The Customer Service staff of The St. Petersburg Times online archive wants to help make your searching as trouble-free as possible. To ensure your continued satisfaction with The St. Petersburg Times online archive, we offer the following answers to some of the most commonly asked questions:

• What is available in the archive?
  
  
• What is NOT available in the archive?
  
  
• How frequently do you update the archive?
  
  
• Where is the photo/illustration/chart?
  
  
• How do I purchase articles online?
  
  
• What forms of payment are accepted for purchasing articles?
  
  
• What is your refund policy?
  
  
• What is ProQuest Archiver (PQA)?
  
  
• How do I find all articles associated with a given section?
  
  
• How do I order back issues of The St. Petersburg Times?
  
  
• How do I get reprints of a St. Petersburg Times article, even one that doesn't appear in the online archives?
  
  
• Can I order reprints of photos?
  
  
• How do I get better search results?
  
  
• What part of the article is actually searched for my search term?
  
  
• How do I browse articles that appeared on one specific day?
  
  
• What if I can't find my article?
  
  
• How do I find an obituary?
  
  
• Does the St. Petersburg Times offer research services for customers who need assistance in locating articles?
  
  
• What formats are available for viewing an article?
  
  
• How do I get a subscription to The St. Petersburg Times?
  
  
• What if I have a question that cannot be answered by the Frequently Asked Questions?
  
  

Everything in these digital archives was published in the print version of the St. Petersburg Times daily newspaper. The newspaper's print archives from 1/1/1987 to the present have been placed online in searchable format.

The various categories of information include:

• News stories from all sections of the paper
• Arts and Entertainment
• Business
• Columns
• Computers and Technology
• Editorials
• Home & Garden
• Letters to the Editor
• Lottery Numbers
• Obituaries
• Outdoors
• Real Estate
• Special Series and Special Sections (Football, Spring Training, Know Your Candidates, etc.)
• Sports
• Taste (Food)
• Travel
• Weekend (Arts & Entertainment)
• Xpress

The following is material that does not appear in these digital archives:

• Articles sold to the St. Petersburg Times for use in the newspaper by writers who have not given the paper permission to republish their work online
• Articles the St. Petersburg Times has purchased from other publications for print usage only
• Syndicated articles such as "Dear Abby," "Ann Landers," "Miss Manners"
• Opinion Page syndicated columnists such as George Will and Molly Ivins
• Classified or display advertising
• Photos
• Charts and Graphs
• Sports coverage of teams and events unless articles are written by St. Petersburg Times reporters. (This means no sports stories from the Associated Press or other services are placed in these digital archives.)
• Sports agate (the scores and lists that appear in the paper in tiny type)
• Calendar items, which include briefs and lists of when and where events are taking place

There is a daily update Tuesday through Saturday within 24 hours. On Sunday, Monday and Christmas Day, there is an update within 48 hours.

Only text is included in the current archives 1987 - present. Photos, charts, illustrations and other graphics are not included. Please see What is not contained in the archives? for more information.

Advice for new users: After you do a search, a screen will come up with the results of that search. You may view a summary of the document for free. Once you determine which document you would like to view, click on the icon with the '$'. If you are a new user, you will be taken to a pricing page, where you can choose the plan to purchase. After deciding which plan best fits your needs, you will be taken through the purchase experience. After confirming your purchase, the full text of the document will be displayed.

You may choose to print the document or save it for your personal review later on. Since you have access to this document for 90 days, you may complete the same search and retrieve the document again during this time period.

Accepted forms of payment for purchasing articles:

(Billed by ProQuest Archiver)

Customers may submit an online refund request within two hours of purchase. ProQuest will refund the full purchase price provided the customer provides an explanation of why he/she is dissatisfied with the quality of the content delivered. If more than two hours has passed, customers may contact ProQuest Customer Service by email to request a refund at mypqabilling@pqarchiver.com.

