The State from NewsBank
Notes on Coverage – A Guide for Librarians & Media Specialists
The database version of a newspaper usually differs in a number of ways from
its print counterpart and from the newspaper’s Web site. The
State (Columbia, SC) newspaper database produced by NewsBank is no exception.
The notes below give a general indication of its scope and coverage.
- Coverage begins December 1, 1987.
- Updates are usually added within 24-48 hours of publication date.
- Coverage is the full electronic content that NewsBank
receives from The State, which generally includes:
- All of the news, editorial, features, sports and entertainment articles
written by The State newspaper staff. Some local events listings
may also appear.
Note: Older articles written by some freelance writers have been removed at
the writers’ requests in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court Tasini
decision.
- Wire service stories (ex: AP, UPI, Knight Ridder).
- Obituaries and death lists.
A topic of high interest, NewsBank notes that its database includes all
such content provided by The State. The coverage notes below are based on
information from NewsBank, advice from librarians experienced with the database
and findings by the DISCUS Office.
- There appears to be little coverage of obituaries or death lists from the
beginning of the database through March 19, 1994. However, selected coverage
of obituaries and death lists may be found.
- Full obituaries appear to be consistently & completely included beginning
February 28, 1999. However, some omissions occur after that date, (due to
omissions in the electronic content that The State provided to NewsBank).
The brief “Notices” and “Rites” announcements from
the obituaries page are not generally included in the database.
- The “South Carolina Deaths” lists (for many years on p. A1;
more recently on p. B1) appear to be fairly consistently included for:
- March 20, 1994 - January 1, 1996, with some omissions noted.
- June 1997 forward, with some omissions noted.
Coverage for other time periods is inconsistent or non-existent.
- Coverage includes (continued):
- Captions from photos, charts and other graphic depictions of data
or information. See details in “excludes” section below.
- Articles from all editions of the print newspaper, with section and page
indicators generally as found in the paper’s “Final” edition,
unless the article appeared only in a different edition (ex: “First” edition).
- The Welcome page of the NewsBank database contains links to:
- Special Reports on timely topics that include
articles reprinted from a variety of news sources, with relevant maps and
other images.
- Hot Topics - bimonthly suggestions of
research topics in current events, social studies, science & health,
arts & literature, and global issues. Includes suggested search terms.
- Coverage generally excludes:
- Advertising, syndicated columns & features, calendar listings, sports
statistics, TV schedules, stock tables, weather listings, wedding & engagement
announcements, puzzles and comics.
- Photographs, charts, and other graphic depictions of data or information,
however, the captions that accompanied such items are usually included.
Excluded captions are generally those that accompany “stand-alone” pictures
or graphs that are not associated with an article. Editorial cartoon captions
(ex: Robert Ariail) are not included.
- Some articles that appeared in The State that were reprinted from
other newspapers, such as The New York Times or Chicago Tribune, may
not appear in the database due to copyright/license restrictions.
The Richland County Public Library Web site has much useful information about The
State (& Columbia Record), as well as some search
tips for NewsBank’s database of The State. See: www.richland.lib.sc.us/periodicals/periodicals_state.htm
More information about NewsBank is available at: www.newsbank.com/
Acknowledgment:
The DISCUS Office thanks the Periodicals Department of the Richland County
Public Library
for its assistance in compiling these coverage notes.