How do I find an article I need from the Straits Times?
Answer
As a student or staff of NUS, there are many ways to find articles from Straits Times.
1. NewspaperSG
This is an archive by the National Library Board which contains digitized versions of various historical local newspapers including Straits Times. This is generally a cover by cover scan including advertisements, obituaries, photographs etc.
This digital archive covers the period from 1845-2006 , but only articles up to 1989 can be accessed free online at home.
The articles are water-marked however and you cannot download a copy.
If you want it a unwater-marked version you can go down to the National Library Board and pay for it, or access the Microfilm collection of NUS Libraries.
2. Factiva and LexisNexis Academic
Factiva and LexisNexis Academic can be used to search for articles from 1989 and 1992 respectively. They offer only text articles however, photographs and illustrations are usually excluded. Also typically news articles are included only but not advertisements, obituaries, special issues etc.
For Factiva, you may need to use the "search builder" option (under Search) and restrict to the source you need, remember to change the date for longer periods.
If you are looking for letters to forum or special issues/editorials, you might want to try LexisNexis Academic first.
The new search FindMore@NUSL only has partial coverage of Straits Times. Currently it covers only Jan 1997 - Jan 1998 & March 2010 onwards to present (2-3 days lag). Full text is linked via LexisNexis Academic , so the same limitations stated above on lack of photographs etc applies.
To restrict a search to just items in Straits Times, go to the advanced search and in From this publication: field, enter
"The Straits Times"
4. Microfilm collection of NUS Libraries
If you are unable to find the full-text from the above two options you may need to look at the Microfilms.
Microfilms provide a scanned record of the whole page. However, there is no way to do a search over them and if you do not know the exact issue where the content you are looking for is, you will have to manually scan each issue.
One way around this problem where you know roughly the title, subject but don't know the exact issue is do a search in the following sources first.
a. NewspaperSG (Free full-text up to 1989, but searchable up to 2006)
b. Newslink (From 1989, NUS has no subscription to full text but free searchable)
c. Factiva and LexisNexis Academic (Full-text from 1989 and 1992 respectively, No photos, page numbers, excludes advertisements, obituaries, reports from news agencies such as Reuters, AP, AFP etc)
Once you have the right issue you can go to the microfilms.
