WRT 105-Getting Started with Research: Researching a Location

This page will direct you to resources that you can use to find information about your chosen location.

1.  Is there a magazine or journal that covers the history of your place?
2. What newspapers were published in that time and place? How can you access them? What about radio or TV broadcasts?
3. Are there local government documents that are relevant to your research? How can you access them?
4. Are there photographs of that time and place? Maps?
5. Are there personal memoirs, business records, or other types of primary sources available to you?

Post Standard Collection - Syracuse Post-Standard (NewsBank) 1986-

Search or browse articles from the Syracuse Post-Standard (December 1986 – present) and Syracuse.com (October 2012 – present), including full color scans of that newspaper’s print edition (June 2019 – present).

HOT TIP! Use Census Quick Facts to get really quick data on a specific location.

The United States Census Bureau collects a vast amount of information on the residents and businesses of the United States. The main Census pages are:

• Census Bureau
• American Community Survey
• Census.Data.Gov

For much more detailed information on using the US Census, please see the libraries' research guide for the US Census.

Open Data Syracuse is the City of Syracuse's central location for open data, maps, and visualizations to help you understand what is happening in the city.

For more data on Syracuse and Onondaga county, you can visit our research guide on Syracuse and Onondaga County.

For local newspapers published in areas around New York State, the best strategy would be to look for a web page for current news, then try the NewspaperARCHIVE for back issues or historic coverage.  Good starting points include the following:

• Newspapers USA and Worldwide

  A directory of online newspapers. From RefDesk.com

• Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

  Select American newspapers from 1880-1922

• US Newsstream

  Offers access to U.S. news coverage by newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites. Includes archival content, in some instances going back as far as the 1980s, from sources such as the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and USA Today, as well as content from hundreds of local and regional newspapers.