This week, we're going to look at one of Kerri's favorite online resources, Newspaper Archive (NA). According to their About Us page, NA is the "largest historical newspaper database online" and contains millions of pages from 1607 to the present. They are also adding about 80,000 images a day - that's a lot of pages!
In addition to US newspapers, NA covers papers from 18 countries and the US Virgin Islands. You can easily search the entire collection by using a name or keyword search. Or, you can start by browsing by location. Here's what you get when you choose Wisconsin from the US map:
Hover over any red dot to see the city and publications. Then click on it to search it. Or, below the map is a listing of all the Wisconsin cities with newspapers. At each level, you can search by name or keyword. There's also an advanced search option where you can add options like dates, locations, phrases, and more.
As this is Kerri's favorite resource, I'm going to use her family as my sample searches (with her permission). I started by browsing to Wisconsin, then Sheboygan and searching for Hilbelink. Lots of Hilbelink references! If you find 2,164 results a bit intimidating, you can further refine your results by selecting one of the four papers or choosing a date range. The numbers behind each option indicate how many results are in each category. The search term is highlighted in the snippet of the article, too. Revise your search by adding an additional name or keyword.
I added Dave to my search and went from 2,164 to 67 - much easier to go through that list of results! To see the article, click on thumbnail image and Adobe Reader will open up with the entire page of the newspaper - ads and all! Or you have the option to use the JPEG viewer and the image will appear. I selected the first article in the list and found this great article. Note that our search terms "Dave" and "Hilbelink" are highlighted.
If you were to go looking in NA for the original article and photo that appeared in December of 1962, you won't find it. There aren't any December 1962 issues of the Sheboygan Press in NA. You'll find this with other papers too - some have lots of issues available and some have only a couple. As I said earlier, images are being added all the time.
I originally used "David" as my additional search term and ended up with 23 results. That's 44 articles I would have missed if I hadn't tried another version of his name. When searching databases, it's always good to try multiple spellings, expand your date range, and other keywords to broaden your results. You might miss the most interesting articles if you don't!
You can print or save the PDF images. NA does have an option to create a free account. I tried it out and you can save your results into your "Treasure Box" and log in and print them later. With your account, you can also save your searches, create folders, and more.
Now, it's your turn! Take this short quiz and explore Newspaper Archive a little more.
What You Need to Know
- Newspaper Archive is available to all Wisconsin residents through BadgerLink. If accessing BadgerLink resources outside of your library, you may be asked to log in with your library card.
Training Resources
- BadgerLink webinar - View this 20-minute webinar (from 4/30/2015) to learn about the searching features of NewspaperARCHIVE
- Training videos on YouTube - includes short (<2min) videos on browsing available content, searching by keyword, and searching by name
- NewspaperArchive Help Center - includes FAQs and tutorials on how to use NA features
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