Author Archives: Lisa Kelly

The Library Commission has 8 copies of the latest Oprah reading group selection The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski in our book club kit collection. Celebrate National Reading Group Month and read this hot new book with your group. Don’t have a group? This is a great time of year to begin a reading group and here are some excellent resources to get you started. Contact the reference desk to reserve your copies today!

We’ve reached 1000 updates (aka tweets) in our twitter account and once again it is time to share an answer to a question we’ve answered. Since this is the month of June (a traditional month for weddings) – here is a real question and the answer we provided:
What do we need in order to get a marriage license?
You should contact the county clerk in the county in which you are to be married:
http://www.dmv.state.ne.us/dvr/mvtitles/ctyofflist.html
Here’s what Lancaster County says about requirements:
http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/cnty/clerk/marriage.htm
And what Douglas County lists:
http://www.co.douglas.ne.us/dept/Clerk/marriagerequirements.htm

Here’s another question with the answer revealed to a twitter question:
Question:
There was an initiative a few years ago for Nebraska to sell Cuban Cigars. Can I have references to what happened to this initiative please? Who sponsored it and what is the name of the bill?
Answer:
Here are the steps I took to answer the question.
1. I searched the Omaha World Herald online and located an article from January 12th 2006 indicating that Senator Pam Brown introduced LB 1034 which stated … “under Legislative Bill 1034, the state could accept Cuban tobacco or tobacco products — such as those highly prized Cuban cigars — in payment for agricultural or medical products sold to that island nation.”
2. I searched the site below for past legislation to find the text of the bill from the 99th Legislature: http://uniweb.legislature.ne.gov/QS/session.php?mode=adv_search which I located here: http://uniweb.legislature.ne.gov/FloorDocs/99/PDF/Intro/LB1034.pdf
3. I searched the 2006 Legislative Journal for the voting record and determined this bill was indefinitely postponed by the Agriculture Committee: http://uniweb.legislature.ne.gov/FloorDocs/Current/PDF/Journal/2006/2006journal.pdf

Recently, we were asked if we received permission from our questioners to post their queries in our twitter feed. The answer simply is no however there are several caveats that need to be noted. In no case do we make the identity of our patrons known and if the question is perhaps too leading, that question will not be posted. Occasionally, a question might be reworded for brevity or to simplify the essence. Generally, we try to cut and paste exactly from the emails or IM chats so the reader gets the authentic question. As we near our 1000th twitter entry, we hope to celebrate more than a year’s worth of excellent questions showing the real day-to-day activity of the at the state library reference desk.