Criminal Justice

Why use a Database?

Many newspaper sites are paywalled (require a subscription to access). The Library subscribes to Newspapers through large databases such as Canadian Newsstream or Canadian Reference Centre. These sites collect the full text of articles, most editorials, and some columns from digital news, as well as provide scanned text for historical newspapers. These sites aggregate a number of newspapers in one place as well as index them (provide additional descriptions and metadata that can help find articles).

• You can search across many newspapers at once, or limit your search to regional newspapers or one specific newspaper. 
• They won't look like a newspaper's home page. They will look like a search bar (at first!) and then a list of records/ descriptions of articles.
• Most of the newspaper articles appear in the database on the same day they appear in the newspaper/ online.
• Some opinion pieces/ columns are not indexed. If you cannot find an article by its title, it may be a column/ opinion piece, rather than a news article.

Finding newspaper Databases

1. From the main Library site, choose "Databases" (above the search bar).
2. There are four boxes in the middle with dropdown menus. Select the one that says "Types".
3. Scroll to select "News" as the Type, then click "Search".
4. Pick a Database based on the description and what you are looking for (ie, historical or current records). Winnipeg Free Press is available from either Canadian Reference Centre or Canadian Newsstream.

General Tips

• Brainstorm keywords, research the names of key people or time frames, and/ or identify organizations involved by doing web research first.
• Newspapers are often written "in plain English", meaning they use more general language rather than specialized language. If you aren't getting results for your search terms, try to think of ways the subject might be discussed for a broad audience.
• Most databases have "facets" at the side (or in Advanced Search) that allow you to choose a date range, publication type, or other ways of making your search more specific.
• Many columns are "syndicated", so the same article appears across multiple newspapers.
• Databases allow you to use search tricks like Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) and "quotation marks" (to search for an exact phrase or title).

Canadian Newsstream (ProQuest)

• Canadian Newsstream includes 20 "Major Dailies" from Canada (Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Regina Leader Post, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times-Colonist), as well as the Winnipeg Free Press and other regional papers.
• It also indexes Magazines, trade journals, and other types of article. You can select "Newspapers" from the "Source Type" on the left hand side to limit your results to only Newspapers.
• If you search for a newspaper name, the database will suggest "Go to Publication Page for [the newspaper]". This page will have all of the articles from that paper, listed by the most recent first. This is useful if you want to browse a particular paper.
• The results will default to "Most Relevant", but you can switch it to "Most Recent First" on the Left.
• Clicking on the quotation marks beside the article will help automatically generate a citation for you. Review it with your human eyes, though, as sometimes the machines still get it wrong!
• If you are getting too many results that aren't very relevant, you can limit your search to not search the full text of the article, just the title, abstract, and keywords, etc. Go to Advanced search, type your search term (s) into the box, ad change the dropdown beside from "Anywhere" to "Anywhere except full text".

Canadian Reference Centre (EBSCO)

• Canadian Reference Centre has a number of Canadian Magazines (including  Maclean's, The Walrus, Chatelaine, Canadian Geography, and Herizons), as well as newswires (syndicated stories from Canadian Press and La Presse Canadienne) as well as a number of newspapers. The newspaper coverage, however, is more spotty than Canadian Newsstream.
• The database will suggest terms related to your search terms as you type them.
• Results will default to "Most Relevant". To change to "Date Newest", the option is to the right, above your search results.
• You can select a date range, as well as limit your results to only newspapers (under "Source Types") in the left hand menus.