What We're Reading: November 2024

Election 2024. It dominated the news cycle for the majority of the year, and now that it has come to pass, we are stuck examining the outcome and figuring out how it happened. The selections for this month feature analysis of the election on the national, state, and local levels. We pull articles from the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Standard for this reflection, with an emphasis on the data graphics each paper employed to tell the story with more than words. And lastly, for a little bit of something else, we have an article from the Chronicle about the ongoing issues around transgendered players in the college women's volleyball scene that puts SJSU at the center of the drama. The Chronicle has been doing in-depth, targeted reporting on the issue, which should be highlighted.

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Key to Trump's Win: Big Losses for Harris Across the Country

New York Times, November 23, 2024

So many of us San Francisco voters are wondering what went wrong in the election at the beginning of this month. This piece from the New York Times takes a look at the voting behaviors of the country as a whole, offering compelling graphics that chart the voting change from 2020 to 2024. Read it in PressReader, which offers a digital replica of the print paper, so you can see the graphics in their printed glory, or read it on NYTimes.com where you can interact with the data with this courtesy link.

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Hanging out in SF’s Trumpiest neighborhoods

San Francisco Standard, November 11, 2024

The Standard uses data from the San Francisco Department of Elections and interviews with residents to dig into the trend towards Trump observed in the City's southeast corner, including Visitacion Valley and the Portola District. The handiwork of the Standard's data graphics person, Noah Baustin, is on display in an interactive graphic that maps votes by precinct in this piece as well as others filed under Election 2024, for example the article reporting on the low(er) voter turnout this year. The Chronicle put out a similar piece with interactive maps that explores the Trump trend in the southeast corner of SF, getting even more granular by highlighting, on a map, the two "Trumpiest" precincts in the entire City, showcasing the handiwork of graphics reporter Harsha Devulapalli and deputy data editor Aseem Shukla. 

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2024 Election Results

San Francisco Chronicle, last updated Dec. 7, 2024

As a special project dashboard, the SF Chronicle's 2024 election results page has been updated daily since the election and provides many interactive graphical representations of voting trends on a national, state, and local level. We offer this to you with a gift link to bypass any potential paywalls since this is the type of dynamic reporting not available in the library's subscription to the Chronicle through NewsBank. You can also view their California election dashboard and their San Francisco election dashboard. One of the most striking graphics is the change from blue to red of many counties in California, as well. 

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Legal Bid to Bench Trans Player Spiked 

San Francisco Chronicle, November 27, 2024

This article is the penultimate piece to date in the Chronicle's reporting on the lawsuit barring transgender women from playing college volleyball as brought forth by some players on the San Jose State University team. Now, the SJSU volleyball season is over, but several lawsuits and the future of women's sports remain. You can check out reporter Anne Killion's most recent piece to see where everything stands at the moment.

After the SF Election 2008

In a previous post "Follow the Election 2008," we presented some periodicals that could help you make informed decisions on propositions, measures, elected officials, and other topics of political interest and intrigue. Now that the election polls have closed, commercials have gone off the air, flyers have stopped cramming your mailboxes, and the verbal mudslinging has ceased, you may have forgotten what you voted for.

Let's turn our attention to the San Francisco measures. Perhaps you forgot which propositions had recently passed and you already tossed out your voter booklet. Maybe you're curious about how many people voted for or against a San Francisco proposition. Or you just absolutely forgot what exactly the propositions were proposing. If any of these apply, check out the San Francisco Ballot Propositions Database.

If you remember the proposition title, number, or letter, enter in that information. If not, you can always enter a year and/or month to pull up a list of propositions for that time frame. (See below):


Let's try an example:

1. Go to the SFPL Home Page and select “SFPL-Created Research Tools.”

2. Under the “San Francisco Resources” category, select SF Ballot Propositions Database.”

3. Enter "2008" into the year box to pull up a list of recent San Francisco propositions.

You will see a table identifying the various propositions and their outcomes. Clicking on the ID number next to each proposition will retrieve more detailed information on the proposition summarizing the measure and its percentage of votes for and against the proposition.

