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Finding Newspapers in the Connecticut State Library's Catalog

You can find out if the Connecticut State Library has the newspaper(s) you need by following these steps:

  1. Access CONSULS, the State Library catalog.
  2. Choose which CONSULS library's holdings you want to search.
  3. Choose a search strategy.
  4. Look at the results of the search.

  1. Access CONSULS, the State Library catalog
     CONSULS is the online catalog of the Connecticut State Library and the Connecticut State University system. You may access CONSULS by clicking on the links to "State Library Catalog" or "CSL Catalog" throughout the State Library Home Page. The main screen for CONSULS will appear.

  2. Choose which library's holdings you want to search
    Look at the bottom of the main screen. CONSULS consists of the holdings of five libraries: the Connecticut State Library, Central Connecticut State University, Eastern Connecticut State University, Southern Connecticut State University, and Western Connecticut State University. You may limit your choice to the Connecticut State Library, or include all five. Including all five is referred to as the "Full CONSULS Catalog" mode. On the screen, below the search choices, you will see:

    "Your search is currently limited to Connecticut State Library. Click here to switch to the full CONSULS catalog."

    Click on the indicated spot to switch as desired.

  3. Choose a Search Strategy
    You can look for information in a number of ways. On the main screen of CONSULS you will see these search choices:

    • Keywords
    • Author
    • Title
    • Subject
    • Author & Title
    • Journal Title
    • Other Searches
    • Course Reserves

    Choose the kind of search you want, type in your request, and click on the "Search" button.

    The most effective searches for newspaper titles are:

    KEYWORD Search. This search is suited to broad searches where you do not have specific information. In this search, a significant word or phrase is typed into the Keyword Search screen. CONSULS then compares it with words from all title fields, all author fields, subject fields, and all notes. Choose this search if you have an idea of a:

    1. Title: Know part of the title of the newspaper.
    2. Town: Want to see the titles of newspapers that covered a certain town.
    3. Topic: Want to find newspapers on a certain topic.

    There are three ways to do the Keyword search:

    One word only: Simply type the word into the Keyword Search screen.

    Phrase using "and": Type the phrase, placing "and" between each word.

    (Title) Typing in "Hartford and Courant" will retrieve a list of titles, including the Hartford Courant. However, it will also bring up other titles such as Connecticut Courant and Hartford Weekly Intelligencer as well as supplements to the Hartford Courant, indexes to the Hartford Courant, and books about the Hartford Courant.

    (Town) Typing in "newspapers and Hartford and Connecticut" will retrieve a list of all newspapers that covered Hartford, Connecticut, as well as showing the titles of books and other items about these newspapers.

    (Subject) Typing in "African American and newspapers" will show a list of African-American newspapers as well as showing titles of books and other items about these newspapers.

    Truncated (shortened) phrase with two asterisks ("stars") **:The Keyword Search function does not invoke "automatic truncation". However, you may truncate (shorten) words by using asterisks **. The asterisks are necessary. Truncating a word in Keyword Search without adding the two asterisks ** will not produce the desired results.

    (Title) "Hartford daily ti**" will bring up Hartford Daily Times listings.

    (Town) "Norwich conn news**"[instead of norwich conn newspapers] will give those listings.

    (Subject) "Italian conn news**" [instead of "Italian newspapers"] will bring up those listings. (The old-style state abbreviation "conn" must be included as the phrase "italian news** will include Italian newspapers from other areas.)

    TITLE Search. Choose this search if you know the title of a specific newspaper. For example, if you type in "New Haven Daily Register", a list of all the holdings for that newspaper will appear.

    TITLE Search Shortcut. While in "Title Search", you may type in a part of a title and request a search. This is called a "truncated" (shortened) title search. For example, entering "Hartford daily ti" will bring up the Hartford Daily Times.

    SUBJECT Search. Choose this search if you are looking for newspapers about a certain city or town. The subject may be typed in the request box in either of two ways:

    1. "Norwich Conn newspapers"
      or

    2. "Norwich (Conn.)-Newspapers"

    The subject search retrieves an exact phrase only, so it is important to type the phrases into CONSULS in the forms shown above. Notice that the older abbreviation is used: "Conn", instead of the modern postal abbreviation "CT". This is also true for abbreviations of other states.

    The subject search usually brings up the most complete listings of newspapers that covered a particular city or town, including those that have not yet been classed (given a specific call number) by the State Library.

    Other possible ways to find newspaper holdings in CONSULS are:

    AUTHOR Search. Newspapers usually do not have "authors", so this is not a reliable way to find the newspaper you need. However, CONSULS does include the names of many prominent newspaper editors, publishers, and printers. An author search on "Welles, Gideon" will bring up, among other titles, the Hartford Times and a search on "Green, Thomas" will bring up the Connecticut Journal. If you know that J. Bard McNulty authored a book on the history of the Hartford Courant, typing in his name will bring up a list of all works by him in CONSULS including Older Than the Nation.

    AUTHOR & TITLE Search. This specialized search allows you to enter information from both the author and title fields. For example, typing "Welles" in the author box and "Times" in the title box will bring up the Hartford Times, The Times, and The Times, and Hartford Advertiser. However, it is not a reliable way to locate most newspapers.

