| Newspaper Source
by Monique Delatte
Who Uses Newspaper Source?
- Scholars and other researchers – from Policy Analysts in DC to undergrads at UT – use the quality information of well-aggregated indexes, such as Newspaper Source.
- Interestingly, genealogists and historians will search newspapers for obituaries, births, and events.
Key Questions
- When should I use this resource, when can I just use the Internet?
- How can I most quickly get the information I need?
Strengths Of Newspaper Source In Relation To The Internet:
- A majority of reputable newspapers do not make all archived or recent articles freely available online.
- The use of an index may improve results by diversifying sources for your bibliography.
- Newspaper Source provides well-researched articles by a higher quality, more relevant, authoritative news source.
- For example, Newspaper Source may provide information reported by the news source whose investigative journalist(s) uncovered a news story. CNN, or even a political site or Web log, may merely report the story
- In applying for jobs you may find employers requiring familiarity with databases such as EBSCO.
Weaknesses Of Newspaper Source In Relation To The Internet:
- Schools and other users, such as corporate libraries, pay high prices for research tools such as EBSCO.
- Some articles may only be available through Document Delivery Services or Interlibrary Loan.
- The time spent sifting through the many resources retrieved can be significant, though the result will be papers that are appropriately researched.
- Learning search techniques particular to this database requires an investment of time and intellectual capital.
Searching Techniques
- To limit an overly general search, use and.
- Broaden a search using or.
- For example, search Christmas and holiday or seasonal for results containing terms Christmas and holiday or the term seasonal.
- Not will qualify results, filtering unwanted citations.
Wildcards and Truncation Symbol
- These are used if characters are unknown, if multiple spellings exist, or where there are various endings.
Using Wildcards (?)
- A single character can be replaced with a wildcard to expand or improve searching.
- For example, a search of ba? mitzvah will recall records containing bar mitzvah and bas mitzvah.
Using a Truncation Symbol (*)
- Enter the word root and then replace final letters with an asterisk.
- For example, a search of dia* recalls records containing words such as diaspora, dial, diabesity, Diana, and dialectical.
- Note: Wildcards and truncation symbols cannot replace the initial character of a search term.
Types Of Searches
- Enter terms into the find box. To refine or broaden, select among expanders and limiters, and/or select among images and publications, using the tabs.
- Clicking field codes displays available search fields.
- For example, AU Oates recalls records featuring Oates in the author field.
Image Search
- Click the images tab.
- Enter the search term in the find field and choose among categories such as historical photos and photos of people.
- More than one category may be selected. If no categories are chosen, all are searched.
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