The Almanac of American Politics, the “bible of American politics” (according to a quote from George Will on the cover), is a biennial print publication from the National Journal Group. It contains information on “the senators, the representatives and the governors: their records and election results, their states and districts”. The 2000 edition is now available in browsable and searchable full text, including all the photographs, on the Web.
Access to the Web edition (http://almanac.nationaljournal.com) is provided free to subscribers to the print edition. There is a card bound in the print volume that contains the registration number for the online edition. Users may enter that number on the registration page, enter contact information, and create a password. They will then be assigned a user ID, and can use the ID and password to log in to the Almanac.
The site is cleanly designed, with minimal and judicious use of creative fonts and graphics. The main page offers the option to “browse the Almanac” by states and districts or by elected officials, or to “search the Almanac”. A frame containing a list of quick reference headings appears down the left‐hand side of the main page as well as the above‐mentioned browse pages. These headings take users to the full‐text of the introductory sections of the Almanac:
• introduction;
- 1.
presidential politics;
- 2.
Cook’s outlook;
- 3.
redistricting;
- 4.
committees;
- 5.
leadership;
- 6.
election cycles;
- 7.
campaign finance;
- 8.
demographic charts;
- 9.
guide to usage;
- 10.
abbreviations;
- 11.
about the Almanac; and
- 12.
Almanac staff.
Within states and districts, users select a state either by clicking on it from a map or by selecting the state name from a text list. Having selected a state, users are taken to a “[Name of the state] at a glance” page, which contains information on the people in the state, election results, and key state officials. There are hot links to the related elected officials page for the governor and congressional delegation. Within “elected officials”, users select an official by choosing his/her name from an alphabetical list. They are then taken to a page providing both statistical and narrative information about that official. There are hot links to the related state page, the official’s Web site, and the Almanac sections for committees, ratings, key votes, and the like.
Each state and district page contains a pull‐down menu allowing users to navigate to the state profile, the pages for the elected officials of that state, and the presidential politics and congressional districting of that state. All pages offer the option to go to the states and districts or elected officials browse.
There is also a search function available. Term(s) are entered in the Search the Almanac box, and the search type is selected from a pull‐down menu: all the words (and), any of the words (or), exact phrase, or Advanced (*Boolean*). In addition to AND and OR, Boolean ANDNOT is available as well as a wildcard (*) and parentheses to nest complex searches. The default is all the words (and). There is a clear and detailed search help document right below the search box. Searching is not case sensitive.
The above description of the clear explanation of the search function is true if users have selected Search from any of the lists of options available throughout the Almanac: the list of quick reference headings or the general links at the bottom of each page. However, the search box on the main page has only a simple search box with no explanations.
The default in the simple search box is still AND, but users are not told this. They must scroll down to the bottom of the first screen of results and find the “For guidelines on accurate searching, please click here” link to discover the instructions on searching. Once users are in the search mode, though, they stay in the friendlier environment described above once they click on New Search.
Ten results per page are returned. The display consists of a hierarchical listing of the title of the page in which the search term appears, e.g. Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D) ‐ West Virginia.
By clicking on the hyperlinked display entry, users are taken to the page in which the search term appears. The term is not highlighted, nor does the cursor go automatically to the term, so scrolling or use of the Web browser’s Find function is necessary to identify the relevant place in the document.
Search results are returned in a very non‐intuitive way. The first ten entries of the 187 that result from a search on “impeachment” are as follows:
- 1.
Item 1: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ Introduction.
- 2.
Item 2: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ Illinois ‐ Illinois’s 6th district.
- 3.
Item 3: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ impeachment vote.
- 4.
Item 4: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ California ‐ California’s 16th district.
- 5.
Item 5: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ California ‐ California’s 27th district.
- 6.
Item 6: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ New York ‐ New York’s third district.
- 7.
Item 7: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ Sen. Trent Lott [R] ‐ Mississippi.
- 8.
Item 8: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ California ‐ California’s 15th district.
- 9.
Item 9: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ California ‐ California’s 35th district.
- 10.
Item 10: Almanac of American Politics 2000 ‐ Florida ‐ Florida’s 23rd district.
It is not in strict alphabetical order. On examination, it appears that the results are in order by the number of times that the term appears on the page, subarranged alphabetically.
For example, Item 1 contains the word “impeachment” 12 times; item 2, nine times; item 3, seven times; items 4‐5, six times; items 6‐7, five times; and items 8‐10, four times. On the other hand, if users do a search that broad, chances are that they really want to browse!
After registering, users are informed that they “will continue to receive access until the next edition of the Almanac of American Politics is published”.
However, the 1998 edition is still available on the Web site. Once logged in to the Almanac, users can go to the main page of the National Journal site (www.nationaljournal.com), then select Almanac and scroll down. The page will state that “the 1998 edition of the Almanac of American Politics is still available online”, and users then can “click here to peruse this edition”. A search includes the 1998 edition. There is a caveat that the profiles “do not reflect the November 1998 elections or subsequent political developments”.
The Web edition of the Almanac is updated regularly. It “keeps you up to date with key votes of the 106th Congress, results from special and interim elections, important committee changes, election forecasts, primary results and more”.
For example, a good number of pages have been updated within the past several months, with many pages having much more recent updates. In comparison, my library received its print copy of the 2000 Almanac in December 1999. Users can sign up for e‐mail alerts to be notified when revisions and additions are made.
There is no provision for IP recognition to gain access to the Web version, and indeed it is made very clear that free electronic access is intended for the individual subscriber. Nonetheless, the fact that it is searchable as well as having continually updated content makes it a very valuable tool for the reference librarian. The Web edition is nicely done on the whole, and it is a valuable addition to any library that subscribes to the print version.
