Look no further than your Library’s e-resource collection for reliable and hopefully unbiased election coverage!
Start with Opposing Viewpoints in Context, where articles on “National Debate Topics” and “Law and Politics” are already grouped and waiting for you. A search for presidential election or a specific candidate will find you audio from NPR, videos from the NYTimes.com, and many other results from trust-worthy sources.
The Academic Search: Main Edition and Biography in Context databases are a great place to find academic journals and other sources on the potential nominees.
Lastly, try OverDrive for e-books and e-audio. Materials for Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Ted Cruz can be found as well as a variety of books on politics. (Hint: use Browse All Subjects to find Politics)
HSLC will convene a two-day Spring POWER Library Users Conference for Access PA/POWER Library participantsin April 2016 that will include training for POWER Library E-resources and Access PA SHAREit as well as an opportunity to learn about other POWER Library services such as PA Photos and Documents, Chat with a Librarian, the POWER Library Portal, and more.
Locally, one of the conferences will take place in Cranberry Township.
Auto Repair Reference Center was recently removed from POWER Library, much to the disappointment of many library staff and patrons. There are tons of sites out there that will gladly sell you the manual you need, but there’s really no one great free resource for this kind of information. While the Digital Resources Committee looks into alternative access options, I decided to poke around the magical internet and see what, if any, temporary relief was available.
“What do you mean it’s not in POWER Library anymore???”
Chevrolet, Chrysler, and Ford owners have it best, as these manufacturers provide owners’ manuals for free as .PDF files on their respective websites.
Ford’s website, with its clean layout and clear organization, is easiest to search. It’s also got the widest range of manuals, covering cars from 1996-2016.
Chrysler’s free manuals extend back to 2004 only, but is the easiest to use of the three: pick your year and vehicle, then download the file; there’s also a free child safety manual available, with detailed instructions for installing car seats.
Chevrolet’s manual collection is the least extensive, with the oldest manuals available from 2008. However, certain makes and models come with not only the manual, but helpful repair videos as well. As a bonus, pictures of each vehicle appear above each download link, making this useful for people who are more visually oriented and/or don’t know what kind of car they have, but would recognize it on sight.
The next best bet, if you don’t own the cars named above, is, oddly enough, Pep Boys’ Do It Yourself Guides, which reproduces sections from the Haynes manuals (a trusted name in DIY auto, for those of you who walk, bike, or take the bus like me). These guides are not make or model specific, and are designed to provide “first aid” for any failures, funny noises, or other freakouts your car might be having. The writing style and level of detail assume you’re comfortable enough fiddling around under the hood, but are written clearly and simply so that even beginners will find them easy to follow. Many of these guides gently suggest visiting Pep Boys if you still can’t figure out what’s wrong, but that’s a small price to pay for credible information.
Though these aren’t long-term solutions, they at least give you something to offer your patrons rather than sending them away completely empty-handed. Have your users been asking about Auto Repair Reference Center? What kinds of car repair questions do you tend to get at your library? Can you recommend any other online resources I might have missed?
