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English and American Literature

Digital Newspapers

Collections

Individual Publications

Collections

Individual Publications

Collections

Individual Publications

Basic Tips

  • Search databases with keywords that describe the topic.
  • Put quotation marks around phrases.

"best seller"

  • Connect the keywords with AND, OR or NOT.

poetry AND protest (will retrieve articles that include both keywords)
quijote OR quixote (will retrieve articles that use either spelling)
"poet laureate" NOT frost (will retrieve articles about poets laureate excluding Frost)

  • Adding an asterisk after the root of the word retrieves variations of the word, including singular and plural forms.

philosoph* (will retrieve results that include philosopher, philosophical, and philosophy)

Historical Newspaper Databases

  • Historical newspaper databases may require proximity operators instead of quotation marks around phrases.

ADJ# for adjacent
NEAR# for near within specific number of words

  • See the Help pages of these databases for suggestions.
  • Choose words that would be used during the time period selected. The OED Historical Thesaurus can help with this.
  • Consider using variations of names (Mrs. Smith as well as Harriet Smith) and allowing for misspelled names and words.
  • News took a longer time to travel, so select date ranges accordingly.

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