A re-introduction to our homepage's resources: the Reference tab

I've noticed myself blithely clicking through the library's homepage, hardly noticing what has changed.  As staff at the library, I ought to be acutely aware of the resources at hand.  So, to re-acquaint myself, I will take you, dear reader, with me on a trip through the library's homepage.

Libraries are all about order and sequence, but this time I will hop around the tabs instead of starting on the far left and working to the right.  Or maybe I just want to start with the Reference Tab.  Allons-y!

The bar of tabs on the homepage

When your mouse hovers on the Reference Tab, two options appear: Ancestry and ABE/ESL students.  The Ancestry option works inside the library building; it takes you to our subscription for Ancestry Library Edition, which is similar to Ancestry.com.  Look up a name, learn how to interview a relative to preserve family history, or connect with other potential family.

The ABE/ESL option stands for Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language.  This tab suggests some fee and a few free sites to support anyone preparing for the US Citizenship Exam, GED, or California's Distance Learning Project.

When you click on the Reference Tab, the screen displays a plethora of link options, in fact 23 groups! Here is a brief overview of the categories:

About Computers (how-to classes from the very basic to the mildly advanced)

Business & Finance (small business beginnings to stock market information)

Consumer Information (Ruidoso's Chamber of Commerce and links to the federal government)

Create Free e-mail (most of these sites require a cell phone with text-messaging to get started anymore)

Education (how to start homeschooling, find money for college, or create a citation for your paper)

Elections (see where your precinct is, where to vote, request an absentee ballot, read the League of Women Voters or Project Vote Smart's interviews with candidates, sample ballots when available)

Fast Facts (what you used to ask the librarian for: statistics, local facts, safety recalls, or almanacs)

Federal Student Aid (guides to the FAFSA--often required for students to work in college)

For Seniors (local health services, NM's Aging & Long-Term Services Dept, and Social Security info)

Health (Doctor Finder, travel updates, and scientific or medical journals)

Jobs (State and Federal job listings and help sites; information for career seekers/changers)

Language (quote dictionaries and dictionaries for all ages)

Legal Forms (Bankruptcy, divorce, contract examples, and basic assistance)

Lincoln County Libraries (find Capitan, Corona, ENMU, public schools, and digital libraries in the county)

New Mexico Facts (Cities, maps, tourism, genealogy and government links)

New Mexico Law Library (more forms, regional court specifics, statutes, and municipal codes)

New Mexico Links (MVD's driver's manual, oral history projects, and fun sites)

People (find people, phone numbers, businesses, or census data)

Reading Suggestions (social networks for book lovers, a database of all mystery books ever, find which book is next in a series, or find a suggestion to try next)

Research (encyclopedia, more genealogy, maps, other municipal codes)

Tax Help (state and federal websites and forms and how to file in other states)

Village Emergency (where to register your physical address with the village or county to hear about evacuations or frozen pipes on your cell phone while you are out of town)

Other (look up ZIP codes, the World Fact Book, and read about jobs and salaries in the Occupational Outlook Handbook from the Dept of Labor)

Was that too much for one blog-post?  Probably.  If you find a broken link, please comment below or send an email to the library.  I check them every year, but that may not be often enough these days.