Finding News Archives Online
Posted on August 31, 2007
Filed Under Finding Information |
Whether you are doing a report for school, researching for work or perhaps just have a thirst for knowledge, finding your information online is the way to go. Long hours in your musty local library are over. Welcome to productive, and comfortable, research right in your own home. It seems as though all the information that was once only available in hard copy is now easily accessible online. Remember microfilm? If you don’t want to date yourself, don’t answer that question. Archives are now more readily available than ever. Google News now has an actual online archive. They are offering an easy way to search and explore historical archives.
It provides newspaper and magazine articles that spans 200 years. A nice feature about it is that when you search, it automatically creates timelines which show selected results from relevant time periods. They even offer a place for the user to run a more refined and advanced search. Unfortunately, these articles come at a price. The average price for most single articles is $4.95, or you could purchase a membership. There are two to choose from: 100 articles, or 1200 articles. Either way, this could serve as a great resource for college students not wanting to brave the campus libraries, or journalists in need of an extra place to check sources. However, if you aren’t willing to put out the cash, you better find your library card.
When it comes to video archives, it turns out that YouTube is probably the best source. It’s completely free and it has a wealth of video coverage of a wide range of topics. Although YouTube is commonly considered to be used for entertainment purposes, it also has many videos on news coverage and other pertinent research info.
If you are performing research about specific people, you might want to consider just doing a simple people search. People search engines are an easy and quick way to find contact info and records online. We recommend Privateeye.com because they not only offer contact info, but provide a wide variety of specific searches like marriage, death, property, and criminal. These different records could be very useful for historical research.
All of these tools are good to be aware of in this ever-changing age of information. However, there are bound to be nostalgic days when you long for giant bookcases, microfilm, and hardcover books wrapped in plastic. And when that day comes, don’t hesitate to dig up your library card, check out a few yellowed books, and wait for your library fines to accrue.
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