Get Counted!

Last week I wrote about taxes, but that is not the only activity this season - it is also time for the decennial census. Every 10 years, the people of the United States are given the opportunity to be counted. Census questionnaires are being mailed out to every household in the country, and your response will help the government better allocate funds to improve your community.

Here are some facts about the history of the census, taken from the Census.gov website:

• The first census began more than a year after the inauguration of President George Washington. At its conclusion, the U.S. population totaled approximately 3.9 million and the largest cities were New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; and Boston, MA.

• Following the abolition of slavery in 1865, ex-slaves were named in the 1870 census for the first time. Before then, they were simply recorded numerically by age.

• The 1900 census included Hawaii (annexed in 1898) for the first time. Census takers counted approximately 154,001 inhabitants on the islands.

• The 1940 census collected information about the population and its housing. It was also the first decennial census to use advanced statistical sampling techniques. Sampling allowed the addition of a number of demographic questions without unduly increasing the overall burden on respondents and data processing.

• Census 2000 incorporated a $167 million advertising campaign to reach every person living in the United States. This advertising contributed to a reversal in the decline of response rates experienced since the 1970 census.

For more information about this year's census, visit the 2010 Census page. If you have questions, or need help filling out your form, the English language assistance number is 1-866-872-6868.

Tax Season

It is tax season once again, so here are a few links that can help you file your taxes.

• Internal Revenue Service: The website for the IRS has information about filing your taxes, from the most simple, to the more complex. All the forms you need are available for download, and there are links to e-file providers. You can also find a link to IRS offices in Arkansas, where you can go to get help with problems and questions about tax law.

• Here in Arkansas, we also have to file Individual Income Taxes, so you will need the website for the Income Tax Office. As with the IRS website, you will find forms, instructions, and a FAQ section to help you file your taxes. If you are eligible to file electronically for your federal taxes, you may also be eligible to file your state income taxes electronically, and you will find the links for state e-filing here.

• Some low-income, military and/or elderly filers may qualify for free tax-preparation assistance. For more information on who qualifies, go to the IRS Free Tax Preparation page.

Opening Day!

It is official! We will be re-opening to the public on Monday, March 15. Our hours will be 8 AM to 4:30 PM, and we will still have public computers available, as well as reference services, patent and trademark information, and plenty of books to check out.

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.

Thanksgiving resources

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and the Christmas feast is just a month away. If you are stuck for ideas, or want to do some research about the history of turkeys, check our databases. In particular, the Culinary Arts Collection includes 150 of the major cooking and nutrition magazines. Coverage includes thousands of searchable recipes, restaurant reviews, and industry information.

Have a safe and fun Thanksgiving!

Autumn facts

Here are a few facts about autumn, gleaned from our databases:

• "Though not as popular as spring, autumn has been a frequent subject of poetry since the classical Roman era, when certain conventions were established. Autumn, of course, has two aspects: it completes summer and it anticipates winter, it celebrates the harvest of the summer’s crops and it mourns the death of the year; it is, in Dickinson’s words, “A little this side of the snow / And that side of the Haze” (no. 131). " In A Dictionary of Literary Symbols. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/litsymb/autumn

• "English acquired autumn from Latin autumnus, partly via Old French autompne. Where Latin got the word from is a mystery; it may have been a borrowing from Etruscan, a long-extinct pre-Roman language of the Italian peninsula. In Old English, the term for ‘autumn’ was harvest, and this remained in common use throughout the Middle Ages; it was not until the 16th century that autumn really began to replace it (at the same time as harvest began to be applied more commonly to the gathering of crops). Fall, now the main US term for ‘autumn’, is 16th-century too." In Word Origins. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/acbwordorig/autumn
• From the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, autumn is the :
  

• season of the year between summer and winter during which temperatures gradually decrease. It is often called fall in the United States because leaves fall from the trees at that time. Autumn is usually defined in the Northern Hemisphere as the period between the autumnal equinox (day and night equal in length), September 22 or 23, and the winter solstice (year's shortest day), December 21 or 22; and in the Southern Hemisphere as the period between March 20 or 21 and June 21 or 22. The autumn temperature transition between summer heat and winter cold occurs only in middle and high latitudes; in equatorial regions, temperatures generally vary little during the year. In the polar regions autumn is very short . . .

  The concept of autumn in European languages is connected with the harvesting of crops; in many cultures autumn, like the other seasons, has been marked by rites and festivals revolving around the season's importance in food production. Animals gather food in autumn in preparation for the coming winter, and those with fur often grow thicker coats. Many birds migrate toward the Equator to escape the falling temperatures. A common autumn phenomenon in the central and eastern United States and in Europe is Indian Summer, a period of unseasonably warm weather that sometimes occurs in late October or November.