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5 Ways to Research the 2024 General Election

See below for five resources that can help you learn more about the candidates and amendments on the 2024 general election ballot.

Download a sample Jessamine County ballot.

Kentucky also has two constitutional amendments on the ballot. Read the full text of the amendments on the sample ballot.

Read more about the amendments at the five resources below or from nonpartisan news service the Kentucky Lantern:

Voting Dates

Oct. 23 – 25, 2024 and Oct. 28 – Oct. 30, 2024, 8 am – 4 pm: Excused, in-person absentee voting for qualified voters at the Jessamine County Courthouse.

Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, 2024, 8 am – 4 pm: In-person, no excuse absentee voting at the Jessamine County Courthouse and Wilmore City Hall.

Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024: Election Day.
Polls are open from 6 am to 6 pm.
The library is one of ten polling places open to all Jessamine County precincts.


more: 5 Ways to Research the 2024 General Election

Prompt to Page with Robert Gipe

A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing.

Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. 

Brought to you in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

Listen to Episode 37

Novelist Robert Gipe believes that when you use writing prompts, "you're just kind of fishing for something that works."

If you're lucky, you might end up with "a couple of sentences that have some energy to them, that have some heat." Robert says those sentences can help you build a piece of writing "you feel good enough about to share with others."

more: Prompt to Page with Robert Gipe

Gothic with a Twang: Reading Southern Gothic

Books & Bites Podcast, Ep. 94

JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.

On this episode, we discuss Southern Gothic books, one of the prompts on the Summer-Fall Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge. Southern Gothic is a sub-genre of Gothic fiction--or, as Michael says, it's "Gothic with a twang."

According to Book Riot, some of the characteristics of Southern Gothic include, "eccentric, flawed characters, sinister events, elements of the supernatural or fantastical, and themes relating to race, class, decay, violence, and isolation."

Our picks for this month include a Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, a YA mystery, and a haunting, surprisingly spicy novel. Listen below!

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Fact-Checking Election News

Not sure whether a social media post or news story about the 2024 presidential and vice-presidential candidates is true?

Using critical thinking and media literacy skills can help you decide how much to trust a source. However, professional fact checkers can help you draw more informed conclusions with background information, research, and context.

more: Fact-Checking Election News

Prompt to Page with Deidra White

A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. 

Brought to you in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

Listen to Episode 36

When creative writer Deidra White feels stuck with her writing, she tells herself to "write the poem that you need to read." This exercise helps with one of the most challenging aspects of writing: visualizing your audience.

Deidra shares several other ways she likes to jump start her writing. She also describes how she rediscovered her passion for words as a nontraditional college student, why she enjoys teaching young people, and more. Listen below!

more: Prompt to Page with Deidra White

Explore Hispanic Life in America

This National Hispanic Heritage Month, learn more about Hispanic and Latin American heritage, history, culture, and daily life with the library database Hispanic Life in America.

Hispanic Life in America is the most comprehensive digital archive of primary source documents related to Hispanic and Latine life.

Primary source documents such as newspapers are a great way to supplement book research. Reading directly from these sources can help you understand more about the everyday experiences of Hispanic and Latin Americans.

Hispanic Life in America is sourced from more than 17,000 global media outlets, including over 700 Spanish-language or bilingual publications, dating from 1704 to today.

You'll find local coverage as well, with articles from the Lexington Herald, Lexington Herald-Leader, The Jessamine Journal, and other Kentucky newspapers.

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Royal Reads: Books with Kings or Queens

Books & Bites Podcast, Ep. 93

JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.

On this episode, we discuss books with kings and queens, one of the prompts on the Summer-Fall Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge.

Our picks include a page-turning history of the Magna Carta; a novel about Mary, Queen of Scots; and a YA novel that imagines an American royal family. Listen below!

more: Royal Reads: Books with Kings or Queens

Prompt to Page with Silas House

A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. 

Brought to you in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

Listen to Episode 35

Are you an aspiring writer who thinks you'll write a novel when you have more time or your children are older? If so, author and Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House has some advice for you.

"Often you cannot create the perfect conditions for your writing," he says. "I think if you wait around for that, you're never going to get anything written." Silas knows this from experience, having written his first three novels when his children were small. "Sometimes you just have to do it," he continues.

Silas shares a multi-step writing prompt that will help you create vivid characters, whether you're working on fiction, poetry, or memoir. It's the perfect opportunity to stop waiting and start writing.

more: Prompt to Page with Silas House

Mix Things up with Hybrid Genres

Books & Bites Podcast, Ep. 92

JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.

On this episode, we discuss books that are hybrids of at least two genres, one of the prompts on the Summer-Fall Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge.

Jacqueline's favorite romantasy novels are a good example. They combine elements of romance and fantasy. Other books mash up elements of science fiction and horror or, in the case of both Michael's and Carrie's picks, Westerns and dystopian fiction.

Some nonfiction titles blend different genres, too, such as A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa or The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock. Both mix the authors' personal memoirs with biographies of historical women.

more: Mix Things up with Hybrid Genres