Election 2008 Resources

Welcome to our second posting on Election resources! This post comes from Liya Deng, our Government Documents Librarian. She's put together some great resources. Did you know that YOU can find the following information in Government Documents?

According to the United States Constitution, a presidential election is to be held once every fourth year. The process of electing a President was set up in the United States Constitution. The 2008 Presidential Election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 4, 2008. As Election Day is closer, the library has set up a display for Elections 2008. Here are some government online resources about elections for voters and people who study elections.

USA.gov, the U.S. government's official web portal, has one section of Voting and Elections offering information about voter registration, contact elected officials, and volunteering and contributing to the election process, etc.
Voting and Elections at USA.gov

U. S. Department of State (DOS) provides a comprehensive list of links and articles on the 2008 Elections, including election process, election calendar, public opinion polls, role of the media, election trivia, and mainstream media blogs, etc.
2008 Elections at www.State.gov

Federal Election Commission (FEC) provides Presidential Campaign Finance data by state via Campaign Finance Maps.
Campaign Finance Map for Presidential Election at FEC.gov

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provides information about 2008 presidential election, how electors vote, electoral college calculator, historical election results, and FAQS, etc.
2008 Presidential Election: U.S. Electoral College

There are some useful additional sites about the elections:
Project Vote Smart - directory of political candidates, calendar of events, voting records, interest group ratings, and issues and legislation.

Election Center 2008 - CNN Politics

Presidential Election 2008 - Yahoo News

Voting America United States Politics, 1840-2004 - cinematic & interactive maps, and analysis of the Presidential elections in the US from 1840-2004. This unique resource developed by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond focuses on election data to the county level.

Elections 2008 - a very comprehensive site listing elections resources by the University of Michigan Documents Center

In addition, the CQ Researcher database has several in-depth reports about campaign and elections.
CQ Researcher Reports:
Political Conventions 8/8/2008
Race and Politics 7/18/2008
Campaign Finance Reform 6/13/2008
Changing U.S. Electorate 5/30/2008
Women in Politics 3/21/2008
Electing the President 4/20/2007

Make sure you check back again next week for even more resources!

Macon Telegraph Archive (1826-1908)

Tarver Library's latest database, The Macon Telegraph Archive (1826-1908), is now available online. You can access this database from Tarver Library's alphabetical database listing on the library web site, or through GALILEO.

The Macon Telegraph Archive provides online access to early issues of the Macon Telegraph ranging from its inception as a weekly newspaper in 1826, through the daily issues of the early twentieth century. Consisting of over 50,000 newspaper pages, the archive provides historical images that are both full-text searchable and can be browsed by date.

Launched just three years after the city of Macon was incorporated, the Macon Telegraph provides an inside view into the initial years of the city's growth. Macon's central location within the state provided the paper with a unique perspective of the news through a period when middle Georgia was both geographically and politically a focal point of the state. During the early publication of the newspaper, Macon and its surrounding areas were guided politically, economically, and racially by the growth of cotton. Through that lens the paper provides historical insight into the development of the state during the sectionalism of the antebellum period, the devastation of the Civil War, and the rise of the "New South" in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Macon Telegraph Archive is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia as part of the Georgia HomePLACE initiative. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

GALILEO Search Problems

If you are using GALILEO Search, which is powered by WebFeat, you may encounter intermittent problems accessing or "viewing" full text and citations.

WebFeat has reported that the problem will be corrected when they add new servers to their system. They are working diligently to add the servers, but until they are added, this problem will remain.

If you encounter problems viewing results, please try accessing and searching within the databases individually. You can locate specific databases in many ways:

1. Browse by Subject
2. Select the "Articles and Databases" tab (to the right of search)

This will provide you with a ranked listing of databases associated with
a particular subject.

--or--

1. Click on the main "Databases A-Z" tab.
2. The "All Databases" link will take you to a listing of all databases
associated with your Mercer campus.
3. Search for a database by keyword or browse by letter associated with database name.

Again, thank you for your patience while this problem is being corrected.

