Warren Hunting Smith Library: How To: Research With Historic Newspapers: Search Strategy

Use these techniques to increase your chances of finding the newspaper articles most relevant to your research.

operator	use	hints
AND	"all of these"	too many results? add another search terms using AND
OR	"any of these"	too few results? add another search term using OR
NOT	"none of these"	irrelevant results? eliminate some using NOT
NEAR	"within n words of each other"	need words close together, but not exactly in order
" "	"the exact phrase"	use quotations to search with 2 or more words in a precise order

limit	use
GEOGRAPHY	restrict results to a state, city, or specific newspaper title
DATE	restrict results by year(s), month(s), or exact dates
PRE-LIMIT	set search limit before the search is executed
POST-LIMIT	also called filters or facets, limit results after the search is done

These techniques allow for searching with character variation when one or more characters are unknown or uncertain.

symbol	use	examples
?	fills in a single character (0 or 1 places)	wom?n = woman, women
*	fills in 1 or more characters	child* = child, children
* *	fills in 1 or more characters in the middle of and/or at the end of a word	farm = farm, farms, farmer, farmers BUT ALSO Fartham, Farnum's
? *	combine wildcards and truncation with operators for more sophisticated search options	wom?n NEAR3 child* = women and children, children and women, women and four children, woman big with child

Your Research Question

Before diving into your newspaper search, take a few moments to formulate your research question and objectives. Your question should be:

Fairly specific. What are you hoping to find by using historical newspapers?
- Does your question take place within a particular era or time period?
- Is your question focused on a specific geographical area?
- Are you looking for an individual, a topic, a trend, an event?
Motivating. A well devised research question in your area of interest should inspire you to dig deeper into the available resources.
Iterative. It's not uncommon for a research question to be revised and iterated as you uncover additional information. Perhaps it becomes more specific. Perhaps the scope changes.