Google News Archive Gone?

[pvitari]

Am I having a nightmare, or has Google eliminated its news archives?

I went to do a search in the newspaper archives, and instead of getting the page where you could click on "archives," all that came up was the current news page, as well as links to webpages.

This is a major blow if true. Does anyone here know how to get into the Google news archives now?

[Maricatrin]

Does this link help?: http://news.google.com/newspapers. Make sure to type in something before hitting Search Archive.

I just did a search on "Tim Holt", and this piece jumped out at me: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5j ... holt&hl=en. Ugh! when in Kansas, I once killed a black widow too, but it was on the floor and I was wearing shoes.

[Professional Tourist]

Well, Google has definitely re-organized its news search, and not for the better. The archive area is buried and the archive search function does not work nearly so well as it used to. These pages are a good place to start, to understand and access what is available now:

About News Archive Search
Searching News Archive
Using the News Archive Viewer
FAQ

[MissGoddess]

I'm not surprised. I already complained to Google about their revamped (terrible) Image Search, which you have to click-through several steps before you get any search options. I think they must have hired some new guy (or team) that went nuts fixing things that weren't broke. This mania for constant innovation without any practical basis makes me tired.

[Rita Hayworth]

I never really care for Google News ... and I'm not a fan of it at all ... and yet I used Google Chrome as my main internet browser ...

[moira finnie]

Google revamped their Archive feature about a year ago, making it more difficult to access scanned newspapers IMHO, but I found that bookmarking the archive search page and putting that icon on my toolbar has helped me to continue accessing this treasure trove consistently. The info is still there, but it seems they really want to parcel it out more stringently. If you have access to ProQuest and/or JStor through a library much more is accessible, of course. Sometimes people are not even aware that they can use these premium search engines just by having a library card.

[Professional Tourist]

If you have access to ProQuest and/or JStor through a library much more is accessible, of course. Sometimes people are not even aware that they can use these premium search engines just by having a library card.

But does one have to physically go to a library in order to use those services, as opposed to working anytime from home with Google's service?

[moira finnie]

If you have access to ProQuest and/or JStor through a library much more is accessible, of course. Sometimes people are not even aware that they can use these premium search engines just by having a library card.

But does one have to physically go to a library in order to use those services, as opposed to working anytime from home with Google's service?

I don't have to go to the library to access info and can do it online via my public library's portal, but everyone's library access may be different based on your community. Living in NYC, I think that the NY Public Library research section here might be of help to you, PT.

That being said, I know that the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, which has a phenomenal collection, only has a fraction of their material available online, though perhaps that is changing? They have more info about their collection here: http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/55/node/29897

If you have access to any college library near you they are usually in the forefront of making digital media accessible to non-students (sometimes for free, but often for a small annual fee ranging, in my limited experience between $25-$75).

[pvitari]

I used to type in a topic in the search box on the Google News page, and it would come up with a page with current Google links, but on the lefthand side there'd be a list of links, one of which was "Archives." Click on that, and it would get you to the actual Google news archives. It was annoying that "Archives" wasn't an option on the main News page, but not a big deal.

Now when I type in a topic to search on the News page, all I get is a page of current news stories that aren't at all about what I'm researching, but happen to have those words somewhere in the various news stories. No more list on the left hand side, nowhere to click on "Archives."

Fortunately the page that Mary-Kate provided the link to can now get me back to the Archives, so thank you, Mary-Kate!

Meanwhile, boo hiss, Google. It's bad enough you can't update anymore, but to cut off access to everything you already had in your news archives?

[Maricatrin]

You're welcome; glad to hear the link helped.

[Professional Tourist]

Now when I type in a topic to search on the News page, all I get is a page of current news stories that aren't at all about what I'm researching, but happen to have those words somewhere in the various news stories. No more list on the left hand side, nowhere to click on "Archives."

It's still there, but it's buried and it doesn't work as well.

This is probably explained in one of the help pages I linked above, but, as example, go to news.google.com, search on "greer garson". After the results load, then click Search Tools > Anytime > Archives. Now the results are coming from the archives, and from there you can restrict it to date ranges as desired, or add more key words. It's frustrating, though, because the results don't seem to include as many matches as they used to, and there are fewer options to sort/narrow down the results.

[Professional Tourist]

If you have access to ProQuest and/or JStor through a library much more is accessible, of course. Sometimes people are not even aware that they can use these premium search engines just by having a library card.

But does one have to physically go to a library in order to use those services, as opposed to working anytime from home with Google's service?

I don't have to go to the library to access info and can do it online via my public library's portal, but everyone's library access may be different based on your community. Living in NYC, I think that the NY Public Library research section here might be of help to you, PT.

Thanks for the reply. I did a google search and found that NYPL offers only in-library access to ProQuest and JStor archives:

http://www.nypl.org/collections/article ... l-database
http://www.nypl.org/collections/article ... ases/jstor

. . .which doesn't work for me; I need to be able to search from home and at odd hours.

Another good resource for searching old newspapers is Newspaperarchive.com. They used to have free access, but nowadays require a paid subscription. One of the nice things about them, as opposed to Google's news archives, is that you can download the matching newspaper pages as PDF files.

[moira finnie]

I wonder why they made it so that library patrons have to be in one of their branches in order to access these resources? Having had internet access in upstate NY and in the South Shore area of MA in the past has spoiled me.

Another good resource for searching old newspapers is Newspaperarchive.com. They used to have free access, but nowadays require a paid subscription. One of the nice things about them, as opposed to Google's news archives, is that you can download the matching newspaper pages as PDF files.

One thing you can do using the Google News Archive is Print Screen (which differs based on your OS). I have found that it is a handy way to capture info for reference later.

[Professional Tourist]

Another good resource for searching old newspapers is Newspaperarchive.com. They used to have free access, but nowadays require a paid subscription. One of the nice things about them, as opposed to Google's news archives, is that you can download the matching newspaper pages as PDF files.

One thing you can do using the Google News Archive is Print Screen (which differs based on your OS). I have found that it is a handy way to capture info for reference later.

I do that occasionally, but with a 15" laptop screen it takes several screen-grabs to capture a whole page, or even to capture an entire article unless it's small. Then the pieces have to be stitched together in an image-editing application, but if I'm not up for that I'll just file away all the pieces into a folder.