Discover more about your family history by accessing the Ancestry Library Edition database. This huge database taps into a wide array of sources, including census reports, birth & death records, and immigration records. Expand on what you already know about your ancestors by locating newspaper articles, yearbook photos, and much more.

Whether your forebears are from North America, the UK, Europe, Australia, or somewhere else, it's worth looking for information here. Current featured data collections are
Australian Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 and United States Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940.

To access Ancestry Library Edition, you must be inside an Ann Arbor District library -- Downtown, West, Pittsfield, Traverwood, or Mallets Creek. Have fun finding information on your ancestors!

Academic OneFile is a comprehensive database of journal articles that have been published from 1980 to 2011. These articles cover a vast array of academic genres which include history, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts, theology, and literature. Specific journal titles include; "Journal of Communication", "Journal of Southern History", and the "Journal of Social Issues". Most of these journals can be viewed in full text, and are available in HTML and PDF formats.

A few other popular features of this database includes transcripts and podcasts from National Public Radio programs, and full text coverage of the "New York Times" back to 1995. You can also peruse popular news magazines such as "Newsweek" and "The Atlantic".

Access to this database is available at every branch of the Ann Arbor District Library, as well as off site provided you have a valid Ann Arbor District Library card. You just log in to your account to obtain full access to Academic OneFile. Another bonus is that this database is updated daily to keep you “in the know!"

Election Results for communities throughout Washtenaw County are available on the Washtenaw County Clerk's website. CitiTV Channel 19 also has results.

Tuesday, Nov. 8 is the City General Election and the ballot this year includes:
- City Council candidates in all five wards
- Renewal of the Streets Repair and Resurfacing Millage proposal
- Sidewalk Repair Millage proposal
- Amendment to restructure the Ann Arbor City Employees Retirement Board of Trustees.

Polling place locations, candidates and millage information is available on the city’s Election website.To find out your exact polling location, visit the Michigan Votes online voter information center.

Voter Tips
• Don’t forget to bring your photo ID to vote. Voters who do not have acceptable photo ID will be required to sign an affidavit in order to vote.
• Polling place hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.
• The City Clerk’s Office is still accepting applications for absentee ballots. The office is open to the public for absentee ballot requests on Saturday, November 5, 2011 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. In-person requests for absentee ballots will be accepted at the City Clerk’s Office, 2nd floor of City Hall, until Monday, November 7 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Ann Arbor Public Schools are closed on Election Day. Polling places located within schools are open . Signs will be posted at all polling locations to assist voters.
• Washtenaw County election results are televised on Community Television Network’s CitiTV Channel 19 beginning at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011—after the polls close—and will continue throughout the night.

You've been winding your way through the single-lane situation on East Stadium, eagerly anticipating the next phase in the Ann Arbor Bridges project. Well, the wait is almost over. Beginning in November 2011, the Ann Arbor Bridges Reconstruction project will begin.

The Project Update Press Release details, concretely, every phase of the project. Leaving no cone unturned in their effort to keep citizens informed, the city will provide updates on the website throughout the reconstruction.

And speaking of the Big House, Sparty sends his best.

A project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Birds of North America Online includes contributions from researchers, citizen scientists, reviewers and editors and image and video galleries showing plumages, behaviors, habitat, nests and eggs, and more. BNA now features recordings of the songs and calls of their species from the extensive collection of Cornell's Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds.

You can access BNA Online 24-hours a day from home through our Database Page. I like putting in keyword terms like "black billed" or "blue throated" and seeing the results. Amazing what great background music bird calls provide to a day indoors.

learningexpress

Did you know that you can access dozens of practice tests and 150 e-books by going to the LearningExpress Library from our Research Pages? Just click on the Research Tab and then the click on the link that says "Test Prep". LearningExpress Library is the sole item with that heading. You will need an additional log in to access this database to take practice tests. Believe me, it's worth having a look-see for Academic preparation, Civil Services exams, Skill Building for kids and adults and So MUCH MORE!!!

AADL has a new database of academic Ebooks from a publisher just down the street: the University of Michigan Press. Access the collection from our A-Z Database page or our Local Creators page. Browse or search over 500 titles published by the University of Michigan Press right in your browser.

The University of Michigan Press produces educational texts for student audiences, with special emphasis on English language teaching and political, social, and cultural issues. UM Press also produces regional books on fiction and the arts, human history, natural history, and the changing environment of Michigan and the Great Lakes.

city hall

On Monday, June 27, the City of Ann Arbor Customer Service Center will be open for business at 8 a.m. in its new permanent location on the first floor of City Hall, located at 301 E. Huron Street.

Customer Service Center services include:
• Payment processing for water bills, parking tickets, property taxes, and solid waste;
• Routes city calls and requests and provides general city information to walk-in customers; and
• This unit also is responsible for water utility meter reading, installation, repair, billing, backflow prevention inspections and certifications.

The Customer Service Center phone number will not change, which is (734) 794-6320.

Benjamin Franklin Family TreeIn 1899, John Woolf Jordan (historian and genealogy writer of the late 1800's and early 1900's) wrote an article for the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography titled, “Franklin as a Genealogist”. Mr. Jordan obtained original letters and records and wrote about Benjamin Franklin’s genealogical quest. Benjamin Franklin investigated his family line and created what Mr. Jordan referred to as a pedigree (a family tree, a portion of Benjamin Franklin's pedigree is displayed in the blog photo). You too can see the original documents (some in Benjamin Franklin’s own hand) using the Heritage Quest research database.

The Heritage Quest database (available @ AADL) has documents imaged from the 1790 - 1930 U.S. federal censuses and images from over 20,000 book titles, including family and local histories. To access the Heritage Quest database from home, simply login to your online library account. You can search census data, books and local histories, revolutionary war pension and bounty-land-warrant application files, Freedman's Bank documents, and Serial Set documents. I searched for books about Ann Arbor and found several, including: Polk's Ann Arbor City Directory,1915 and the Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Washtenaw County Directory, 1888-9.