Refunds for passes will be pro-rated based upon duration since purchase and usage.

No refunds can be given more than 60 days following the original purchase date.

ProQuest Archiver is an e-commerce platform for publishers to distribute their content on the Web. Visit myPQA to learn more.

Select a Section in the dropdown box and enter a date range. Leave the Search box blank and click the Search button. The results will include all articles that appeared in that Section for the given date range.

You can order back issues by contacting the Circulation Customer Service department at 727-895-1181 or by writing to 490 1st Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701. Email orders are not taken. The charges vary and are outlined, in part, below:

Cost:

30 DAYS OR LESS Pick Up: Daily = 50 cents plus tax Sunday = $1 plus tax Mail: Daily = $7.00 Sunday = $10.00 31 DAYS TO 6 MONTHS OLD Pick Up: Daily = $1 plus tax Sunday = $2.00 plus tax Mail: Daily = $7.00 Sunday = $10.00 6 MONTHS TO ONE YEAR OLD Pick Up: Daily = $1.50 plus tax Sunday = $3 plus tax Mail: Daily = $7.00 Sunday = $10.00 TAX/COUNTY Pinellas County: 7% West Pasco County: 7% Manatee County: 6.5% East & Central Pasco County: 7% Hillsborough County: 7% Hernando County: 6.5% Citrus County: 6%

Full Page Reprints are available as far back as 1901. Visit http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/item.html to order.

Only photos taken by St. Petersburg Times staff photographers are available as reprints. Visit the Times Online Store at www.tampabay.com/store to place an order.

Be specific with your search terms. If your search is unsuccessful, refine your search terms. To narrow your search, use the advanced search page to fill in date range, author, headline, or subject fields. The more information you provide, the more precise your search results will be. To get more results, select different search words or a longer date range.

Using AND narrows the search, using OR broadens the search, and using NOT excludes unwanted items. The NOT operator is useful in refining an initial query that returns a broad list of results. WITHIN and ADJ controls how close your search terms must be to one another. ADJ also checks that words found are in the same order as in your search expression. For more detail, visit Search Tips.

The basic search includes the full text of the entire article, as well as text from the headline, author field, date range, subject terms, etc. For more detail on getting good search results, visit Search Tips.

On the advanced search page, use the date range option to select the specific date, insert a "*" into the "Search for" field, and click the search button.

Please review the Search Tips for helpful information, as well as How do I get better search results?. Unfortunately, ProQuest Archiver is unable to provide research assistance for the archives. However, more information is available here.

For the current full text archives:
To search for an obituary use the Advanced Search; next, in the Headline prompt box list the person's name this way:
  first name pre/3 last name
    Example: john pre/3 doe.
(Using the proximity of pre/3 tells the system to find the first name 3 words before the last name; this takes into account the use of a middle initial or a nickname.)

Yes. The Answer Desk will answer questions about articles appearing in the St. Petersburg Times, as well as providing run dates, at no charge, providing that the questions are not too in-depth. The Answer Desk is open M-F, 9 a.m. to noon. by calling (727) 893-8176 or by email at answers@sptimes.com. If the questions are in-depth and require research, the charge is $75 per hour on a prorated basis. Please see the fees above for more details.

You can choose the format you would like to view by clicking the icon next to the article title. Please note: Only some document formats may be available. The following formats may be available:

Preview - The free Preview provides bibliographic information about the article, such as author and publication date, and a brief summary. This format contains no photos.

Full Text - The Full Text version includes the citation and abstract, along with the complete text of the article. This format contains no photos.

To subscribe to the print edition, go to the online subscription page or call 1-800-888-7012.
To subscribe to the electronic edition, an exact replica of the print edition, go to tampabay.com/mystpetetimes.
Includes 1 year of archives.

If you still have questions after checking the frequently asked questions, please contact Customer Service. Please keep in mind that assistance is available only for technical and account-related issues. Research assistance is not provided.

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