1. New Fed Resource Shares Fuel Economy Information

2. June is Month to Spread Firework Safety Awareness

3. INDOT Program Preserves Roadside Landscapes

4. LoC Debuts Unique Online Portal to Timeless Musical Classics

Trademark Assistance Available Online

The Indiana Secretary of State’s Office has tools and resources to help answer questions about trademarks.   The Indiana Trademark Act, IC 24-2, provides legal details on the state trademark system registration and what can be registered as a trademark. The site also has a trademark search database where users can search for trademarks by owner’s name, description of the trademark, or by the actual trademark name. The information contained in this website will help users to navigate through the complicated process of how to initiate and locate trademarks. For more information, visit the frequently asked questions page. You also may want to visit the Federal Patent and Trademark Office. Finally, for more detailed information on trademarks or if you have more in-depth legal questions, please contact an attorney.  

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Friday Facts Editorial Team:

Katharine Springer
State Data Center Coordinator

Elisabeth O’Donnell
Federal Documents Librarian
&
Kim Brown-Harden
State Documents Coordinator

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New Fed Resource Shares Fuel Economy Information

Everyone’s probably pretty tired about hearing about the price of gas right now. It goes up, it goes down; all we know is that getting from A to Z can be expensive! The Department of Energy has a pretty neat tool for determining just how much (or how little) you may be spending. FuelEconomy.gov allows you to look at a profile of your car. By selecting the make, year, and model of your vehicle, you can view information such as average MPG, your car’s carbon footprint, and even how much money you spend to drive 25 miles. The newer the car is, the more complete the profile. If you don’t like what you see about your current car, you can use this tool to view information about other vehicles. In addition to side-by-side comparisons, the site allows you to rank different classes of cars by fuel economy or other factors.

The site has other useful information  as well. Already driving a hybrid or alternative fuel car? Check out the Benefits section to see if you qualify for a tax break. There are also links that take you to non-governments sites that compile and analyze where you can find the cheapest gas in your community. Finally, you can use this website as a simple source of good information. You can find background information on gas, alternative fuels, sustainability efforts, and even how certain energy ratings are established. There are also tips on saving gas mileage and how to keep your car in shape. Regardless of what the sticker price says this summer, you can use these tools to help keep your personal gas costs down to a minimum.

June is Month to Spread Firework Safety Awareness

It’s a little hard to believe, but the 4^th of July is just around the corner. To many people, the first thing that comes to mind when they think about the holiday is fireworks. Fireworks can be a lot of fun – they’re pretty, noisy, and the sight of a good fireworks display can fill you with awe. However, they can also be really dangerous. In order to prepare individuals and organizations for their fireworks displays next month, June has been declared Fireworks Safety Month. The CDC has a page on reducing fireworks-related injuries. Those who are most at risk of injury tend to be young and male. Injuries can include burns, severed limbs, and blindness. Additionally, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has tips for those who do plan on using their own fireworks: don’t let children play with them, never have any portion of your body directly over a fireworks device (as you don’t know if the item will go off), and keep a water source close by. You also may want to avoid fireworks that come in brown paper bags – these are usually professional-grade and therefore more dangerous. Of course, the number one way to prevent fireworks-related injury is to leave the work to the professional. However, if backyard fireworks are on your agenda this summer, be sure to stay safe!

INDOT Program Preserves Roadside Landscapes

The next time you travel along some Indiana highways and by-ways, be on the lookout for Indiana’s natural beauty. The Indiana Department of Transportation has been beautifying Indiana roadsides since the late 1990’s. The Hoosier Roadside Heritage Program promotes and incorporates Indiana’s native plants and wildflowers into Indiana’s roadside landscape. This program helps protect the environment as well as protecting highway workers from injury by not having to mow along roadsides as often.  It was developed in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management . While you can’t “stop and smell the roses,” you’ll be able to admire and appreciate the beauty of Indiana’s landscape.  

LoC Debuts Unique Portal to Timeless Musical Classics

The Library of Congress recently introduced the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries & archives.

The National Jukebox is a collaborative project of several organizations and even individual record collectors. In 2008, Sony Music Entertainment granted the Library of Congress an unprecedented gratis license to stream over the internet all of the pre-1925 recordings in their catalog, including those of the Victor, Columbia and Okeh labels. The agreement between Sony Music Entertainment and the Library of Congress is the founding charter of the National Jukebox project.

The initial recordings include a variety of genres from classical to jazz, as well as other recordings ranging from vaudeville acts to presidential speeches. Included are over 1300 recordings of operatic repertoire, over 1200 classical sides 62 classified as “whistling,” and 32 recordings of yodeling.