Constitution Day

Merer University Celebrates Constitution Day

A federal law (Public Law 108-447) enacted in 2004 designated September 17 as “Constitution Day” to commemorate the signing of the United States Constitution Sept 17, 1787.

Mercer University will celebrate the Constitution Day with a lecture entitled "The Spirit of '76 and the Spirit of '87: One Founding or Two?" given by Dr. Will Jordan, Associate Professor of Political Science. The lecture will be given from 12:00-12:50 today in Stetson 251. Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch.

We also have a display of library resources for Constitution day. So please stop by the library and check it out.

Also check out some of these online government resources on U. S. Constitution.

National Archives & Records Administration: Constitution
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html
The National Archives provides information on how the Constitution was created and ratifies, including Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States, Bill of Rights, and biographies of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787,

Library of Congress
http://thomas.loc.gov/teachers/constitution.html
In celebration of Constitution Day, the Library of Congress has compiled a variety of materials from across its collections. Explore these rich resources and features to learn more about one of America’s most important documents.

GPO Access
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/index.html
GPO Access provides the Analysis and Interpretation of the U.S. Constitution: 1992 Edition Plus Supplements, and other U.S. Constitution publications.

National Constitution Center
http://constitutioncenter.org
Resources to help you celebrate Constitution Day – the birthday of your government – featuring over 200 activities, lessons, books, DVDs and more from over 30 different providers.

Questions & Answers Pertaining to the Constitution from “Charters of Freedom” ARCHIVES.GOV
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_q_and_a.html

Ben’s Guide to U. S. Government for Kids - U.S. Constitution
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/6-8/documents/constitution/index.html

Constitution Day Lecture 9/17

Mercer University will help celebrate Constitution Day, September 17, with a lecture given by
Dr. Will Jordan, Associate Professor of Political Science. The lecture, titled "The Spirit of '76 and the Spirit of '87: One Founding or Two?" will consider the question of whether the Constitution embodies or rejects the spirit and political principles of the revolution.

The lecture will be given from 12:00-12:50 in Stetson 251, on Wednesday, September 17. Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch.

7 years ago today...

Today is a day of remembrance across the country. Many people were effected by what happened 7 years ago today in many different ways.

As you think of this day take a look at the September 11 Digital Archive. This website collects memories from across the globe on the tragedy that happened.

Elections 2008!

It's election time here again in the United States and electing a new president is foremost on everyone's list. This has been an exciting and interesting campaign as it has featured some ground breaking people. While the Tarver Library is apolitical, we do believe that EVERYBODY needs to get out and vote. To that end over the next few weeks we'll be sharing some resources that provide information ranging from voting to information about the electoral process in general, many of which are library resources! Did you know we have books on McCain and Obama? Well we do! So, please stay tuned and enjoy the resources.

Check out this link for a great collection of voting resources, even gives you information on where to register to vote if you haven't done so already.

Need even more information on wide variety of election 2008 resources? Check out the Librarian's Internet Index! Full of great resources and information on the election. These are specially chosen websites by, you guessed it, librarians from across the country.

News and analysis about the 2008 presidential election. This site, from the Chicago Tribune, includes profiles, photos galleries, comparison of stands on selected issues, and quizzes to test how well you know candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.

This is a website for "a joint project from The Brookings Institution and American Enterprise Institute, [which] joins leading demographers, geographers and analysts in examining the impact of seven trends on the 2008 election and the future of American politics." It features project papers on topics such as the decline of the white working class and immigration and America's changing electorate, and more!

Stay tuned next week for even more information and resources from the library! Remember to stop in and see us if you have any questions.

Hot Document in September

Career Guide to Industries 2008-09 Edition

The Career Guide to Industries provides valuable information from an industry perspective for persons making career decisions. It is a companion to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which provides information on careers from an occupational perspective.

For dozens of different kinds of industries—such as educational services, health care, and motor vehicle and parts manufacturing - the Career Guide to Industries tells you about:

• occupations in the industry
• training and advancement
• earnings
• expected job prospects
• working conditions

In addition, the Career Guide gives you links to information about the job market in each State and more.