"How do I find my local government representative?"
Answer: One way to quickly look up this information for a patron is at Project Vote Smart, where users can enter their 9-digit zip code (if they don't know the 9-digit code there is a link to the US Postal Service site where they can look it up) and find their elected officials. The site displays president, governor, U.S. senators, House representatives, state senators, assemblymembers, and any candidates running for those positions.
Opensecrets.org also has a 'find my representatives' feature (scroll down the left hand side of page) searchable by zip code. The information provided is not quite so complete as Project Vote Smart data but it is a good source too.
"I need to find world events that happened on my birthday [or, any specific date]"
Answer: The IPL has a FARQ on this topic, so it is a great place to begin.
One of the best sites for this information is Scope Systems, which allows you to enter a month and day, but not every year is available.
A site which does allow you to enter day, month, and year is dMarie Time Capsule, which has "data online for the years 1800 through 2001, although data for the years 1800 - 1875 is probably spotty".
Another handy source is the Library of Congress' Today in History Archive. For more resources, have a look at the IPL's FARQ, mentioned above.
A good print source for this type of question is:
Chase's Calendar of Events (2001) ISBN 0809295547, which lists dates (eg. October 21st), and then lists what happened throughout history on those dates. There may not be always be something listed for the particular year you're looking for, but there will always be something for the day.
"I need to learn to say 'hello' in many different languages"
Answer: One good source for this question is the New York Public Library Desk Reference. On p.421 in the "Common Phrases in Major World Languages" section, we are given the words for 'hello' in six languages:
· French (Bonjour)
· German (Guten Tag)
· Italian (Buon Giorno)
· Spanish (Hola/Buenos dias)
· Chinese (Ni hao)
· Japanese (Kon-nichiwa)
A great website for learning how to say 'hello', as well as many other common words and phrases, in a variety of different languages is Foreign Languages for Travelers. When you get to the site you simply click on the language you would like to learn, and then you are given a selection of words and phrases to choose from: basic words, numbers, directions, places, etc. This is an excellent, comprehensive resource for answering this type of question.
