Research Guides: ENVI 229: Environmental History: News and Opinion

Local News (Williamstown area)

To find print, microfilm, and online editions of local newspapers in our collections, use the Browse search function of the library catalog. Choose to search by Subject and enter the following pattern:

Town/County (State abbreviation) -- Newspapers

Examples:

Note: the date listed in the catalog record is the year the newspaper began publishing.

If you know the title of the newspaper you want, do a Browse search by Title. Watch out for changes in the title over time; there will be a different catalog record for each time the title changes.

Newspaper Databases

America's News: Massachusetts
Publication Dates: Late 1990s/early 2000s-Present
Searches the full text of articles from western Massachusetts newspapers, including the Berkshire Eagle, North Adams Transcript, The Republican (Springfield), and more.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers (US)
Searches across the full text and images of major U.S. and Black historical newspapers. Includes New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Defender, L.A. Times, and more.
ProQuest Newspapers: U.S. Major Dailies
Publication Dates: 1980s-Present
Searches the full text of five major US newspapers: Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Content added daily by 8 a.m.

Best Bets

Readers' Guide [Combined]
Publication Dates: 1890-Present
Index to articles in popular, general interest magazines published in the United States and Canada. Indexes magazines such as Time, Life, U.S. News and World Report. Does not contain the full text of articles; use the FindText button to locate online and print copies of the magazines.
Academic OneFile Select (Gale)
Publication Dates: 1980-Present
Multi-disciplinary index to scholarly academic and general interest periodicals. Search results default to showing academic journal articles, choose the Magazines link to see magazine articles.
Alternative Press Index [Combined]
Publication Dates: 1969-Present
Indexes articles published in about 250 alternative, radical and left publications.

Opinion Polls

Roper Public Opinion Archives
Contains public opinion data, including polls from Gallup, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, General Social Surveys and many other major polling organizations.

The Williams Record

The Williams Record is the official student newspaper at Williams College. Indexes and complete print sets of this publication are available in Sawyer Reference and Special Collections (call number: LH1.W5 W53). For assistance using the index or print volumes, Ask A Librarian or contact Special Collections. For a digitized version, see the link below.

The Williams Record (digitized issues)
Publication Dates: 1904-1990
Student newspaper of Williams College.
Note: from 1972 to 1975 The Williams Record was merged with The Williams Advocate under the title RecordAdvocate.

Research Tip: Searching Newspapers

Searching Full-text Newspapers

Think like a journalist. What words would they use?
Use the vocabulary in use at the time. (e.g., Negroes instead of African American)
Combine synonyms with OR to increase results. (e.g., conservatives OR right-wing)
Use the asterisk (*) to get multiple endings of a word. (e.g., integrat* for integrate, integration, integrating, etc.)
To get words closer together, use proximity operators. (See the database's help page for correct syntax.)
Limit your search to "abstract" or "citation and abstract" (if available) to get more precise results.

Research Tip: Find Text Button

Get it at Williams

Many of our databases have this button or this button, which searches for the full-text of the article in our collections. If we don't have it electronically, look for the "Request article scan" link in the "Get It" section.

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