LibGuides: Geography: Newspaper and Magazine Resources

Library Resources

Additional National and International Newspaper Sources:

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni, the successor of LexisNexis Academic, provides full-text access to over 15,000 news, business, and legal sources.The outstanding news coverage includes deep archives and up-to-the-minute stories in national and regional newspapers, wire services, broadcast transcripts, international news, and non-English language news services. Use the Company Dossier module to retrieve detailed company information and financial performance measures or identify and compare companies matching specific criteria. This product also provides access to the renowned Shepard's Citations service for all federal and state court cases 1789-present.
To access Nexis Uni from off-campus, you must first register (create an account) while on campus.
1. Access Nexis Uni through the Augustana College library website (choose “Databases A-Z” from the drop-down menu at the bottom).
2. Click Sign In / Register in the top right.
3. Click Create a profile now on the right.
4. Enter your name and your Augustana email address.
5. Complete the sign-in profile.
6. After the username and password you have entered is verified, it will become active.
From off-campus, USE THIS LINK to access Nexis Uni (scroll down to find "Nexis Uni" on the landing page).
Keeping your access active: In order to keep access active, users are required to sign in from an on-campus computer or device every six months to maintain authorization.

Historical New York Times (1851-2017) This link opens in a new window
The historical New York Times offers full text and image coverage of the newspaper from 1851 to 2017. For access to more recent New York Times articles, go to US Newsstream.

American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window
Contains books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, music, and graphic arts material printed in what is now the United States, as well as manuscripts and a substantial collection of secondary texts, bibliographies, and digital resources and reference works related to all aspects of American history and culture before the 20th century. Date coverage is 1684-1912.

American Periodical Series This link opens in a new window
Includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century chronicling the development of America across 150 years.

Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press.

Newspaper Source This link opens in a new window
Covers 40+ US and international newspapers

Newsstand Expanded This link opens in a new window
News content from many national and international newspapers, newswires and selected news magazines including The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Boston Global, The Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. Coverage from 1980 to the present.

Regional Business News This link opens in a new window
Covers regional business news sources including newspapers and business trade magazines.

Other Illinois Newspapers the Library has Subscriptions to:

Historical Chicago Tribune (1849-1997) This link opens in a new window
Offers full text and image coverage of the newspaper from 1849 to 1997. For more recent Chicago Tribune articles, go to US Newsstream.

Chicago Tribune This link opens in a new window
Full text coverage of the Chicago Tribune from December 1996 to present. For earlier coverage, use Historical Chicago Tribune.
Chicago Tribune is also part of US Newsstream.

Newsstand Expanded This link opens in a new window
News content from many national and international newspapers, newswires and selected news magazines including The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Boston Global, The Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. Coverage from 1980 to the present.

Newspaper Source This link opens in a new window
Covers 40+ US and international newspapers

Chronicling America - Library of Congress

"The Newspaper Title Directory is derived from the library catalog records created by state institutions during the NEH-sponsored United States Newspaper Program (https://www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html), 1982-2011. This program funded state-level projects to locate, describe (catalog), and selectively preserve (via treatment and microfilm) historic newspaper collections in that state, published from 1690 to the present."

A Few Tips:
Here are a few tidbits for you to consider as you are searching for information related to yourselves and others.

Location

My recommendation to you all is to start with the state newspapers for the state your hometown is in, but don't be afraid to venture towards other states if there is a reasonable connection. Maybe there's a notable business/ manufacturing company with headquarters elsewhere, etc. that may be mentioned in the newspaper of another state. It could also be that if your hometown is a border town for state lines it could be mentioned in the other state's papers.

Paper Names

Because the digitized files are coming from a variety of different libraries, there may be subtle differences in the way in which publications are named. So, for example, The Rock Island Argus may be listed under Rock Island Argus, The Rock Island Argus and Daily Union, Rock Island Daily Argus, etc. Differences may also appear if the newspaper has changed its name throughout history.

Vocabulary

Remember that acceptable language and vocabulary changes over time, and historical newspapers may use different terminologies than what would be used today or is acceptable today. Consider the chart below that was created by the Library of Congress, for example:

Modern Usage vs. Historic Usage comparison table
Modern Usage	Historic Usage
gas, service station	filling station
African American	Afro American, Negro
voting rights	suffrage

Use the names of towns, landmarks, bridges, buildings, and other geographic features as they would have been when the materials you are searching were created. For instance, the state of Oklahoma was referred to as both "Indian Territory" and "Oklahoma Territory" prior to its admission as a state, so searching for "Indian Territory" may produce more search results if searching on topics related to Oklahoma.

Augustana Observer & Rockety-I Database

Augustana Observer: Available from 1902-2016 (w/ more recent on the Observer's website)

Rockety-I Yearbook: Available from 1900-2004

NOTE: You must use Internet Explorer in order to access the full functionality of these online databases.

Using the Database:

Pay attention to Instructions. These databases often are difficult to navigate at first, and following the instructions that the Special Collections librarian has created for you will save you a lot of time. You can find the full instructions HERE.
Turn off the pop-up blocker. Your built-in pop-up blocker may prevent you from accessing content.
Use the Control bars to do the heavy lifting. You can limit your results/ refine your searches using both the top and side bar options of the database.
Important Features to Note:
1. Stem - Lets you control if the database searches for your exact keyword(s) or also searches for words that begin with the same letters.
2. Fuzz - on/off lets you control whether or not the system does 'fuzzy' searching. Newsprint can often be misinterpreted by scanners, and this feature allows the database to return results that are close, but not exact, matches for your terms.

Pay attention to any of the following:

Alumni News or Alumni Notes
Alumni Events
Alumni Endowment Funds
In memorium

A Few Things to Keep in Mind as You Search...

Are you taking your time and searching as thoroughly as possible in the resource? Based on how these databases are constructed, a single letter difference or space difference can radically change the results you get. Searching once and then moving on is NOT going to get you a full picture of what is in the source.
Where are you getting your information from? Where did that source get its information from?
What sorts of guarantees do you have that the content you are looking at is accurate? Remember that you should be treating this like a research project you are doing for any of your other classes - if asked, can you provide citations for all of the information you have so far? Are you using credible sources? Or are you just trusting whatever the internet tells you is true?
Always be sure to look at entire publication, not just snippets.