A tour round our newsstand

Last week we promised to give you a summary of our amazing, but possibly a bit confusing, collection of Exclusive Resources in the Gateway’s "News & Magazines" category. So here it is [deep breath!] -

"I think there was a story about it… last week… or the week before… or something…"

What you need for this sort of query is our mega-database of news articles, NewsUK. Here you can search all the major UK national dailies, plus scores of regional and local papers, with an increasing range of magazines.

You can search a particular publication for a particular date range, or you can search the lot together. How far back you can go varies – the national dailies tend to go back to the early 90s, while some of the mags only go back a year or so, with the rest somewhere in between. But all in all, it’s an impressive resource.

They won’t wrap chips, but they look as though they might.

We’re talking facsimile newspapers here. Search one like any other database, but what pops up on the screen is the paper as published, with all the news, pictures, features, adverts… even the spelling mistakes!

The Times – this runs from 1785 to 1985 (the pre-Murdoch years), and it was the pioneer in this field. It’s rightly popular with family history buffs, looking for obituaries and background news coverage.

UK News Online – includes the Daily & Sunday Mirror from its first edition in 1903 up to the present; also the Daily & Sunday Express (from 2000) and the Star from 2002.

Library PressDisplay – see last week’s Treasure Hunt for the full rave about this. It has facsimile newspapers from around the world, delivered to your screen before the print versions hit the streets.

The Economist – from 1843 to 2003. All the heavyweight articles, and all the colourful graphics (from the time they went colour, that is!).

And over on the magazine rack…

There are two sources for magazines. One of them I have mentioned before: NewsUK has nearly fifty magazines. Some of them are newsy (eg New Statesman, Spectator), some are trade mags (Grocer, Marketing Week) and some serve particular interests (Music Week, Electronics Weekly).

Our other magazine and journal source is Infotrac Custom Journals. This mouthful of a name gives little away, but the 38 titles include heavyweight specialist journals like the British Journal of Psychology, but also magazines for the person-with-a-hobby like Astronomy and Dance Magazine.

You can’t generalise about what these two contain, so if you’re after a magazine article, give both a try.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "News & magazines" All the resources discussed above are Key Links.
And they are all Westminster Libraries Exclusive Resources; outside the library, you will need your library card number to log in.)

Coming soon

The Guardian is getting its act together as I type, and will soon be available, with The Observer, from 1791.

Our electronic shelves are groaning under the weight – dip in and enjoy! As for me, I’m off to catch up with Andy Capp.

Pic: clarita/morguefile.com