•+Searching+Newspaper+Indexes

=Table of Contents: =
 * What is a newspaper index?
 * The best (and worst) uses of newspaper and indexes for research purposes
 * How to include the right search terms
 * Recommended newspaper indexes
 * Searching newspaper indexes: a step-by-step example

= = =What is a newspaper index? = If you Google "newspaper index," you'll get a few different kinds of results. The term "newspaper index" is ambiguous. Some websites that call themselves newspaper indexes provide lists (often quite lengthy) of newspapers published within a certain region, such as in British Columbia or Canada, usually with hyperlinks to each individual newspaper's website. However, this type of newspaper index is not recommended for research purposes—searching through each newspaper's website individually is a very inefficient research technique, and the searching capabilities of some newspaper websites are poor.

In the context of this wiki, what we mean by a "newspaper index" is a website or database that has archived years' worth of articles (usually from many different newspapers, but sometimes just one very large newspaper, such as The New York Times) onto its website, so that when you use the search engine on that website, you get results from multiple newspapers. For example, NewspaperArchive has collected billions of newspaper articles from around the world; they have some articles that were written over 400 years ago!

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=**The best (and worst) uses of newspapers and indexes for research purposes** =

Newspaper articles can be very helpful for a number of research purposes. Firstly, newspapers are an excellent source for researching genealogy and family history. Secondly, articles record the details of smaller-scale events that may not be found in encyclopedias or other resources. They can come in particularly useful for researching events that occurred before Internet usage became widespread. Newspaper articles can also be used as primary sources of information, as they can record public feedback or popular reactions to certain events.

That being said, there are a few points to keep in mind when using newspapers for research.
 * 1) Newspapers are rarely specialized, so are not likely to produce a detailed, technical explanation of a topic.
 * 2) On certain specific topics (for example, medicine) articles published by newspapers are usually considered to have limited reliability. You might have to conduct further research on an article to see if it has been mentioned elsewhere for misleading or erroneous statements. (For example, there are some academic medical journals that publish reviews of mainstream articles about medical issues.)[[image:hfxgaz17520323.gif width="417" height="332" align="right" caption="The first edition of Canada's oldest newspaper, The Halifax Gazette, published March 23, 1752"]]
 * 3) Biases may come with an article, whether it is a standard article, an editorial, or a paid advertisement made to look like a journalistic article. Also, the newspaper that published the article may be politically biased (as many newspapers are)—if you are using the article as a secondary source, you may consider researching the newspaper that published the article. What is its circulation size? Has it won any awards for journalism recently? Has it been publicly criticized for any political biasses?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Articles published online in the last several years may contain links to related articles that they are building on or reacting to. However, for articles older than that, there may be no indication in the first article that it is linked or related to another article. With that in mind, we have found that newspaper articles are gradually giving less background information when building on a topic that has already been reported on recently—newspapers expect readers to already have the necessary background knowledge, or to also read the related articles.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Newspapers are constantly competing with each other to be the first one to break a news story. With this emphasis on speed comes an increased risk of errors. Articles that have been published in the last several years are usually edited if it is later discovered that they published incorrect information, but this will not be the case for older articles. On the same note, you may find it difficult or virtually impossible to find the original version of an article, as it appeared when it was first released.

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= = =<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**How to include the right search terms** = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The more you know about how your chosen index searches for articles, the better. For example, you should try to learn about the index's advanced search features, and find out if they recognize Boolean search techniques (most do, but sometimes rather than typing in "AND" or "OR," the website offers multiple search boxes, usually with titles like "find exact phrase," "find any of these words," etc.).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">If you need a refresher on Boolean search operators, check out this PDF from the University of California-Berkeley.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">If you're struggling to find the right articles you're looking for, try using synonyms, truncation (*), or tildes (~). Also be sure to try more than one newspaper index. Remember that searching for newspaper articles can be time-consuming. Patience is vital.

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=<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Recommended newspaper ind****exes** = <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">(<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**$** indicates payment required for access)

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">University of Victoria Library Gateway
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">@http://library.uvic.ca

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">** About: ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">From the homepage of the UVic Library Gateway, click the "Databases" tab, and then click "Newspapers". Here you will find a list of newspaper databases, some of which provide articles from as far back as the 17th century; other databases provide access to recent articles. Particularly recommended are ProQuest, CBCA, and Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies.



<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Google News
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">@http://news.google.com

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**About:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Google News stores many articles from newspapers all around the world: the English language version covers approximately 4,500 newspapers, and some of its articles are as much as 200 years old. By default, Google News searches only for articles published in the last 30 days. If you're looking for articles older than that, click on "Archives" on the left sidebar, or customize the date range you're looking for. In its listings of results, Google News clearly states the cost of access to the article. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">At @http://news.google.com/newspapers/ you can find a very long list of newspapers archived by Google News. (This is another way to search by specific newspaper and date.)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Features:**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Has "Advanced Search," with adapted Boolean search techniques. In Advanced Search, you can specify the date range, the source, the region of news coverage, and where your search terms should appear: anywhere in the article, in the headline of the article, or in the URL.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Google News Alerts: identify your search terms, and Google will send you an email when new articles relevant to your search are posted (they can also appear as an RSS feed). This is a useful tool if you are conducting research over an extended period of time.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Library of Congress
<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">@http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**About:** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Library of Congress's "Chronicling America" website provides free access to more than 4.5 million newspaper articles published between 1836 and 1922 in the US. Articles can be viewed as PDF documents, appearing as they were published. Alternatively, users can view easy-to-read text-only versions of the articles.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Features:**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Screen capture feature built into website.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">If you simply want to browse newspapers, you can sort them by state, language, and ethnicity.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Advanced Search allows users to specify a date range, select a state or specific newspaper to be searched, and makes Boolean searching easier.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Site also included a Newspaper Directory: @http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/titles/. Here you can find information on newspapers published in the US between 1690 and the present, including where to find archives of each newspaper.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Olden Times
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">@http://theoldentimes.com/

