New York Times Index
Encyclopedia
The New York Times Index is a printed reference work published since 1913 by The New York Times
newspaper. It is intended to serve as a reference for accessing stories printed the previous year in the newspaper. It was created by publisher Adolph Simon Ochs, who wanted to compete with the New York Sun
by offering a series of special features. The index, he believed, would be attractive to librarians and other researchers by making reliable source material widely available to the public. The index was the only one published by an American newspaper through at least the 1930s, and helped make the Times known to libraries and students nationwide as a primary source for research.
Initially published quarterly, it was released in annual editions starting in 1930. In recent years, volumes of the index have been designated to cover specific months or weeks. After the success of the index was well established, the Times began publishing the New York Times Obituaries Index and released indexes covering editions of the Times published before 1913. In 2009, the Times began releasing metadata
associated with the index to programmers and the general public.
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
newspaper. It is intended to serve as a reference for accessing stories printed the previous year in the newspaper. It was created by publisher Adolph Simon Ochs, who wanted to compete with the New York Sun
New York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
by offering a series of special features. The index, he believed, would be attractive to librarians and other researchers by making reliable source material widely available to the public. The index was the only one published by an American newspaper through at least the 1930s, and helped make the Times known to libraries and students nationwide as a primary source for research.
Initially published quarterly, it was released in annual editions starting in 1930. In recent years, volumes of the index have been designated to cover specific months or weeks. After the success of the index was well established, the Times began publishing the New York Times Obituaries Index and released indexes covering editions of the Times published before 1913. In 2009, the Times began releasing metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
associated with the index to programmers and the general public.
Additional reading
- Blazek, Ron and Perrault, Anna. United States History: A Selective Guide to Information Sources, Libraries Unlimited, 2003. (Second Edition) ISBN 1563088746
- Morse, Grant W. Guide to the Incomparable New York Times Index, New York: Fleet Academic Editions, 1980. ISBN 0830301593