NewsLibrary offers a searchable database of more than 100 newspapers in 36 states and the District of Columbia. The site also offers access to the archives of the Knight Ridder and Scripps Howard newswires. While the majority of the list is made up of smaller newspapers, major market papers such as the Washington Post, Miami Herald, Atlanta Journal & Consitution and Philadelphia's two dailies are included.
Date coverage ranges from as far back as 1977 (Washington Post) or 2000 (Vero Beach [FL] Press Journal) to the present.
Searching is free. The price for purchasing full text of stories varies from paper to paper and ranges (generally) from $1.00 to $2.95).
The search page offers options to search "by geographical region" (click on a state to bring up the site's list of newspapers covered in that state and then check the newspapers you want to search) or to "create a custom list" of publications from the site's entire list. Strangely, there is no "Select All" option to select all of the publications on the site's coverage list. Instead, searchers must mark the box next to every newsaper on the list.
Keyword searching is possible for "All of the words," "At least one of the words" or "The exact phrase or name.' The site does also allow advanced search strategies, such as the use of boolean connectors ("and," "but," "or," and "but not") and limited date coverage. Click here for more information regarding the site's advanced search features.
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