Even better, if you want to access the original text of the proposition, click on "View the Voter Pamphlet" to pull up a PDF file.

The San Francisco Ballot Propositions Database, a repository of most (a few years are missing) ballot propositions dating back to 1907, contains complete proposition titles, summaries, vote counts, breakdown of vote counts (pass and fail), and more. The exact count of vote counts for the November 2008 election will be forthcoming once the results are finalized.

Follow the 2008 Election

November is just around the corner, which means that the 2008 Presidential election is going to be heating up soon. While we prefer not to talk about politics here at the Magazines and Newspapers Center reference desk, we're happy to talk about the ways that you can use our collection to get the latest news, polls, analysis, and other dirt from the campaign trail.

We have dozens of news and politics magazines. For example:

CQ Weekly is the premier source for coverage of the House and Senate. What does that have to do with the Presidential election? All of the likely Presidential candidates are U.S. Senators. CQ Weekly will tell you how they voted, what bills they're sponsoring, and what they're saying. It's a good way to check what the candidates do versus what they say.

Like CQ Weekly, National Journal is a D.C. insider magazine, but it has a broader focus. Expect campaign coverage and analysis here, but also look here for current political trends, polls, and analysis of significant issues that the next President will have to face. National Journal is also similar to CQ Weekly in that it's a bit on the wonky side: there is definitely an expectation that readers have a pretty sophisticated knowledge of the D.C. political scene.

Looking for something a little less, eh, technical? Many people find the best way to get a synopsis of the week in American politics is to turn to an English publication, the weekly magazine called The Economist. The Economist has a political bent that does not fit neatly into the American interpretation of right and left, but there is a definite editorial stance in favor of free trade and globalism. Regardless, the coverage is fairly extensive and it offers a valuable outsider perspective.

CQ Weekly and the National Journal strive for unbiased reporting, and The Economist isn't aligned with either major American political party. But what's the fun of a Presidential election without a little partisan mudslinging?

The view from the right is maybe most famously represented by the National Review, which was founded in 1955 by William F. Buckley, widely considered the father of modern conservatism. To the left, there is perhaps no better known weekly magazine than The Nation, founded in 1865 by abolitionists and continuously published since. Count on each of these magazines for strictly biased coverage of the political scene.

There are, of course, myriad political viewpoints, and San Francisco Public Library just may have magazines that speak to all of them. If the above magazines don't match your interests, stop by the Magazines and Newspapers Center reference desk and we'll see if we can find you something that does fit.

Or, you can try searching the catalog yourself and see what comes up. Here's one approach:

1. Go to http://sfpl.org/
   


2. In the yellow "SFPL Online" box at the top left of the page, click on "more."
   


3. Click on the link to search by subject.
   


4. Type in "united states politics and government periodicals."
   This will bring up a list of all of the magazines and newsletters we have that have that subject heading.
   
   Happy politicking!

Election 2008

California will be participating in the primary elections very soon. Are you curious about the backgrounds of the presidential candidates? Would you like to research more information on these potential leaders for our nation? To find more information and updated news articles, check out the Biography Resource Center:

1. Go to the SFPL Home Page and select “Articles & Databases.” You will need a San Francisco Public Library card to access the databases from outside the Library.

2. Under the Categories side bar on the left, select “People” then “Biography Resource Center+Marquis Whos Who (Gale).”

3. In the “Search by Name” box, enter a candidate of your choice.

4. Select any of the links from the list of results.

The Biography Resource Center contains biographical profiles of prominent historical and contemporary figures worldwide. You can search by an individual’s nationality, ethnicity, occupation, and birth/death years as well as browse through topical categories. Articles are drawn from general and specialized biographical dictionaries, encyclopedias, directories, magazines, and selected Web sites.