How do I search Factiva?

Step 1:

Access Factiva. (If you're off-campus, you will be prompted to login with your MyPVCC username and password.)
 

Step 2:

On the top menu bar, select Search > Search Builder.

Step 3:

In the "Free Text Search" box, enter in your search terms. You must use boolean search strategies when searching Factiva. Combine nouns with these terms:

• AND.  For example, dogs AND cats will find articles that have both words in them.
• OR.  For example, dogs OR cats will find articles that have either word in them, or both words.
• NOT.  For example, dogs NOT cats will find articles that have the word "dogs," but filter out articles that have the word "cats."

In addition, Factiva cares whether the word is plural.  If you search for the word "dogs," it will only find articles where it's listed in the plural form.  If you want articles to appear with the singular form, "dog," then you must input the search term in the singular form.  

Lastly, if you type in a string of text (such as: I just can't wait to be king), it will only find articles where those words are side-by-side.  This is helpful for a song lyric or title of a book, but it is not helpful for topical searches.  For that, you must use the boolean strategies above, or you risk not pulling up any articles.

Step 4:

Try using some of the filters before searching Factiva.  Select a date range to limit your results to current information:  

Select the Sources drop-down menu and select Source Category > My Source Lists, and click one of the three groups listed.        

Step 5:

Click the blue Search button.

Step 6:

Review the results displayed.  Pay attention to the article title, date, and newspaper it comes from.  You may use the filters on the left to narrow the results by company/organization, newspaper, industry, language, etc.  Click an article's title to read it.

Step 7:

Click the print icon at the top to print a copy of the article.  Select "Article Format" from the drop-down menu.

• If you want to search one specific newspaper, click the Sources drop-down menu.  Type the name of the newspaper (such as "daily progress") and select it from the pop-up list.  Then type in your search terms in the "Free Text Search" box.    
  
   
• For more tips on searching Factiva, read their Search Builder Quick Reference Guide.
• Do you want to read today's paper? Follow this procedure:
  • Go to Factiva
  • Next to Date, change the date range to "in the last day"
  • Click the arrow next to "Source" and search for the newspaper title (for example, Washington Post)
  • In the Free Text Search box at the top of the page, type "the" and click "Search." Since the word "the" is likely to appear in every article, your results will contain all the articles from that day's paper.

• To link articles from Factiva, see these instructions.