Old Newspapers
Kate Reeves
You can get information about the local newspapers from the web. Use a
search engine such as Metacrawler which looks at ALL domains, and search on
Gary + Indiana + Newspaper--you'll get what you want. Using a good search
engine with the web can get you almost any piece of information.
Kate Reeves <reev...@pacbell.net>
pa...@nospam.havemann.com
Kate Reeves <reev...@pacbell.net> sez:
: You can get information about the local newspapers from the web. Use a
: search engine such as Metacrawler which looks at ALL domains, and search on
: Gary + Indiana + Newspaper--you'll get what you want. Using a good search
: engine with the web can get you almost any piece of information.
Well, sort of, but they're not as all-encompassing as they would
have you believe.
The inherent problem with search engines and Web directories is
that, according to a few studies and also by their own admission,
they can index only a _fraction_ of the Web -- the estimates I've
seen range from 10% to a little over 20%. Given the millions of
pages out there, that's understandable.
A site's own search engine, by comparison, can index much more,
depending on how often the index is regenerated. A newspaper
site with its own search engine is preferable, by far. (A
growing number of papers charge a dollar or more for an archived
article, however.)
There are several excellent sites where you can find links to
newspapers worldwide:
Newspaper Association of America: http://www.naa.org/
Newspaper Links: http://www.intercom.com/intercom/newsprs/
Newspapers Online: http://www.newspapers.com/
News Page: http://www.newspage.com/
NewsLink: http://www.newslink.org/menu.html
Editor & Publisher Online: http://www.mediainfo.com/
--
Paul Havemann (pa...@nospam.havemann.com)
Havemann Family History: http://www.havemann.com/
Researching BAUER, BERESFORD, BOETHE (Ger. > USA), BROWN (No. NJ),
CONKLIN (No. NJ), FRAME, HARTUNG, HAVEMANN, HEAD (Eng. > USA),
KIEP (Ger. > USA), MUSTERER, WETZEL (Ger. > USA),
WINGENDORFF (Ger. > USA)
Have info related to BEHRENS (PA), HEIMOWITZ (NYC 1920s),
NOVOTNY (NYC 1920s)
Cynthia M. Van Ness
On 12 Jan 1999 pa...@nospam.havemann.com wrote:
> The inherent problem with search engines and Web directories is
> that, according to a few studies and also by their own admission,
> they can index only a _fraction_ of the Web -- the estimates I've
> seen range from 10% to a little over 20%. Given the millions of
> pages out there, that's understandable.
[snipped to save space]
In addition to Paul's fine analysis of the limitations of search engines,
let me add a few thoughts. Given the comparatively young age of computer
technology, "old" (say, from before the birth of anyone reading this NG)
newspapers are not online at all. In some places (like here in Buffalo),
the *current* newspaper isn't even online. The Buffalo News website
allows access to want ads, classified ads, and death notices (since 1997),
but not to its news items, past or present, local or otherwise.
There are a handful of firms that have converted certain old newspapers
to digital form, and they sell site licenses to such places as
universities for the use of their faculty & students. A number of early
African-American newspapers, for example, are available in this fashion.
Such companies do not give away their product free online.
We all know that the technology is out there to convert old papers into
electronic formats, but I think that copyright and expense limitations
will keep this from being done on a massive scale. After all, once you
resolve the copyright issues, you have to invest in expensive equipment,
training, and labor, to do this task. There is, as yet, no electronic
vacuum hose that you can turn on, point at a book, file cabinet, or
microfilm, suck the intellectual content out and arrange it into
indexed, searchable fields, while you sleep. (Though sometimes I think
that the public assumes this to be the case.)
Therefore, I gaze into my cloudy crystal ball and predict that old
newspapers will still be found on microfilm, in libraries and historical
societies, for many years to come.
-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-
Cynthia Van Ness, M.L.S. | Co-moderator, Buffalo NY USA genealogy page:
af...@freenet.buffalo.edu | http://freenet.buffalo.edu/~roots
If information were power, librarians would rule the world. (C. Stoll)
Kate Reeves
I think the point about researching older newspapers on the Internet is
that one can locate the name of the current newspaper in a certain area.
Many times these "new" papers are the result of an amalgam of several of
the old papers and have kept the original records.
One still has to write and ask for a copy of the relevant data. I
frequently find the name of the current newspaper (if any) on the web--then
I can write and ask for help.
It's going to be a long, long time before every newspaper is cataloged and
the data is generally available on the Internet.
KRR
Kate Reeves <reev...@pacbell.net>
ben achee
There is referance book that lists all current newspapers and magazines and
their beginning publishcation date.. I can not think of the name right now but
you would problaby find it in the referance dept. of a larger library. Ask the
libriarian.
There also have been published for certain states a Union Catalog of extant
newspapers in the original and on microfilm. The WPA during the 1930's
published an inventory of extant newspapers of certain states that they found
in the original newspaper.
If you are looking for a newspaper for a particular city, I suggest that you
write to the state archives of that state and ask if they have the newspaper on
microfilm for that particular period and also if it would be available for an
approved inter-library loan!
Ben Achee
Bossier City,LA