Newspapers

News aggregators collect syndicated news content from around the world. Typically these aggregators provide current news (usually within the last day or week) as well as a backfile reaching into the 20 or 30 years. Aggregators usually provide sophisticated tools for proximity searching, so check the databases help files if you have trouble finding information or narrowing your search.  

Newspaper aggregators like Nexis Uni and Factiva contain enormous amounts of information. Because of their size, simple keyword searches often bring back too many results, or many results that are not relevant. To counter this, aggregators often provide users with sophisticated search tools like proximity operators. Proximity operators are operators that allow the searcher to specify the distance between keywords within a document. By using these operators, searchers are able to retrieve more concise and relevant sets of records. Some common operators include:

• (W) or ()  retrieves terms adjacent to each other and in the exact order specified

             space(w)shuttle   

• (nW) n is the number of words that should separate the terms in the order specified.

              punk(10w)recording    

•  (N) retrieves terms adjacent to each other but in any order.  

               grounded(N)theory

• (nN) n is the # of words that should separate the terms in either order.

               conspiracy(10N)theory            

The exact syntax used for proximity operators often varies by database, so be sure to look at the database's “help” screen for additional information.