You will need a BCPL card and your PIN to access the databases. To find obituaries or death notices use the ProQuest Newspapers database. The following Maryland newspapers are included in the ProQuest database: Baltimore Sun (Historic: 1837-1996), Baltimore Sun (Current: 1990 - present), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), and Washington Post (1877-2005).
- To find ProQuest, from the top of the library's home page (www.bcpl.info), select or hover over the Books and More tab.
- Then select Research Databases.
- Scroll down the list and select ProQuest: Current and Historic Newspapers.
- Select Change Databases link, it's on the same line with Basic Search, Advanced Search and Publications.
- Click or tap in the box next to "Select All" to uncheck/unselect all the databases.
- Now place a checkmark beside the one(s) you do want to search. FYI, searching one database at a time is best unless the person or term you are searching for is extremely uncommon.
- If you want to search the Historic Sun, then place a checkmark next to ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Baltimore Sun (1837 - 1996).
- Click or tap the "Use selected databases" button and that should land you on the main search page of the selected database.
- To find an obituary or death notice, select the Advanced Search button and enter a short date range starting with the date of death (if you know it) and add a few days after the date of death. So for example if the date of death is 3-5-1990 then limit your search to 3-5-1990 to 3-8-1990. If you do not know the exact date then try to limit the date range to only one month or one year, if possible.
- For document type select "obituary" and that should return mostly results with obits. and death notices.
NOTE: While these directions were written specifically to help find BCPL's historic newspapers in the databases, the ProQuest Newspaper database also includes many current newspapers. To search the all current newspapers, select 'U.S. Major Dailies (1980 - current)' in step 7 instead of the historic papers.