    JOURNAL TITLE Search. This search allows you to enter the title of academic journals, popular periodicals (such as Time and Consumer Reports) and many newspapers. However, because cataloging of the State Library's newspaper collection is not yet complete, this search currently does not bring up all the titles that can be found through a general TITLE Search (see above). For example, entering "Winsted Citizen" in the Journal Title search box produces no "hits" while typing the title in the Title search box brings up the State Library's holdings for that title. Consequently, it is currently best not to use this type of search to try to find a newspaper title in CONSULS.

    OTHER Searches. These are searches that do not fit in any of the above categories. The one most applicable to newspapers is the Library of Congress Call Number Search, or

    LC CALL NUMBER Search. This search will give titles of most of the newspapers published about a specific locality. From the CONSULS main menu select "Other Searches", then "LC Call Number", and search using the call number. This will show all newspaper groups for the town of interest and give online links to related newspaper subjects and titles. For example, typing in the call number for Hartford newspapers, "AN 104 .H3" will bring up newspapers published about Hartford. This search is also of help if you have previously obtained the call number of a newspaper, but have forgotten the title.

    There are two disadvantages to this type of search:

    1. In the case of microfilm, several newspaper titles may be on a single roll, but the call number may not reflect locality covered by all of those newspapers. For example, the Norwalk Hour was filmed and was assigned the call number AN 104 .N9. It is the first newspaper on a microfilm roll. On that same roll, following the Norwalk Hour, are the Westport Advertiser and the Hour (Westport, Conn.), which would normally have Library of Congress numbers corresponding to Westport rather than Norwalk. Because the microfilm is classed by the first newspaper on it (Norwalk), if you search on the LC number for Westport, you will not locate this box of film.

    2. Some newspapers have not yet been assigned call numbers. (The State Library is still in the process of assigning call numbers to newspaper microfilm.)

    COURSE RESERVES Searches. This does not apply to newspapers (or any other State Library material).

  4. Look at the results of the search.
     Once you have chosen the type of search you want, typed in your request, and hit the "Search" button, the next screen brings up a list of titles. Choose one and click on it.

    You will see a screen with full information on the newspaper holdings in CONSULS. It will show the title of the newspaper, who published it, where it was published, and what issues are held by the Connecticut State Library (symbol = SL) When all five libraries in CONSULS are being searched ("full CONSULS catalog mode"), abbreviations for the other libraries are used:

    CCSU = Central Connecticut State University
    ECSU = Eastern Connecticut State University
    SCSU = Southern Connecticut State University
    WCSU = Western Connecticut State University.

    Next, be sure to look at the "library has" statement to be sure the issues you want are available at the State Library. In this statement, every uninterrupted run of holdings is enclosed in brackets and identified by <Year:Month:Day>. Additional brackets are added when there is a break in the run. For example,

    LIB. HAS
    <1900:10:1-1901:7:31> <1901:10:1-1903:6:26>

    shows that the State Library has holdings for October 1, 1900 through July 31, 1901 and October 1, 1901 through June 26, 1903. It does not have any issues for the period August 1 through September 30, 1901.

    Note that there are separate holdings statements for microfilms ("SL Microfilm") and for original newspapers ("SL Newspapers"). Newspapers on microfilm may be borrowed from the State Library on interlibrary loan, through your local library. If the word "Microfilm" is not present before the list of holdings, those newspapers are only available in original form and must be used at the State Library.

    As you scroll down the screen, you may also encounter separate item records for individual rolls of microfilm. The status box for the individual items will indicate that it is due on a certain date (indicating that it is currently out on interlibrary loan) or that it is available for "Library Use Only". The films do not circulate directly to patrons and therefore are marked as "Library Use Only" in the catalog. However, you may request them through the interlibrary loan procedure at your local library.

    Newspaper titles can vary, and each time this happens, a new title record is used. For example, although we think of the Hartford Courant as being published daily since 1837, the title has varied three times. Holdings for 1837-1839 appear under the title used at that time, Daily Courant. Then, holdings for 1840-1887 appear under the next title, Hartford Daily Courant. The remaining holdings, for 1887 to the present, appear under the familiar title, Hartford Courant. Be sure to follow the links indicated by "Continues" and "Continued by" (at the very bottom of the record) to find the previous and next titles and to look at the record for each title in a newspaper "family" to insure that you find the holdings you need.

  5. To perform another search, you may either

    • Click on "Another Search" to perform another search of the same type.

    • Click on "Start Over" to return to the main CONSULS menu and then select a different search strategy.

  6. To exit CONSULS, either

    • Click on "Start Over" to return to the main CONSULS menu and then click on the "Conn. State Library icon at the bottom of the screen. This will take you to the main State Library Home Page.

    • Click on the "back" button of your Internet browser.

Questions
If you have any questions about the newspaper collections at the Connecticut State Library, please call the History & Genealogy Unit, Connecticut State Library at 1-(860)-757-6580 or e-mail us.

Prepared by the Information Services Division, Connecticut State Library, December, 2000.