Are there any hotlines that kids could call to report info they have on violence at school? Like a place you could call that would be anonymous so they won’t have to worry about getting in trouble. They could report that someone has a gun or said something threating and stuff like that. I just know that these school shootings like in red lake, MN and the ones that happy in our cities every day could be prevented.

Is there a national anonymous hotline just for students or at least ones done by state govts or even local govts?

Thanks!

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: In North Carolina there’s the Center for the Prevention of School Violence, in Raleigh, at 1-800-299-6054, although this doesn’t look like a “hotline” to help resolve immediate problems. Call 911 if, for instance, someone has a loaded gun! 911 dispatchers are supposed to respect anonymity of callers, although I can’t attest as to the policy of each local jurisdiction regarding anonymity. At the number above they might tell you about what number is best to call in your area for a non-immediate situation.

I can’t find any sort of national hotline, but several state and local juristications seem to have them. School Violence Hotline for Michigan is 1-800-815-TIPS. For Missouri, it’s 1-866-748-7047. The Alabama Safe School Hotline is 1-888-728-5437. Back in 2001 there seems to have been a House bill, the “School Safety Hotline Act of 2001” (H.R. 899, 107th Congress), introduced by Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, that would have provided federal money to help states establish such hotlines, but it appears to have died in committee.

Are there ever any bad questions that you refuse to answer? I hope this wasn’t a bad question…

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Spam sent to the online suggestion book (e.g., book announcements) are deleted. Some rude comments about library staff may be ignored, although these are rare and AP may attempt to gently remind the nasty person to take a deep breath and put things in perspective. To maintain civility, the “answer” to a bad question/comment just might address its style and not its content. Usually, AP likes to publicize an insulting or rash comment to make the writer look as dumb as possible.

How do I delete a file that my Mac’s Finder thinks is “in use”?

The file could very well be in use because it’s on a shared drive, but the file really is useless, thus I don’t care if it’s “in use”. Is there a way for me to delete it manually? Do I need software?

Thanks!

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Sorry for my delayed answer, but Answer Person was “in use” elsewhere.

Although I’m not currently a Mac user (I use one of Duke’s officially assigned PC’s), there seems to be a web page with information on this topic at:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

It has guidance and links to trash utilities. It may not, however, apply to this shared drive issue.

You’ll have to work to paste this URL into your browswer, but here’s some interesting information:
http://www.macfixitforums.com/php/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=OfficeX&Number=678709&page=&view=&sb=&o=

It mentions some performance utilities:
Onyx: http://www.titanium.free.fr/english.html
Trash It!: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14884

When I am driving I often see people on the side of the road, using some sort of laser-like device. What are they doing? I think they are called surveyors, but that could be totally wrong. AP, I am scared, are they setting up speed traps (or worse)?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: It’s probably worse than speed traps. They’re surveying to widen the highway, resulting in the destruction of trees and historic buildings. The laser device you see is probably a transit. The surveyors point it at a stadia rod or level rod (like a big ruler) to measure heights, angles, and distances from a known point. In the olden days (e.g., 20 yrs ago) the transit was like a telescope, with little crosshairs in it, and you could tell the distance by the magnification of units on the stadia rod. There are a variety of surveying instruments that are sort of like what I describe here (telescope-like, laser-like, measuring rods, etc.). GPS receivers can help with distance nowadays, too.

Is living with your significant other before marriage a good idea?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: AP prefers to be libertarian about these things and not be a moral arbiter or second guess what living arrangements work best for people. It’s up to the two of you. If you want to test the waters before (or in place of) the further commitment of marriage, that’s OK. If you believe that living together already represents a permanent commitment, then you need to weigh the decision the same as you would marriage. If your moral system gives one or both of you doubts about whether this is the right thing, then it’s a bad idea.

What is an “Army Regulation”? I am writing a paper using “Army Regulation 190-8”, and I was wondering if this was equivalent to Federal Law or if it was more like a recommendation?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Administrative regulations of federal executive branch agencies (of which the Army is one) are legally binding rules, not just recommendations. Interpretation of a specific law or regulation, however, might be open to debate and judicial review, just as statutes (laws formulated by the legislative branch) are open to interpretation and judicial review. You should talk to one of the librarians at the Law School Library or to a law professor with expertise in regulatory or military law.

Hey AP,

Are there any other university libraries that have people like you? Do you know if you have any internet competitors out there, and if any of them are any good?

You’re the best, I’m sure!

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Thanks for the compliments! Sure, there are many Answer Persons at university libraries. We hold annual conventions (in a secret location, of course) where we attend programs with guest speakers such as Ann Landers and discuss issues such as how best to secure the Answer Book pen to prevent its theft.

But seriously, although many libraries have suggestion boxes where you insert your comment on a secretive little folded slip of paper, I don’t know of any other place where they’ve institutionalized the comments and answers in such a public manner. On the web, there seem to be several library-based “Answer Man” services (even though a majority of people working in libraries are women!). These seem to be for the purpose of asking legitimate reference questions, but this AP urges you to take such questions to a legitimate Reference department at one of the Duke libraries. I’ll listen to your gripes about the Perkins restrooms.

What is the proper way to cite a court petition (or other court documents) in an MLA format bibliograpy?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Well, it’s probably too late for your paper now. I hope an important legal case wasn’t hanging in the balance. For such a reference question in the future, you might want to contact the Perkins Reference desk (where they have the *MLA Handbook*) or else the reference desk over at the Law Library.

The MLA Handbook seems to deal only with published legal materials (court decisions, statutes, etc.), and even then for the details refers to *The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation* by the Harvard Law Review Assn. There’s a copy behind the Perkins Reference desk at 348.7347 U58x, and probably a newer edition over at Law. (Incidentally, the MLA Handbook incorrectly cites this as *The Blue Book* — it’s actually one word!)

At a glance, however, AP didn’t see guidelines for unpublished court documents in *The Bluebook*. Since AP doesn’t purport to be a lawyer, I recommend that you contact the fine folks over at the law library, who can lend you their expertise in these matters. I’m guessing that since this isn’t handled by MLA, you will have to fudge it to look like you think MLA should look like.

Is there a web site that lists the most popular web sites? Or if I wanted to know how many hits a specific web site gets, can I find out for free somehow?

Cheers!

PS
What is your favorite website, AP?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: There’s a listing of the top English language sites at alexa.com: http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500 This lists top-level addresses, so, for instance, ESPN is is under www.go.com (way down at #11). You can click on the “Site info” link, then “See Traffic Details” to get a rough idea of number of hits. You can use the comparison feature with any other top-level website (e.g., www.duke.edu), then show the traffic level for that website. You probably can’t trust those “number of visitors” counters that some sites have. My favorite counter is at http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/

My favorite website? It sounds like you’re trying to figure out something about my personal tastes to divulge my secret identity, right? A pretty good one is http://library.duke.edu/

I have a friend who likes UNC basketball. How do I gently convince her of her fault and encourage her to become a Duke fan?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: That’s like trying to convert someone to a different religion. It’s very difficult. (It doesn’t help your project that our mascot is a Devil!) If you’re good to her and introduce her to other good Duke fans and don’t directly criticize UNC (that would be like attacking her current religion), then you have a chance. The subtle approach. And, if she just sees enough Duke games, she should see the light.