Radical Reference Presents: the 2008 Grassroots Media Election Guide

Librarian volunteers from the Radical reference collective
(www.radicalreference.info) introduce the 2008 Grassroots Media Election guide, chock full of all the links you’ll want to bookmark/tag. Featuring both in-depth and up-to-the-minute campaign information from outside the mainstream, this walk through the 2008 guide highlights news and primary government information sources for radical and progressive media makers monitoring national to local races. This session will emphasize sources that are freely available on the Internet, and locally accessible from your nearest public library. Come get hip to sources, and hone your research and searching techniques. The session will conclude with a brainstorming session for distributing the guide at RNC and DNC convention demonstrations and related events.

THE GUIDE:

VOTER REGISTRATION FOR NEW YORK
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/register.html

SOME BASICS

big-bro-free searching
Scroogle
http://scroogle.org/
An ad-free Google search proxy which prevents the searcher's data being stored by Google, a Firefox plugin, and tools for webmasters

What is RSS and how do you use it?
See the wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

NEWS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES

Alt Press Index and Alternative Press Index Archive
*Available at NYPL and other public libraries, accessible with your library card*
The Alternative Press Index is widely regarded as the leading guide to the alternative press in North America. Citations are drawn from roughly 380 alternative, radical, and left publications, which report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political, and social change. API indexes such important periodicals as Cineaste, Environmental Action, Socialist Review, and Women's Review of Books. Subject areas covered include African-American Studies, social theory, ethnic and racial studies, socialism, feminism, alternative organizations, gay/lesbian studies, anarchism, community organizing, prisons, ecology, indigenous people's rights, labor studies, and internationalism.

Alt-PressWatch
*Available at NYPL and other public libraries, accessible with your library card*
Alt-PressWatch is a full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals from alternative and independent presses. This interdisciplinary resource provides a valuable source of alternative viewpoints and perspectives to complement and challenge mainstream media coverage. Many of these publications are difficult to locate and acquire in their printed format.

AltWeeklies.com hot topics pages, covering the national election and more
http://www.altweeklies.com/alternative/AltWeeklies/index
AltWeeklies.com brings readers the best, most insightful, thought-provoking news and features published in the 130 papers that belong to the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.

Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/
Breaking news and views for the progressive community.

Counter Punch Links
http://www.counterpunch.org/links.html
List of links from CounterPunch.org

Ethnic News Watch
*Available at NYPL and other public libraries, accessible with your library card*
Designed to provide the "other side of the story," this database offers additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press. Coverage begins in 1990. Searchable in English and in Spanish, and includes such titles as the New York Amsterdam News, Chicago Defender, El Diario/La Prensa and The Jewish Week.

NYC IndyMedia
NYC Independent Media Center's home page.
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/index.html

New York State Newspapers
*Available at NYPL and other public libraries, accessible with your library card*

A collection of major New York State newspapers, available in full-text.
You can search across the following New York State newspapers are available in full-text:
1. Buffalo News [Buffalo, NY]
2. Herald-American [Syracuse, NY]
3. New York Observer [New York, NY]
4. New York Post [New York, NY]
5. New York Times [New York, NY]
6. Post-Standard [Syracuse, NY]

BLOGS

C&E political blog directory
http://www.campaignsandelections.com/blogs/blogs.cfm?categoryid=42&startrow=1

New York-Centric Political Blogs
Includes a good list of New York political blogs and online news sources.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Portal:New_York_and_the_U.S._Congress

Wikipedia list of prominent political blogs and bloggers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_blog#Notable_American_political_blogs_and_bloggers

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

CSPAN Congressional Chronicle
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/
The C-SPAN Congressional Chronicle is an index to the C-SPAN video recordings of the House and Senate floor proceedings. The video recordings are matched with the text of the Congressional Record as soon as the Record is available. It only includes members who appeared on the floor to deliver or insert their remarks. The text included here is what the member submitted. Each appearance has a video link where users can watch and listen to the actual remarks.

FactCheck.org
http://www.factcheck.org/
Nonpartisan, nonprofit Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania examines the statements of major candidates.

Govtrak
Track the activities of your representatives via customizable RSS feeds
http://www.govtrack.us/

New York: State and Local Government websites
http://www.statelocalgov.net/state-ny.htm

New York State Board of Elections
http://www.elections.state.ny.us/portal/page?_pageid=35,1,35_8617&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

New York City Board of elections
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/index.html

Open Congress
http://www.opencongress.org/
OpenCongress brings together official government information with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind what's happening in Congress.

Portal:2008 U.S. Congressional Elections - Congresspedia
Wiki guide to national and local elections. Contains information about congressional records and links to relevant local blogs.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wiki_the_Vote

Project vote smart legislation tracking for Congress and State legislatures
http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote.php

THOMAS
http://thomas.loc.gov/
Federal legislative information freely available to the public, hosted by the library of congress

Campaign Finance Information

Campaign Finance - Money, Political Finance, Campaign Contributions
Contains reports about donations to political campaigns.
http://www.campaignmoney.com/

Federal Election Commission Home Page
The official homepage of the Federal Election Commission. Here you will find a great deal of election finance reports, disclosures and data.
http://www.fec.gov/

Opensecrets.org--Money in politics data
A project of the Center for Responsive Politics, Opensecrets.org provides users with large amounts of data on national and local campaign spending.
http://www.opensecrets.org/

Historical Election Data

Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
Historical data about previous election results.
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/

NARA | Federal Register | U.S. Electoral College
The National Archives and Records Administration maintains this web page that explains the electoral college, contains historical election results and teaching resources.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/index.html

Voting and Registration Data
Historical voting and registration data from the US Census bureau.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html

SOME OTHER MAJOR ELECTION GUIDES HAND-CRAFTED BY LIBRARIANS

The University of Michigan Government Documents Center guide to 2008 election information.
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/elec2008.html

ACRL 2008 Election Guide
Links to online information from the Association of College and Research Libraries.
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2008/january08/elect08rescrces.cfm