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

• What is available in the archive?
  
  
• What is not contained in the archive?
  
  
• Where is the photo/illustration/chart?
  
  
• Why should I pay for articles online?
  
  
• 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 order back issues of The Toronto Star?
  
  
• How can customers purchase articles/issues that predate what is offered in the online archives?
  
  
• How do I get reprints of an article that appeared in The Toronto Star?
  
  
• How do I get reprints of a photo that appeared in The Toronto Star?
  
  
• 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?
  
  
• What formats are available for viewing an article?
  
  
• What if I have a question that cannot be answered by the Frequently Asked Questions?
  
  
• To whom should we direct comments about articles or the publication (s)?
  
  

The Toronto Star archive includes staff written articles from 1985 through the present.

The Toronto Star archive does not include:
 Obituaries
 Birth announcements
 Real Estate
 Photographs
 Classifieds
 Legal Notices
 Weather Pages
 Charts
 Wedding Announcements
 Sports Statistics
 Advertising
 Comics

Only text is included in the current archives 1985 - present. Photos, charts, illustrations and other graphics are not included. Please see What is not contained in the archives? for more information.

Toronto Star offers articles back to 1986 online as part of the website: http://www.thestar.com. You can search on any topic, by author, or by date for free, but there is a small fee charged to access and/or prints the full article. The main purpose of the archive is to provide an additional service to our customers. The small fees charged help offset the cost of maintaining the archive. We hope you will find this new service of value. Please feel free to contact us with your comments.

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.

We have back issues available for the last 30 days. You may request a back issue by calling:
    Star Circulation
    416-367-2126
    or by email:singlecopy@thestar.ca

You also may write a note containing your name, address, daytime phone number, date of the issue, and a cheque or money order for the appropriate amount to:

    Star Circulation
    One Yonge Street
    Toronto, Ontario
    Canada, M5E 1E6

Please visit the Toronto Public library (www.tpl.toronto.on.ca) to access microfilm, or the Pages of the Past online database to view Toronto Star pages published from 1894.

Please contact Torstar Syndication Services:

        
        416-869-4973

To view thousands of Toronto Star photos, and to purchase or license online, please visit:
        Toronto Star Photo & Page Sales
        www.torstarphotos.com

You may also email: photosales@torstar.com

Telephone: 416-869-4998

Fees start at $39.50 for an 8x10 print

You may purchase prints from the Star Store web site for personal use only - to display in your home or give as a gift. Due to copyright restrictions, you may not reproduce any purchased prints for web site use, reproduction or publication in any form. To purchase images for reproduction, web site or publication purposes, please email wwatts@torstar.com or call 416.869.4973

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, we are unable to provide research assistance for the archives.

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!

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.

You can email your comments to city@thestar.ca
or you can call 416-869-4300.