The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has the potential to be one of the biggest ecological disasters in US history. The government documents department of the University of South Alabama has created a list of resources about the oil spill and its effects. There are federal, state, and local resources, including photo galleries.

President Obama has recently nominated Elena Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens upon his retirement from the Supreme Court. A former dean of Harvard Law, Associate White House Council, and current Solicitor General, Kagan’s qualifications for the Supreme Court are being discussed extensively in the news. The Library of Congress’s Law section has put together a bibliography of articles and books, congressional documents, transcripts of Supreme Court arguments, web resources, and even video.

National Women’s History Month has been officially celebrated nationwide since 1980. For more information about the women’s studies materials offered by the University Libraries, please visit our Women and Gender Studies library guide:  http://libguides.gvsu.edu/wgs.

The National Women’s History Project (NWHP) organizes and promotes Women’s History Month. For more information about the organization and for Women’s History Month activities, visit the NWHP website: http://www.nwhp.org/.

Do you love the Olympic Games? You can read more about the current games as well as the history of the Olympics in some of the following resources selected from the library’s databases.

• NewsBank Special Reports: 2010 Olympics – news on the current Olympic games, ceremonies, profiles of athletes, and more
• The Olympic Bidding Process – from the ‘Issues & Controversies’ database
• Olympic Boycotts – also from the ‘Issues & Controversies’ database
• The Evolution of Racial Identity in the Olympic Games – also from the ‘Issues & Controversies’ database

It’s tax season! We will not be receiving federal or state tax forms or publications this year. The easiest and fastest way to access tax forms and publications is through the library’s Tax Resources page. From this page you can access federal, state and local tax forms.

On January 12th, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale struck outside Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake and its aftershocks caused devastating damage – initial estimates indicate that several hundred thousand people may have died due to this natural disaster.

For news coverage:

• NewsBank Special Report (requires GVSU login if off-campus)

For information about Haiti:

• CIA World Factbook profile on Haiti

For information about earthquakes:

• Wikipedia entry on the Richter Scale

• U.S. Geological Survey information on the Haiti earthquake

For information about responses to the Haitian earthquake:

• President Obama’s statement on the Haitian earthquake (video | text)

• Response from Raymond Alcide Joseph, ambassador of Haiti to the U.S. (video)

• USAID Response to the Haiti Earthquake

• European Commission Response to the Haiti Earthquake (pdf)

• United Nations Response to the Haiti Earthquake

For information about relief efforts, and how you can help:

• The American Red Cross is pledging an initial $200,000 to assist communities impacted by this earthquake. They expect to provide immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support. They are accepting donations through their International Response Fund.

• International Medical Corps is assembling a team of first responders and resources to provide lifesaving medical care and other emergency services to survivors of the earthquake. The IMC previously helped recovery efforts after September 2009′s earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, and the massive 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Donate to the International Medical Corps through their 24-hour hotline at 800-481-4462.

• Oxfam is rushing in teams from around the region to respond to the situation to provide clean water, shelter, sanitation and help people recover.

• Additional organizations are listed at  The Huffington Post and Mashable.

Additionally – if you are looking for U.S. citizens Haiti, you may call the U.S. Department of State for information at 888-407-4747.

Thanks to Laura Carscaddon at the University of Arizona University Libraries for compiling these resources.

Get Informed

Project Vote Smart
Gather information on major and minor candidates for president. Includes biographical information, positions on issues, voting histories, interest group evaluations, endorsements and more.

CQ Politics
Provides news, data and analysis on the presidential race, as well as Congressional races.

FactCheck.org
Monitors the “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.”

Follow the Money

Center for Responsive Politics
Provides extensive and thorough information on campaign contributions and spending by organizations during elections, including those by independent interest groups.

CQ MoneyLine
Provides easy access to data on campaign contributions and spending by PACs and independent interest groups.

Get Out and Vote

Michigan Secretary of State
Confirm your voter registration, view a sample ballot and find out where your voting precinct is located.

Publius
This site from the League of Women Voters allows you to “view your ballot, polling location, find out about candidates and proposals and how to use your voting equipment.”

Need more information?

University of Michigan Documents Center
Comprehensive listing of resources related to this year’s elections.

The new year brings with it tax season and like last year, we will not receive any federal tax forms or publications from the IRS.

We WILL be receiving Michigan tax forms and publications. Those should be sent out by the state in late January.

The easiest and fastest way to access tax forms and publications is through the library’s Tax Resources page. From this page you can access federal, state and local tax resources.

Last week the annual awards for children’s books were announced at Midwinter ALA.
The Newbery Winner, Lynne Rae Perkins, is from Sutton’s Bay, MI.
Criss Cross (Greenwillow Books) follows the lives of four 14-year-olds in a small town, each at their own crossroads. This ensemble cast explores new thoughts and feelings in their quest to find the meaning of life and love. Find it in the Young Adult books.
“Writing in a wry, omniscient third-person narrative voice, Perkins deftly captures the tentativeness and incompleteness of adolescence,” said Award Committee Chair Barbara Barstow. “In 38 brief chapters, this poetic, postmodern novel experiments with a variety of styles: haiku, song lyrics, question-and-answer dialogue and split-screen scenarios. With seeming yet deliberate randomness, Perkins writes an orderly, innovative, and risk-taking book in which nothing happens and everything happens.”

The Caldecott Medal winner is The Hello, Goodbye Window illustrated by Chris Raschka and written by Norton Juster (Michael di Capua Books, an imprint of Hyperion Books for Children). Find it in the library in the JUV collection. In this sunny portrait of familial love, a little girl tells us about her everyday experiences visiting her grandparents’ house. Raschka’s style resembles the spontaneous drawings of children, perfectly mirroring the guileless young narrator’s exuberant voice. White space balances the density of the layered colors, creating a visual experience that is surprisingly sophisticated.
With a few energetic lines, Raschka suggests a world filled with affection and humor,” said Award Committee Chair Gratia Banta. “The richly textured tones of these expressive illustrations convey the emotional warmth of the intergenerational connection.”

Several additional book awards were also announced. See the ALA homepage for the winners. www.ala.org

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient…
Article 2, Section 3. of the Constitution of the United States

Tuesday night President Bush delivered his sixth State of the Union Address. This year’s State of the Union can easily be found on the White House web site and Bush’s previous Addresses can also be found on the web site with just a little digging, but where do you go if you want previous presidents’ State of the Union Addresses?

Many State of the Union Addresses going back to the Johnson Administration can be found by performing a title search for “state of the union” in the University Libraries catalog. Earlier Addresses can be found in State of the Union messages of the Presidents, 1790-1966.

A final place to look for State of the Union Addresses and other presidential speeches is the Public Papers of the President. These volumes, which cover the Hoover Administration though the current Bush Administration, can be found in the University Libraries and also online in collections developed by the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Michigan. It should be noted that FDR’s papers were privately published under a different title (The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt), but can still be found in the University Libraries and in both the UCSB and U-M online collections.