The blogosphere and traditional news are full of appeals and information about how to give money to help Haiti. If you decide to give money, it is important to make sure that the charities you give to will use your money wisely, not just now in a time of crisis, but on a regular basis. There are several places online that you can go that evaluate charities. My favorite is Charity Navigator. From their website:

Charity Navigator's rating system examines two broad areas of a charity's financial health -- how responsibly it functions day to day as well as how well positioned it is to sustain its programs over time. Each charity is then awarded an overall rating, ranging from zero to four stars. To help donors avoid becoming victims of mailing-list appeals, each charity's commitment to keeping donors' personal information confidential is assessed.

This information includes the CEO pay, how much money goes to fund-raising and operational costs, versus how much goes to actually doing their charitable work.

The Better Business Bureau also has a database with information about charities for donors.

Moving Update: The library is in the process of settling in to the new building. We are still closed to the public, but are taking phone and email reference requests. No firm re-opening date has been set, although it is likely to be in late February or early March.

Moving Reminder

This Friday, December 4th, is our last open day here at One Capitol Mall. Effective December 7th, public access to the library will be restricted to the following:

• returning checked out materials
• filing documents with Document Services
• returning materials to the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
• email and phone reference services. This means that you can still call us at 501-682-2053 or use our Ask A Librarian form to ask reference questions. This service will be available as long as we have access to resources to answer questions.

The public access computers will not be available during the move. Nor may any materials be checked out.

Keep watching this blog for information about our reopening some time in late January or early February.

We're moving!

It is official - the Arkansas State Library will be moving house. Our last day open to the public before the move will be Friday, December 4th. We will reopen at our new location, 900 W. Capitol, just down the road from our current address, sometime in late January or early February.

Any books that have been checked out can be returned before we close, or you can hold on to them, with no penalty, until we reopen

Check back here for more news and updates as they becomes available.