[WikiEN-l] Opt Out for Not So Notable Biographies

[Sam Blacketer]

On 4/9/07, MacGyverMagic/Mgm <macgyvermagic at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> "it doesn't mean the information isn't readily available". Assuming we're
> talking about a newspaper article that is not available on the internet but
> can be found in LexisNexis: Where would you go to get it? If it is readily
> available there should be other places to get it for people who don't have
> LexisNexis access.

I often use 'The Times Digital Archive' to research articles, this
being a searchable database of scans of every page of The Times since
1785. It is a private database which certain libraries subscribe to.
Recently I had the unhappy experience of having another editor
complain that because I had cited a source which was a Times article
from the 1930s, it wasn't accessible on the internet and therefore not
verifiable.

The fact is that old newspapers are available, even if you don't have
LexisNexis. You can go to a newspaper library; most reference
libraries in Britain have major newspapers on microfilm. It is no part
of sourcing to find sources that a couch potato can find in 30 seconds
on Google.

-- 
Sam Blacketer
London E15