[Genealib] Access Newspaper ARCHIVE through Heritage Microfilm

[Anne Kasuboski]

Elaine Hayes wrote:

> Our library recieved an advertisement from Heritage Microfilm 
> regarding FREE access to a database called Access Newspaper ARCHIVE to 
> public libraries and K-12 schools.  The letter says that the ARCHIVE 
> "allows your library's patrons to search tens of millions of newspaper 
> pages in our achive for FREE"  and that it "provides... Full-page 
> newspapers from 1759-1977".  This sounds too good to be true.  *Do any 
> of you have familiarity with this product?*  Also if you are 
> interested you can check it out at 
> http://access.newspaperarchive.com.  I suspect that the newspapers and 
> not "full text" and probably only include historic information and not 
> obituaries (except of the famous) or information about the daily lives 
> of people who might have been our ancestors (unless they were 
> famous).  In which case it might be great for general reference but 
> not so good for Genealogy information.  Also is there some kind of a 
> "catch" involved - nothing is ever really free is it?
> Thanks,
> Elaine Hayes
>  
> Elaine Jones Hayes
> Special Collections Librarian
> Laramie County Library System
> 2800 Central Avenue
> Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001
> ehayes at lclsonline.org <mailto:ehayes at lclsonline.org>
> 307-634-3561
>  
> "Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment
>  of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment."
> -  Library Bill of Rights
>  
>  I believe that this is the product that we here in Wisconsin have 
> through our statewide Badgerlink project of databases made available 
> to school, public, and university libraries.  Someone at our state 
> Department of Public Instruction could probably give you more 
> information.  about if it is really free, restrictions, etc. The 
> Badgerlink page is at http://www.badgerlink.net/   In addition to 
> libraries, home users that have libraries allowing remote access OR 
> home users with cooperating ISPs  (sorry AOL people, this isn't you) 
> can access the database at home.

 You won't see the database listed separately there.  We have it as an 
add-on when you click on the EBSCO icon in the upper left. on the 
Badgerlink screen.

I have used this, and it really is full text pdfs of newspapers.   And 
yes it has obituaries, ads, who had supper at who's house, whose barn 
burned down, etc.  One of my first finds was a story about my 
great-grandmother's sister who escaped from the insane asylum and 
refused to get off the railroad tracks as a freight train was speeding 
towards her (the train stopped in time, but she fled into the woods).

 The search interface has improved greatly overly the last year (EBSCO's 
version) and they are continuously adding new content.  Not sure what 
the criteria or priorities are for adding; in Wisconsin for example, I 
see good coverage of the Oshkosh and  Sheboygan newspapers, and a lot of 
cases where there are one or two issues of a small newspaper.  Because 
they use OCR for searching (there is no indexing per se)  you CAN pull 
up things you would never find otherwise.  You can also go right to a 
specific issue (if it's in the database) and go through it page by page, 
just like on paper or microfilm.

If you go to their main page at 
http://newspaperarchive.com/DesktopDefault.aspx  and click on the "new 
content" link you can get an idea of what kinds of papers are in there 
and being added..

For those of you with a personal home subscription to Ancestry (not sure 
about the librry one--I'm not at work right now), the newspaper database 
there IS the newspaperarchive.com database.  The searching there seems 
faster and a little less clunky.  So maybe Bill Forsyth can provide us 
with a bit more information.

Hope this helps.

Anne Kasuboski
Reference & Instructionsal Services Coordinator
Cofrin Library, University of Wisconsin Green Bay

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