acpl reference librarians

We have voter registration forms in the front file cabinet drawer at the General Reference desk. If you run out, they can be printed from online: http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/pdfs/50504.pdf

There is also a Web site where you can verify if someone is registered to vote, find their polling place, etc. http://www.indianavoters.com/ All you’ll need is their county, first and last names, and date of birth.

Update: if people don’t appear on the above site but believe they are registered, you can check which precinct they should be in using the American FactFinder street address look up: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/AGSGeoAddressServlet?_lang=en&_programYear=50&_treeId=420

Here are the 2008 Allen County primary voting locations: http://www.co.allen.in.us/images/stories/Election_board/2008/Legal%20Notice%202008P%20Voting%20Locations.pdf by precinct.

List of 2008 Primary Election Candidates for Allen County: http://www.co.allen.in.us/images/stories/Election_board/2008/Legal%20Notice%202008P%20Candidates.pdf
Primary election list for all of Indiana, including Allen County candidates: http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/pdfs/Candidate_List32008.pdf

Update Monday 5/5 - early voting ended today at 12:00 noon.

If you wish to vote before Indiana’s May 6 Primary, you can do so at the Allen County Election Board. That’s in Room 136 at City-County Building. You must do so between normal business hours, which are Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.

The Election Board is expecting a surge in early voting, so they’ve set two Saturday dates. They are April 26 and May 3, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. As always, be sure to bring your photo ID.

~From “Allen County sees surge in early voting” April 17, 2008 http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?s=8177042

There seems to be a little “catch” if you want to cancel a reservation on E*vents. For example, I wanted to cancel a computer class reservation, and I checked the “cancel” box next to the person’s name, but I didn’t find any place to click to “save” or “update”, etc. Well, at the bottom of the page there is a “cancel” option, and even though the cursor does NOT change to a hand, or even stay as an arrow, if you click on the word “cancel”, the reservation will be cancelled.

There is another way (which is longer) from the event registration page, click on “attendance” then “view/edit” under their name, then “cancel”. You need to scroll over to see the whole page for the “cancel” options.

Thanks to Sara for helping me find the shorter way.
Linda C.

Beginning January, 2008, UMI no longer has the contract for filming the News-Sentinel. The film is now being distributed through NewsBank. Since we have not yet bought the film for 2008, the print issues of the paper are being retained in Periodicals.
Journal Gazette film is still being provided by UMI. We keep the papers until film arrives (usually about 2 months).

Carol

Hillary Clinton
2006 Fairfield Avenue
Fort Wayne, IN 46802
745-0183

and

3019 Waynewood Drive
Fort Wayne, IN 46809

Barack Obama
122 [0r 124] W. Columbia St.
Fort Wayne, IN 46802
426-2008

John McCain
Republican Headquarters
135 W. Main St.
Fort Wayne, IN 46802
422-1554

(The Republican Headquarters will be moved to another location sometime during the summer of 2008.
They are not sure whether or not McCain will open a separate headquarters specific to his campaign.)

I will be on vacation until Monday, April 14th. If you get poetry contest questions:

1. Contact person

Contact Becky Carden at G-Ref. She can answer most questions, as we are working together on the contest. We have a spreadsheet in REA files on O drive (Poetry Contest) of all poems we have received.

2. Can I still submit a poem?

The deadline for submitting poems was March 29th.

2. Did I win?

The poems are being delivered to the judges April 4th. Judges are from outside the library. We should have the winners names approximately one week before the April 29th awards ceremony. Winners will be contacted in advance of the ceremony. (as soon as we know, we will phone or email them).

3. Prizes

Prizes are gift certificates from a bookstore.

4. Awards Ceremony/Guest Poet

The awards ceremony is open to the public and includes a poetry reading by award winning poet David Shumate. It is:

Tuesday evening , April 29
7 pm
Main Library, Meeting Room C

Trish Downey

I find that most of the calls I am getting are from Senior Citizens regarding the need for them to file a tax return to receive payments come May. In addition to the link provided by Sara below, I’ve been directing seniors to this portion of the IRS web site:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=179201,00.html

They must receive at least $3000 in benefits. I’ve been encouraging patrons to read the detailed instructions on filing in this PDF on the site above:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/k1040a3.pdf

It answers most of their questions about how to fill out the form, what amounts to enter and how to determine those amounts, where to send, etc.

Now and then we get asked if there is a notary in the building. Since we do not offer that service, I have recommended that they check with a nearby bank or the City-County Building. Recently Carol called around to several banks and determined that the closest to the library is Star Financial at the corner of Berry and Harrison. I called them today and the service is free to their customers, but they charge $2.00 for everyone else.
Linda C.

http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=177937,00.html

“Starting in May, the Treasury will begin sending economic stimulus payments to more than 130 million households. To receive a payment, taxpayers must have a valid Social Security number, $3,000 of income and file a 2007 federal tax return. IRS will take care of the rest. Eligible people will receive up to $600 ($1,200 for married couples), and parents will receive an additional $300 for each eligible child younger than 17. Millions of retirees, disabled veterans and low-wage workers who usually are exempt from filing a tax return must do so this year in order to receive a stimulus payment.

But there are more details to know about. Find out more here and visit this page regularly for the latest updates.”

~Sara

On the weekend, another librarian and I were on the gref desk and were asked a question about the parking garage. Since there is no automatic sign that shows if the garage is full, what happens when you pull in and find no place to park? How do you get your ticket validated for the gate to open so you can go out?
If you don’t know the answer to this question (or aren’t sure), the answer is:
As long as you put the ticket back in the machine as you exit within 20 minutes of entering the garage, the gate will open for you, even though the ticket has not been validated. And of course once a ticket has been validated, they have 20 minutes to get to their car and leave.
Linda C.