The content can be accessed easily through a traditional approach to searching on keywords as well as through the Advanced Search function.
A simple search on “political corruption” sorted chronologically results in a wide array of articles beginning in the 1770s.
Researchers can also use Advanced Search to generate a targeted set of search results by entering several terms in multiple fields. For example, searching on “James Shields” in the Headline field, (“Duel” and “Lincoln”) in the Full Text field, and “1842” in the Date field finds two articles reporting that the duel, with broad swords, between the two Springfield politicians was averted after sober second thoughts prevailed and explanations were made.
In addition to searching for articles including two or more terms by using “AND” or for articles using one of several terms by using “OR,” researchers can locate articles containing words or phrases within a proximity of each other by using “NEAR” and a number to designate how few words apart the selected terms or phrases must be from each other. For example, a search on (“Duck” NEAR5 “prize-winning”) in the Full Text field limits the search results to articles including those two terms when they are within five words of each other. Adding the term “Explodes” to the Headline field narrows the results to a single article.
Located to the left of the results list are additional tools to further focus the search results by narrowing them by database, date range, publication name, publication location, article type, language, era (either “U. S. Presidential Era” or “Eras in American History”), decade, or year. For example, searching for material with “Maine” and “Explosion” within fifteen words of each other yields over 9,000 results but by limiting the results to Early American Newspapers, Series 2: The New Republic and the years 1898-1900 the results are reduced to 1,231.
The search can be further narrowed to only 163 results when limited to only material from the Philadelphia Enquirer.
Additional features are available after opening a document, including printing and downloading, as well options to save,
and email,
and create a citation.
