Presidential Elections Display

My ever-amazing student assistant just finished a big display on presidential elections for our floor. It features related items available on our floor (with call numbers!), including related CRS reports, lists good web resources for more info on election, politics, and government (of course, FGI's on there), and has a section about our department including a group photo, floor map, and how to contact us. This is in the display case that's visible as you exit the elevators on our floor.

It's lovely to give someone the barest formation of an idea and see them go happily run with it! Particularly when the results are so great.

I love this part of the display--the thought of the candidates actually duking it out makes me laugh...

Truth-O-Meter

PolitiFact.com has a remarkable tool for finding the story behind candidate's comments, particularly attacks on their rivals, called the Truth-O-Meter. A lovely bonus is that they even fact-check candidates' videos!

I have to give props to my student assistant (aka CRS Report Ninja Assistant), Claire, for finding this on the always-informative FreeGovInfo. She's putting together a presidential elections-themed display for our floor, and we're trying to showcase documents, informational websites, and common questions about elections (a FAQ that will include an "ask us more!" spot with our department's reference contact information).

I can't wait to see what she comes up with, based on her awesome sketch and the bang-up job she did on a CRS-report-themed display and a World War posters display.

New Display Photos Up

We've been doing a "favorite/most interesting docs" display for several months now, and I started documenting it for June. Each month, a staff member picks one or more themes and makes a display with themed documents in the "comfy seating" section of our floor.

I'm currently pondering my own choices for August...

Banned Books Photos

Just thought you might like to see some images from the past week, since I didn't have time to upload them earlier.

Happy Constitution Day!

Our GovDocs Department went out to Wooten Hall this morning, home of PoliSci majors, to hand out pocket constitutions. We had close to 300 constitutions at 8:30 this morning.

By 9am, we were nearly out.

That certainly beat our projected goal of handing out 300 by 10:30! I guess we'll have to buy more next year.


We printed labels with our department name, URL, and phone number, and placed them on the front of the Constitutions in the hopes that it sparks more traffic at our public service desk.



We've also got a lovely constitution-themed display on the first floor of Willis Library, where we stashed a few more constitutions.

For more Constitution Day fun and learning, check out NARA's Charters of Freedom Exhibit. It's got high-quality images and text transcripts of the Constitution and other founding documents.