Question: Some of my students would
like to do some comparing and contrasting of newspaper
coverage of American elections past and present. Any suggestions
on how they can find a good selection?
Answer: Current American newspapers
are easy. Here's a website that enables you to find Web
editions of newspapers around the country:
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/usstate/usillino.htm
Be warned, though -- most newspapers don't maintain back
issues on the Web indefinitely, and some (like the
New York Times) demand a fee if you need to look at
the Web edition for issues more than a couple of days
old.
As for older newspapers, what period and/or part of the
country are your students interested in? The easiest path
to runs of old newspapers will be microfilms of your local
newspaper or major dailies like the New York Times,
which are available at many larger public libraries. If
you can arrange access to fee-based Web products at some
nearby academic library, there'll be a broader range with
publications like "Accessible Archives" or the online
edition of the New York Times going back to the
very first issue.
Question: You keep referring to print and microfilm
editions of the papers of famous Americans and American
groups. Is there a place I can go for a list of such editions
and information on how to get in touch with the people
who are working on them now?
Answer: For a good list of documentary
editions that have already appeared (or are in the process
of appearing), go to this page of the website of the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC),
a government agency that has played a role in funding
most of them:
http://www.archives.gov/grants/
documentary_editing/documentary_editions_catalog.pdf
To contact staff at projects that are currently in business, try the membership directory of the Association for Documentary Editing:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ade/directory/index.php
or e-mail the NHPRC staff -- they do a good job of keeping track of these folks:
http://www.archives.gov/grants/about_nhprc/commission_staff.html
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