Search help
Newspaper Names and History:
The Newmarket Public Library holds the microfilm collection of Newmarket’s local newspapers including The Era Newspaper, from 1852 to the present. Indexing of this collection began in 1977.
In 2009, digitization (scanning and indexing) of this collection began as part of the Shared Digital Infrastructure project (SDI). At the end of the project, the newspaper years covering 1852-1979 were scanned, indexed and available online. Indexing is still ongoing for current years with the hope of adding more scanned images in the future.
Select Find on the Homepage to view all years available. Select Newmarket Newspapers under Browse Collections to view individual mastheads.
The available titles are:
The New Era, North York Sentinel, Newmarket Courier, North York Reformer, The Newmarket Era, Newmarket Era and Express, The Era, The Era and Post and The Era-Banner. York Region Media Group is the copyright holder to all these publications.
Record Types and Searching:
IMPORTANT NOTE:The indexing of The Era and other newspapers is a blend of manual and OCR methods.
Records manually indexed by staff cover the years 1852-1862, 1874-1884, 1930-1950, and part of 1960. You may search subjects, article titles and name fields.
Automated indexing uses an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program that converts scanned pages into searchable text. Issues that are available using this method are 1863-1873, 1885-1929 and 1951-1979.
The results lists and page displays will differ depending on which indexing method was used.
Searches of OCR indexed articles will produce highlighted results which colour mark the search terms on the newspaper page.
Records indexed manually will return results of articles that have the search terms in the appropriate data fields, such as personal name, title or subject.
If you would like more information or assistance using the database or the microfilm please contact the Adult Services Department, aref@newmarketpl.ca
- Entering the following in the Search all box:
- Results in records containing the following:
- Train
- Single keyword searches will return results with any instance of text containing the word Train, including Trains and Training and Strain. Keywords searches are naturally “fuzzy,” but you can specify *how* fuzzy on the advanced search screen (see below).
- Train VIA
- Multiple Keywords will get you the same results as searching Train and VIA as separate keywords (see AND). It will not treat Train VIA as a phrase.
- "Trains and Boats"
- Phrase searching will contain results with the phrase Trains and Boats. Putting double-quotations around a phrase will find whatever is inside the quotes. You can also use Advanced Search to select the "phrase" button from the "Logic between keywords" list. This setting works a bit differently: it only recognizes the most common words, so words like of and in may be ignored.
- Train OR Locomotive
- OR helps you broaden your search to include synonyms or variants, such as Train and Locomotive. The OR must be capitalized. Results will be all text that contain the words Train or Locomotive. You can also use Advanced Search to insert "OR" from the "Logic between keywords" list.
- Train AND Locomotive
- AND will provide results containing the word Train and the word Locomotive, but not selections containing just one of those words. The AND must be capitalized. You can also use Advanced Search to insert "AND" from the "Logic between keywords" list.
- Train AND NOT Locomotive
- AND NOT results will contain the word Train but not the word Locomotive. The words AND NOT must be capitalized.
- Train*s
- Use the Asterisk * for results with anything that begins with the letters Train and ends with an S, such as Trains, Traintracks, and Trainers. The asterisk is called a wildcard. You can't use the wildcard at the beginning (for example, *rains will not work). You might want to use it for spelling variations such as harb*r (for both harbour and harbor). Wildcard searches are case-sensitive, meaning you will get results containing "Trains" with a capital T but not "trains" - the other searches here are not case-sensitive.
- "Canada and Newmarket"
- Selections containing the phrase Canada and Newmarket. Note that in this instance the word and is part of the phrase, not a search instruction. Alternatively, go to the Advanced Search screen, enter "Canada and Newmarket" and select the "phrase" radio button from the "Logic between keywords" list. Note: not all words are stored in the index so words like "of" and "in" may be ignored in your phrase.
Note that with the exception of the wild card search, these searches are not case-sensitive. Canada will find canada and canada will find Canada. Note that phrases must appear inside quotation marks, as in "Canada and Newmarket."
The Unsure about correct spelling? attempts to enlarge the search by allowing the search engine to find words spelled nearly the same as the ones you entered. It does this by simple letter substitution. For example a Close search on "Macdonald" returns records with "McDonald" and "Macdonalds" as well. A Similar search adds variations like "Donald." A Something like this will return even broader results.
Currently the The Era: Newmarket's Digital Newspaper Project does not use fuzzy dates. Please use the between two dates function.
The Geographic Location limits your search to records tagged with that specific place name. Since all newspapers were published in Newmarket, Ontario, this search function is not enabled.
For those who wish to analyze their search results more in-depth using mapping software, we offer the download of KML files on any search results page. By clicking this, you are downloading a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file, which delivers location-based information. KML files are read by tools such as Google Earth to display points and data on a map or 3D model. Each place located by the KML file gives at least a longitude and latitude. The first step to using a KML file is to have an application like Google Earth or another application on your computer that is capable of handling this file format. There are excellent Google Earth Help files and documentation available. You may also wish to search for browser plug-ins that will generate maps using KML files.
