I have previously mentioned how much I enjoy browsing the archive, but Keesing's really comes into its own when you want a specific piece of information.  There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to find what you are looking for, so here are a few tips which I hope will assist you in getting results:

Date range – The archive goes all the way back to 1931, but if you know a date connected to what you are looking for, try narrowing the date range. You can also choose to sort results either by newest (most recently published) articles first, or by oldest articles first.

Click on a cluster - Clusters allow you to organise your search results.   When you search for a topic, look at the bottom of the left hand side bar and click on a cluster to filter your search.  There are “country” clusters and “person” clusters and you can also tag articles and create your own clusters. 

Select a topic - You can refine searches by selecting a topic.  All Keesing's articles are given keywords which help to identify their content.  The list of topics can be found on the left hand side bar. Simply click on it to refine your search. 

The Keesing's topics are: appointments; constitution and governance;  disarmament and rearmament; economy; elections; environment; foreign relations; human rights; international organisations; legal issues; legislation; political parties; science and technology; social issues; terrorism and war. 

Keep things simple – sometimes being too specific can yield few results, so try a simpler search with fewer words.  For example, instead of searching for "February 2007 Sri Lanka government changes", search for "government changes", narrow the date range to February 2007, and use the nations cluster to find Sri Lanka.

I hope these tips will help you when using the site. 

For further information visit out “help” page which contains lots of useful advice on how to get the most out of the archive.  Happy searching!