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**About:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This website is intended primarily for genealogy, but also has collections of general news articles. The site is organized by subject: news by region, births, marriages, deaths, advertising, legal notices, cartoons and humour, recipes, poetry, and even hotel guest lists that were published in newspapers. The site archives newspapers from England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and the US, mostly dating between 1788 and 1920. Access is entirely free, with no sign-up required.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Features:**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Announcements of births, marriages, deaths, and any other information relevant to genealogy have been indexed by name—the majority of genealogy sites do not offer this
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">General news articles organized by topic (e.g., war news)
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Contains several articles on conducting research in newspapers (from the perspective of genealogy)
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Many links to other sites that could be helpful for research purposes

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">BBC News On This Day
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">@http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**About:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">BBC News's "On This Day" website has archived all BBC News stories from 1939 to 1945 and 1950 to 2005. Simply type in a date, and BBC will retrieve all news stories that broke on that day. Results are searchable by year and theme.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Features:**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Unlimited free access
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">RSS feed feature available

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">British Newspaper Archive $
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">@http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**About:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The British Newspaper Archive stores over 3.6 million newspaper pages, and thousands are added newly every day. Searches are free, but payment is required to access the full-text version of pages. News articles, family notices, letters to the editor, and original advertising are included. Articles date back to 1800.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Features:**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Guide for searching newspapers and using the website
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Sample pages are free
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"My Research" area on website for keeping track of searches and bookmarking pages, and add your own notes

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">NewspaperArchive $
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">@http://www.newspaperarchive.com/

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**About:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This is the largest newspaper archive to be found online. The site has over 120 million newspaper pages (containing literally //billions// of articles), and one new newspaper page is added to their site every second. Articles go back as far as 1600. The website archives predominantly US newspapers, but there are over 4 million pages from Canadian papers, as well as pages from many other countries. Monthly subscription required for access.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Features:**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Advanced Search
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Browse using interactive map
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Free previews of some pages
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">View newspapers in PDF format as they appeared on publication date, or view text-only version for easier reading

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Canadian Press News Archive $
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">@http://www.thecanadianpress.com/news_and_information.aspx?id=1600

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**About:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Canadian Press is jointly owned by three major news companies in Canada, and offers multimedia news coverage. It is a well-respected source for Canadian news. The Canadian Press archives newspaper articles, as well as TV footage and images. Searches are free, but access to any content requires payment (individual stories can be bought, or monthly subscriptions can be purchased, although these have limits imposed on the number of articles accessed).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Features:**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Receive email alerts on articles related to your topic
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Also available in French
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Screen capture feature built into website
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Can obtain the right to redistribute or republish archived stories

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Press Display $
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">@http://www.pressdisplay.com/

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**About:** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Press Display allows you to search and read newspaper articles from around the world. Individual articles can be purchased for reading, or you can subscribe monthly. Press Display only stores articles on their website for 30 days, but they provide access to over 2,000 newspapers.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Features:**
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Advanced Search
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Download, read, and store stories on your computer, tablet or cell phone
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Get email updates or an RSS feed about your monitored topics

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TIP** : Some newspaper indexes are expensive to access articles, but allow free searches. If you're working on a limited budget, use these indexes to search what you're looking for, then use the publication information you attain to find the article elsewhere. (For example, The Canadian Press News Archive might give you the results you're looking for, but since it costs $4.95 to access each article, simply use the title, date, and name of the newspaper to make searching for the article on Google News easier.)

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=<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Searching newspaper indexes: A step-by-step example =

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Using the CBCA Complete Database (which searches newspapers among other resources, available through UVic libraries website with netlink ID and password) I set out to find an article reporting on the greater than 6 magnitude earthquake that we felt on Vancouver Island years ago. From memory, I know that the epicentre was in Seattle and that the earthquake took place in either 2001 or 2002.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">1. To familiarize myself with the database, first I check out its search tips by clicking “Help” on the main page.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">2. From here I click on “Searching” on the left toolbar to find out how to use the database search most efficiently.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">3. In the “Search Tips” subheading I learn about operators, fields, and special characters that CBCA Complete uses to interpret search results. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Now I have the information I need to know to create an appropriate search term.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">4. Back on the main page, I type in my search term. I use the subject exact operator to search the subject of earthquakes, combined with Seattle to focus on earthquakes that have occurred in Seattle.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">This search returns 108 results.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">5. Because I know that the quake happened in either 2001 or 2002, I use the option to enter a specific date range on the right hand bar. I search from 01/2001 to 12/2002.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">This narrows down my results and I can deduct from the sources listed that the earthquake that I am searching for likely happened at the beginning of March, 2001. I’ll make note of that for any other searches I may do.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">6. I choose the third article down, “Shaken in Seattle”, from //Newsweek// magazine.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">7. I use my browser’s “Back” button to go to the previous page to refine my search to see if I can find any newspaper articles on the earthquake.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Although there are only two articles here they are both from Canadian publications, which is of particular interest to me and by the title and description I can deduct the most important information.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">In this case, neither of these articles are offered online through this database but I have the information I need to track them down.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">//by Brittany Schina and Andrea Williams//