Coloma Public Library
Newspaper Archives

(Coloma Courier, Watervliet Record and Tri-City Record)

Searching Tips

SPEED: If your computer does not have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, you should download it before using the Archives. The latest version of Adobe will increase the speed your computer accesses each digitized image. Once the latest version is installed, it will automatically activate whenever you search. To download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader click here, then click the "download" button.

SEARCHING:

Text Search: You can search text in two ways. We recommend using the Text Search box where you would enter your search term and choose one of three options: either the decade of the paper you would you would like to search or the newspaper you would like to search or choose ALL to search all newspapers. You then get a search results page.

Browse by Date: You may also search your term in an individual issue by page, if you know the date of the issue. To do this you would choose the decade from the dropdown menu and then click “Search Year.” Then page forward until you find the date of your issue. To search in any page, click in the Find box at the top of the screen and enter your search term. The arrow on the right of the Find box will provide a drop down menu that will lead to expanded search options. Your search terms will be highlighted in the text in blue.

SEARCH TIPS: If your search term is too broad, you will receive a large number of hits and the search will take longer to complete (the maximum amount of hits is 2000). Narrow your search using more specific terms. For example, searching the word "Coloma” results in too many hits, but using "Coloma Public Library” results in a manageable list. If it is a big file being downloaded and is slow, let it finish downloading without clicking once again. If you click again, it could freeze the downloading of that file.

TO ENLARGE: Use the Toolbar to enlarge the image. You can also do this from the View dropdown menu at the top.

PRINTING: Click on the Printer icon at the top left of the screen. You can also go to File and Print on your computer.

To print a portion of a page:
Choose Tools>Select a Zoom>Snapshot tool. Hold down the left mouse button, and drag the mouse to surround the article with a box made of dotted lines and colored blue. To print the article, right click within the article and choose print.

TO FIND YOUR SEARCH TERM ON YOUR PAGE: On your keyboard type "Control+F" and in the "Find" box enter your search term to search within the document. When you click "Enter" the search terms should be highlighted in blue on the document. Continue hitting the "Enter" key to proceed through the results.

TO PAGE FORWARD OR BACKWARD: Use the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen. To change how the page is displayed on the screen, use the Page icons at the bottom right of the screen. Depending on your version of Adobe Acrobat, the arrows may be at the top of the screen.

IF YOU DON'T FIND WHAT YOU WANT: This digitized archive is comprised of historical materials that have been scanned and processed by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Occasionally the OCR will not recognize a word. For example, if the microfilm that was scanned had a scratch or was not very clear when it was originally filmed, the computer may not be able to read those sections. Additionally, if a word is in a fancy font or is white print in a black background (such as in an advertisement), it may not be recognized. If you did not find what you were looking for or your search resulted in zero hits, you may wish to look at the actual pages of the document rather than using a keyword search.

*Adapted with permission from Northville District Library