Thursday, September 25, 2008

Municipal Run-off Elections, October 7th

If you're not already on the voting rolls, tomorrow is the deadline to register for the October 7th Municipal Run-off Elections. As a result of the votes that took place in August, several area towns and cities will hold run-offs for some offices. Voters in the cities of Montevallo, Pelham, and Columbiana will chose mayors on this Election Day.

For information on the run-offs in your area, check with your county's Board of Registrars. Links to a couple of Boards' websites are below. One nice feature on the Shelby County Board of Registrars' site is the ability to check your registration status and polling place online. Again, be sure to sure to verify your polling place with city or government officials to avoid confusion on Election Day.

Coming up soon in our Alabama Votes series: The deadline for the fall general election will soon be here!

Encyclopedia of Alabama

The Alabama Humanities Foundation, Auburn University, and various others have collaborated to produce the Encyclopedia of Alabama. EOA offers comprehensive information in the areas of history, culture, geography, and environment. It is frequently updated.

EOA gives the following essay on Alabama (by historian Wayne Flynt) as an introduction to the site's content.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Lisa Loeb Talks Libraries

I've long been a fan of Lisa Loeb. The singer-songwriter is best known for her song "Stay (I Missed You)," which reached no. 1 on the pop charts. The song was also featured in the film "Reality Bites" and a music video directed by the film’s star, Ethan Hawke. Loeb recently appeared in this short video produced by the American Library Association's Public Information Office.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Catalog Working Again

The catalog is working again! Yippie! We'll let you know through this blog if additional problems arise.

Library Catalog Down

The library catalog is currently down. We're having server problems, and Computer Services is working with us to solve the problem. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

An Encyclopedia for Alabama

Such was the title of a recent op/ed in the Birmingham News about the state's new online reference website. The Encyclopedia of Alabama, which was officially launched this Monday, contains more than 500 articles, 2,000 photographs and more than four hours of video and audio clips.

The editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia is Wayne Flynt, professor emeritus of Auburn University's history department. Flynt, whose published works include Alabama in the Twentieth Century, has worked for several years to make this resource a reality.

This impressive website is a project of the University of Alabama Press, Auburn University, and the Alabama Humanities Foundation. This is a very worthwhile resource, one of the few of its kind in the nation, and something that all Alabamians should be proud of.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Electing a US President in Plain English

I saw this piece on a friend's blog recently and I knew I'd found the library's latest Alabama Votes post. The Common Craft Show is devoted to making "complex ideas easy to understand using short and simple videos." Lee and Sachi LeFever usually take on highly technical topics, such as social bookmarking, Twitter, and RSS, but this time they've turned their attention to national politics and the electoral college.



We'll be returning next week with our Alabama Votes series. Stay tuned for a post about the runoff municipal elections taking place in October.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

metacritic.com

If you're looking for movie, CD, and game reviews, check out metacritic.com. Metacritic links out to reviews in several online publications.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

ForUM Intro for Students Today, September 3rd


We're teaming up with the Student Government Association to host a ForUM introductory session in the EBSCO Electronic Classroom in Carmichael Library. ForUM Committee Chair Rosemary Arneson will give an overview of Montevallo's new online portal and an introduction to many of the features. Personnel from the Computer Services Help Desk will be available to help students who are having difficulty accessing ForUM or ForUM email.

Today's session will begin at 5:30. All participants will get a free ForUM mousepad (pictured above) as well as other goodies. We hope to see you there!