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Others have found the search results page to contain redundant information. A text box for each listing contains the same exact information that is given in the snippet above. This redundancy eats up valuable real estate on the web page. Further, listings shown in PDF mode are now much smaller than ever before and force users to scroll horizontally, making it difficult to locate desired information within the tiny newspaper type. |
Others have found the search results page to contain redundant information. A text box for each listing contains the same exact information that is given in the snippet above. This redundancy eats up valuable real estate on the web page. Further, listings shown in PDF mode are now much smaller than ever before and force users to scroll horizontally, making it difficult to locate desired information within the tiny newspaper type. |
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On November 1st, 2012, an error that runs the website was locking out paid, registered users asking them to register through facebook, although they were already confirmed paid members. |
On November 1st, 2012, an error that runs the website was locking out paid, registered users asking them to register through facebook, although they were already confirmed paid members. Paid members were forced to exit the website, re-enter, then re-login, only to have the same error occur again after one or two searches. |
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==References== |
==References== |
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Revision as of 02:09, 2 November 2012
NewspaperARCHIVE.com is a commercial online database of digitized newspapers. The site was launched in 1999 by its parent company, Heritage Microfilm, Inc. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.[1]
As of June 2008[update], NewspaperARCHIVE.com said it provided full text search for 909 million articles on 85 million pages over 240 years that represented 2,875 publication titles in more than 748 cities. As of 2012, the product includes newspapers from Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States.[2]
Searches can be conducted by keyword, date, and location. Results are free, but access to the newspaper articles available to download in PDF format requires a subscription. Searching is available directly from newspaperarchive.com or via news.google.com/archivesearch. The company says that it follows the Automated Content Access Protocol in which its clients have a say in what is available online. A reviewer in 2004 observed: "Newspaperarchive is notorious for electronically providing the wrong search dates. ... An '1848' newspaper might be from '1948.' A '1949' newspaper might be from '1994.' Even the newspaper title might be wrong. Also, if you have a dial-up modem, downloading the actual page can be slow."[3]
The digitized newspapers that are currently available and OCR'd represent a fraction of the 150 million pages of historical documents that Heritage Microfilm maintains in its microform archive. According to NewspaperARCHIVE.com, it is microfilming 2.5 million pages of newspapers each month and has 180,000 reels of microfilm.[4][5]
The website was brought down for two days in June 2008 by the Iowa Flood of 2008, which cut power to its data center in Cedar Rapids. The company said that its physical archives, which are stored on higher ground, were not damaged.[6]
Recent design changes have caused an outcry among users who have found newspaperarchive results to be "user-unfriendly." Advanced search options are no longer listed on the left and users are forced to endure a more time consuming process to modify search requests. A Refine Your Search feature to the right doesn't actually refine a search, it broadens it by only allowing users to eliminate previously entered criteria, but not modify their current search criteria.
Others have found the search results page to contain redundant information. A text box for each listing contains the same exact information that is given in the snippet above. This redundancy eats up valuable real estate on the web page. Further, listings shown in PDF mode are now much smaller than ever before and force users to scroll horizontally, making it difficult to locate desired information within the tiny newspaper type.
On November 1st, 2012, an error that runs the website was locking out paid, registered users asking them to register through facebook, although they were already confirmed paid members. Paid members were forced to exit the website, re-enter, then re-login, only to have the same error occur again after one or two searches.
References
- ^ Heritage Archives, Inc. "About us". Newspaperarchive.com. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ Heritage Archives Inc. "Newspaperarchive.com". 855 Wright Bros. Blvd., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Barry Popik (2004). "Digital Historical Newspapers : A Review of the Powerful New Research Tools". Journal of English Linguistics. 32. Sage.
- ^ "HeritageArchives.org". HeritageArchives.org. 2005-06-27. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
- ^ "Our Mission". NewspaperArchive.com. Retrieved 2009-07-01.
- ^ "HeritageArchives.org". HeritageArchives.org. 2005-06-27. Retrieved 2011-12-20.