Deciphering Lost Google News URLs
Mentor 1
Amanda Seligman
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
27-4-2018 1:00 PM
Description
The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee provides an online source for a myriad of topics relating to the history and development of Milwaukee and its surrounding communities. A key difference between the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee and other similar online encyclopedia is the inclusion of research footnotes with each entry. Fact checking of URL links associated with these entries was complicated by the disappearance of the Google News archive of Milwaukee’s newspapers in 2016. A means to rapidly identify the date of publication and the newspaper sourced for these dead links needed to be developed. Assumptions were made based on what appeared to be a date and ID pattern within the Google News URLs, deciphering of that pattern required delving into UWM’s microtext library for verification. Four entries containing twenty-two Google News links were examined; eighteen of these links corresponded exactly as anticipated. The result was verification of a consistent pattern for three ID phrases which differentiated the Milwaukee Journal, the Milwaukee Sentinel, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This work provides a useful aid for other history researchers encountering similar dead Google News links.
Deciphering Lost Google News URLs
Union Wisconsin Room
The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee provides an online source for a myriad of topics relating to the history and development of Milwaukee and its surrounding communities. A key difference between the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee and other similar online encyclopedia is the inclusion of research footnotes with each entry. Fact checking of URL links associated with these entries was complicated by the disappearance of the Google News archive of Milwaukee’s newspapers in 2016. A means to rapidly identify the date of publication and the newspaper sourced for these dead links needed to be developed. Assumptions were made based on what appeared to be a date and ID pattern within the Google News URLs, deciphering of that pattern required delving into UWM’s microtext library for verification. Four entries containing twenty-two Google News links were examined; eighteen of these links corresponded exactly as anticipated. The result was verification of a consistent pattern for three ID phrases which differentiated the Milwaukee Journal, the Milwaukee Sentinel, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This work provides a useful aid for other history researchers encountering similar dead Google News links.
