Q: "Accessible Archives" misdating the Pennsylvania Gazette?

Wed Feb 19 19:12:46 UTC 2014

Joel: I have not used Accessible Archives so I cannot state that I
have found misdatings in that archive. However, I have found
misdatings in other archives. On several occasions I have found the
dates specified by the database differed from the dates visible in the
page images.

For example, this problem exists in NewsaperArchive, GenealogyBank,
and ProQuest Historical Newspapers. In NewspaperArchive I have seen
this problem many times. I have seen it rarely in GenealogyBank. In
ProQuest Historical I saw it once with a New York Times image.

In NewspaperArchive and GenealogyBank the name of the newspaper given
in the database sometimes differs from the name given in the page
banner (or the front page). Typically this occurs because the
newspaper changed its name over time.

The page number specified by the database is incorrect on many
occasions in GenealogyBank and NewspaperArchive.

Always obtain a full page image and look at the header to determine
the newspaper name, date and page number that is my recommendation. It
the full page does not supply this information then look at the
previous page (or next page). If necessary one should systematically
move backward to the front page to obtain the correct information.

Admittedly, I cannot claim my performance in these tasks is always exemplary.
Garson

On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 12:20 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Q:  "Accessible Archives" misdating the Pennsylvania Gazette?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Does the "Accessible Archives" misdate the Pennsylvania Gazette?
>
> I used Accessible Archives' text search to find several articles from
> 1736, and printed the text.  To get the page and column (which I
> didn't see in the Accessible Archives' data) I then went to the microfilm.
>
> For all three articles, Accessible Archives has a date one week later
> than I find from the microfilm.  This is not a "From/To" error.  For
> example, Accessible Archives dates one article Sept. 23, but I find
> the article on film in the issue "Sept. 9 to Sept. 16".
>
> Has anyone else found misdatings in Accessible Archives?
>
> Joel
>
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