A History of San Francisco's Tenderloin District

St. Ann's Valley

The Magazines and Newspapers Center will present a program—A History of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District--hosted by Peter Field, City Guide leader of many popular walking tours through the Tenderloin.

Join San Francisco City Guide Peter Field, leader of many popular walking tours through the Tenderloin, for a slide show tracing the colorful, seldom-explored history of the district.

Known to early San Franciscans as St. Ann’s Valley, this once-placid piece of real estate provides us with a fascinating microcosm of urban history as we follow its turbulent passage from quiet respectability to entertainment center to vice-ridden “mean streets,” to its present reinvention of itself as a restaurant district.

Mr. Field worked in the Tenderloin as a community mental health worker for more than a decade, and has since spent several years researching its history and volunteering with San Francisco City Guides.

- Address: 100 Larkin St. (at Grove)
- Location: Main Library, Koret Auditorium
- Event Date and Time: Saturday, April 4 (10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.)

ABCs of Digital Scanning

MICROFORM

Digital scanning is an increasingly popular means of capturing images and text. The San Francisco Public Library offers multiple media scanning options. Let the Magazines and Newspapers Center staff introduce youto high resolution microform scanning.

In this one-hour session, we will demonstrate how to read, scan, and capture historical microfilm and microfiche images from our microform newspaper and periodical collection. You will also learn how to edit, save, e-mail, and print digital images in the format of your choice.

- Address: 100 Larkin St. (at Grove)
- Location: Main Library, Fifth Floor, Magazines & Newspapers Center, Microfilm Room
- Event Date and Time: Monday, March 30, 2009 (Noon - 1 p.m.)

All programs at the Library are free.

Current issue of Consumer Reports now available through SFPL databases

You can now see the most current edition of Consumer Reports online by using the Library's InfoTrac OneFile and EBSCOHost Magazines databases. Previously, one could not use these databases to view the most current issues within a 90 day time frame.

Both of the databases provide scanned pdf files so that all of the illustrations and graphs are included - everything you would see if you picked up a paper copy.

If you would like to view this magazine but are not sure how to access it, please come by the Magazines and Newspapers Center information desk or email us at magazinesnewspapers@sfpl.org, and we will be happy to guide you.

Finding Magazines Through Google Book Search

One of Google's longstanding missions has been "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." In a blog post from the Official Google Blog, Google has expanded its Google Book Search to incorporate magazine articles into this specialized online collection. Some titles include Ebony, New York Magazine, Popular Science, Vegetarian Times, and more.

To search specifically for articles from magazines, access the Advanced Book Search page and limit your search to magazines:

Once you find a title, you can explore the individual issues withing a specific set of years, click on any given cover, browse through the contents just as you would if you had the magazine in your hands, and peruse the magazine page by page, search through a specific issue, and more. While this collection is not complete, Google plans to add more digitized images to this archive as time goes on.

Remember that if you cannot find a specific magazine or issue, you can still rely on the Magazines & Newspapers Center, and we'll be happy to help you.