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Copy of Donald K North Library: Find Newspapers and Current Events

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Controversial Topics

Issues and Controversies and CQ Researcher cover controversial current issues in different ways.

CQ Researcher gives you a summary of a controversial issue, giving equal weight to each side of the dispute, and is a good place to start for the big picture of a topic. CQ Researcher is also good for the history and context it provides, helping you understand how a particular contentious issue became controversial, and how other events or issues might be related to it. 

Issues and Controversies covers many contentious issues in modern life. Unique in that articles are written by scholars and experts in related fields.

How to Search for Newspaper Articles

When trying to find newspaper articles, the articles you find will be those that use words or phrases that match the terms or phrases you search for. Newspapers have very little in the way of index or subject terms, so your best bet is to match words or phrases. 

Newspapers generally come in two flavors. National papers are located in major cities. They cover both news for their city, and world events and international news. Local papers are located in smaller cities, or are located in big cities but focus on local news. Local papers primarily cover local stories and any national or internation stories they cover usually come from other, larger news sources.

National newspapers are often subscribed to even by people who don't live in the city they operate in. Local papers usually are only of interest to the community they belong to.

For an overview of individual newspaper databases and helpful hints click here.