lunch and dinner at least. It works as a study break and it works to keep you fueled for more.

So now your Google Calendar has midterms, classes and food on it. Next is Schedule Sleep. Yes, some people can function well on three hours of sleep a night. I can't and I bet I'm not the only one. Schedule your sleep and try to give yourself at least 7hours please. I don't work on less than 6 hours and during the final days of midterms my eyes eventually felt like they were made of sandpaper. Sleep helps. Put it in your schedule.

Alright, now you've got a visual of how much of your week is left for study time (and showers!). Next Schedule your Study Sessions accordingly. Here's how I did it. I work best in 2-3 hour chunks of studying. Some people cram. If you can deal with cramming more hours into your study sessions that's cool. Otherwise pick short blocks of time. Prioritize. You have limited time to study and will have to choose what to spend the most time with. You could spend hours and hours on that math exam because if you do really well, you might be able to pull off a C. Or you can spend hours and hours on a history exam because if you do well, you've got a good shot at an A. It's up to you. Put these blocks of time in your Google Calendar.

Next, and this is key, Schedule in Study Breaks. Don't plan to study non-stop for the next five days. You'll go insane, and you'll be too fried to do well on the exams. When you write your schedule, include short study breaks to help you recharge. Study breaks can be 10 minutes to 1 hour (for me). I like to use eating and showering as my study breaks, but I also left time out for some mindless TV. Nothing relaxes your brain more than mindless TV and it works as a study break too. Just don't get sucked into procrastination with the TV. If you do fall into this trap (we all do), put an alarm on your phone when you start your TV break and have it ring when you're supposed to go back to studying. It doesn't always work, but it might remind you to go back to studying.

Some other study break ideas:

-Exercise! There's no better source for stress relief. Just don't overdo it to the point that you're procrastinating. Go for short, stress-relieving activities like a treadmill run or a brisk walk.
-Read some Comics or Watch a funny video! Laugh, it'll lower your stress.

So now your calendar has your midterms/classes, eating and sleeping times, study sessions and study breaks in it. Try to free your schedule if possible, work fewer hours and put off social events, but if you can't, don't forget to put your other responsibilities in your Calendar.  Google Calendar has the option of sending you an email or an SMS reminder. If you need a reminder, turn on this feature by editing your specific event and adding a reminder to it.

Next, Print and post the calendar in your room or Save it on your desktop and have it open on your computer. Stick to it as much as possible, but don't beat yourself up if you end up studying a bit less and sleeping more.

Lastly Keep things in perspective. What's the worst thing that can happen if you don't do well on this test? Excessive stress will make you crazy and hurt your performance on tests, so as much as you can, relax.

Brought to you by Ariela (your friendly librarian)

War in Afghanistan- Resources

"The war in Afghanistan is among President Barack Obama's most important foreign policy challenges. Begun in 2001 to drive out al Qaeda and remove the Taliban from power, the war initially had a high rate of public support. But as Taliban forces regrouped and casualties escalated, attitudes toward the war in Afghanistan shifted. Drawing parallels to the Vietnam War, many analysts and voters argue that the war is unwinnable, and that U.S. forces should be withdrawn." Source

The most common current events question we get on the reference desk is research help with a paper responding to the war in Afghanistan. Especially since yesterday marked Nine years since the beginning of the war. Here are some resources for our students and those interested in following up on this topic.

How we missed the story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the hijacking of Afghanistan by Roy Gutman. (327.73058 B612g 2008)

Age of fallibility : the consequences of the war on terror by George Soros. (973.931 S714a 2006)

Stones into schools: promoting peace with books, not bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson. (371.822 M887s 2009)

Afghanistan: graveyard of empires: a new history of the borderlands by David Isby. (958.1047 I76a 2010)

Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan by James Dobbins. A PDF report published by RAND, 2009.

Military Casualty Information can be found through the Department of Defense Website.

Students and community members can access more research materials via VU WebCat our online catalog.

-----------------
References - Access to these can be found on the Shake Library's Find Articles Page.

"Afghan War." Current Issues: Macmillian Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

CRS Report for Congress, R41084. Authored by Susan G. Chesser. Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. 9/14/2010. (c) Public Domain. Retrieved from the Homeland Security Digital Library 10/8/2010

Speaking OUT Against Bullying

Many of you have heard the news of the tragic suicide of Rutgers college freshman Tyler Clementi, who jumped to his death after fellow students allegedly streamed online a romantic encounter between him and another man. Last month four other American teens took their own lives last month due to being made fun of for being gay.

We, at Shake Library, have put together a few links to resources for students in trouble and for the people who care about them. If you or a friend is a victim of digital disrespect, unwanted sexting, blackmail, hate-mongering (spreading discriminatory, racist messages) or direct threats we urge you to take action. Talking about it with someone instead of bottling it up will relieve some of the frustration. Online cruelty hurts. And if a friend is upset by hateful or cruel posts or messages, practice good listening. They need you. Also, be part of the solution by reporting this kind of stuff when you read/receive it.

At VU students can contact the:

Counseling Center (confidential help)
Location: Welsh Administration Building, Room 134.
Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Phone: 812-888-4374

Affirmative Action Office or VU

Phone: 812-888-5848

VU Campus Police

Phone: 812-888-5555

You can also contact The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention hotline at: 866-488-7386

Here are a few more resources where you can find/give help:

• MTV's A Thin Line campaign was developed to identify, respond to, and stop the spread of digital abuse. The campaign is built on the understanding that there's a "thin line" between what may begin as a harmless joke and something that could end up having a serious impact on you or someone else.
• In response to columnist Dan Savage's "It Gets Better," video project, the Make it Better Project gives youth the tools they need to make their lives better now.
• Tri-State Alliance (TSA) is a not-for-profit social service/education organization that serves gays, lesbians and bisexuals in Southwestern Indiana, Northwestern Kentucky and Southeastern Illinois.

Need more information? Checkout our library catalog to find books on bullying and prevention. You can also search for articles online from our library's webpage.

Sources for this post: ALA- GLBTRT;