Searching for local news that's more than a week old can be challenging.  Lots of news sources ask you to pay for access to their archives.  Google changes its interface to news search all the time.  A lot of small town media is not digitized or easy to turn up.

1. Search the newspaper site directly.

2. Use advanced Google search techniques (advanced operators) or make sure to search the Archives.

3. Search Nexis Uni for larger papers like the Star Tribune or Pioneer Press. Remember that these papers are regional so often cover news from towns and counties all over the state, not just the Twin Cities.

4. Ask a librarian for help locating the specific publication.  You may be able to request a copy of a specific article from another library through interlibrary loan

Go here to search the main Winona paper. Remember that you can also find news using the other methods mentioned on this page. 

From the LexisNexis home page, open up the box to search the News (click on the arrow to open the search box). From there, type in Star Tribune or Pioneer Press as a source title.

OR, type in your search term if it is relatively narrow and search "Newpapers" as a source type.

For this case, a few extra techniques for Google searching will make all the difference.  This search will get you started with both some local newspaper results as well as nonprofit opinion papers, trade newsletters, and other elusive documents.  These are some tips to make your Google searching more precise.

Examples:
1. "frac sand" minnesota inurl:org 2012..2014
2.  environment "frac sand" minnesota filetype:pdf
3. "frac sand" site:co.winona.mn.us

Tips from Google on these techniques and more.

Google News defaults to search only the past 30 days. So in order to search earlier dates:

• Go to Google News (news.google.com)
• Enter "frac sand mining" or your search term.
• Before executing the search, click on the downward facing arrow to select "advanced news search"

Now you can choose the date range and other features of articles you want to view.  If the article costs money, remember that the library may own a copy of it or if not, we may be able to get a copy from another library:

• look up the name of the newspaper in the Journals list to see if we have access
• if not, request the copy of the article using interlibrary loan.

Portal to all of Minnesota Public Radio's frac sand coverage, including maps and video.