How do I ...
Find Online Text for a Specific Newspaper?

Why Use NewsCAT | Years of Coverage | Level of Coverage

The Penn State Libraries provide access to many newspaper databases, each of which has varieties of content and special features. A newspaper database provides content for hundreds of newspapers in a single place and may be more efficient than searching thousands of newspaper Web sites for a specific story or story idea. In addition, many newspaper Web sites charge readers for access to their newspaper archives. Researchers with a Penn State Access Account can search and retrieve articles from databases to which the Libraries subscribe at no charge.

Why Use NewsCAT to Find Which Newspaper Database Has the Newspaper I Need

The online tool, NewsCAT, shows which database has the content for the newspaper you need. It provides information on the years of coverage and content level (full or selective) for each newspaper.

Using the Dallas Morning News as an example, a NewsCAT search retrieves the following results:

If current daily coverage is important, you may also want to determine how frequently the content is added to the newspaper database. Use the list of newspapers provided by each database to locate this information. Some newspaper databases are updated daily and the content may already be available when you wake up each morning. Others load their content later in the day or even several days later. For more help determining this information, ASK at the News & Microforms Library.

Years of Coverage : A Rule of Thumb

Most newspaper databases begin their content in the mid-to-late 1990s. Coverage in the 1980s is very unusual, although there are exceptions. For example, America's Newspapers (Newsbank) includes coverage for The Philadelphia Inquirer beginning in 1981. To search for stories before the mid-1990s, it is often necessary to use a newspaper index.

There are two kinds of online databases: Digital Archive Newspapers and Electronic Image Newspapers.

Digital Archive Newspapers
Exceptions to the rule above are Digital Archive Newspaper databases which include historically important newspapers in their entirety as a digital and searchable archive, typically from their very first issue. However, the most recent years are typically not available. Electronic Image Newspapers or a Newspaper Database would be useful for more current content. Page images of each newspaper are preserved, including all advertisements and special features. Digital archives are frequently used for historical research.

What do I do if I don't find online text for the years I need?

NewsCAT helps you determine what newspapers are available online, by time period, by newspaper name, by language, or by geographic region.

Level of Coverage : Selected vs. Full Text

If you can't find a particular story it may be because many newspaper databases include only "selected content".

All text-based newspaper databases such as ProQuest's National Newspapers, LexisNexis Academic, and America's Newspapers (Newsbank) omit some newspaper content from their databases.

A "Full-Text" Newspaper database will not include:

• Photographs, cartoons, and graphics
• Advertisements, advertising inserts and classified ads
• Special features such as Nielsen Ratings, sports/box scores, and similar formatted content
• Wire stories - many newspaper databases omit wire service stories that appeared in specific newspapers. You can find these in other databases.

A "Selected Newspaper Article Coverage" Newspaper database will omit:

• Entire sections - for example, The New York Times Review of Books is not always included in every newspaper database and if a newspaper database vendor has contracted for only the business news then all other sections will not be included.
• Tasini decision articles/photographs - for which freelance journalists have retained copyright control of their content.

The only newspaper databases that include all of the above content are Electronic Image Newspapers and Digital Archive Newspapers.

Be sure to use NewsCAT to determine how much content is included for each newspaper.