The UIUC Library has a very extensive collection of newspapers, both current and retrospective, in a variety of formats, including hard copy, microfilm, and digital reproductions.  Not all of them are included in the online catalog, but if you are looking for a particular newspaper title, try searching it first in the online catalog.  Look for more than one record for each newspaper, as our holdings may consist of a combination of hard copy and microfilm, for example, and there may be a separate catalog record for each format.  Records for newspapers available with full-text online may also be found in the online catalog. Most of these will be located in the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library, but in some cases, the material will be found in another part of the UIUC Library. 

Some newspapers that are not represented in the online catalog may be included in the UIUC Library Newspaper Database. This database is searchable by place of publication and by keywords from the title. Currently, most entries in this database represent print or microfilm holdings for newspapers. Online holdings are gradually being added to the database as well. Adding links to online newspapers in the database will bring us one step closer to providing a single portal for accessing all formats of newspapers held by UIUC. In the mean time, you may need to look in a number of resources to find specific newspapers. Read on for more information.

Many newspapers are embedded in larger collections of online resources, such as:

     African-American Newspapers: 19th Century (via Accesible Archives) (see below)
     Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW)
     EastView collection of Russian/CIS newspapers and periodicals (1990s- )
     American Periodical Series Online  (see below).  

They may also be embedded in microfilm collections, such as the Underground Press Collection (1963-1985, FILM 071.3 Un3, History, Philosophy, & Newspaper Library), Periodicals by and about American Indians, 1923-1981 (FILM 973.049705 P418 History, Philosophy, & Newspaper Library), Early English Newspapers (FILM 072 EA76, Rare Books and Special Collections Library but being relocated to History, Philosophy, & Newspaper Library) or Newspapers from the Russian Revolutionary Era (FILM 057.1 NE History, Philosophy, & Newspaper Library).  Fortunately, the individual newspaper titles included in the major microfilm collections are listed in the UIUC Library Newspaper database.

We have access to the full text of the New York Times online from 1857 to the present and the Wall Street Journal  from 1889 to 1985, and the Chicago Tribune from 1849 to the present (still in production, 1849-1879 not yet available).  These are digital facsimiles of the originals and are keyword searchable. From the Online Resources Page
( http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/ ) type in the title of the newspaper in the search box. Although retrospective files of other major metropolitan dailies (such as the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Constitution, and Boston Globe) have been digitized, the UIUC Library does not yet have access to them, and our online access to these newspapers  generally goes back only to the mid-1980s.  Among foreign titles, we do have access to the Times (London) Digital Archive from 1785 to 1985.

American Periodical Series Online (described in section II above) contains several newspapers, including the National Police Gazette.  As noted above, this database is searchable by keyword, but there are no subject descriptors, so you have to use the language of the period in constructing your search.  To get to American Periodical Series Online, go to “Quick Links” on the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library web site (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/hix/index.html) or type the title in the search box from the “Article Indexes and Abstracts” tab on the Online Research Resources page (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/).

Another important online collection is African-American Newspapers: The Nineteenth Century, which provides the full text (in transcribed form) of seven African-American newspapers published between 1827 and 1876:  Freedom’s Journal, Colored American, North Star, National Era, Provincial Freeman, Christian Recorder, and Frederick Douglass Paper (which continues North Star).  This collection is available from the Library Gateway (choose “Newspapers” at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/) or under “Internet Resources” on the History and Philosophy Library web site. 

Another massive digital collection of note is the Archive of Americana, which (when complete) will include the full text of Early American Newspapers (1690-1876).  As of late July 2005, this database includes more than 200,000 issues of 286 newspapers (nearly 900,000 digitized pages).  To search the database, go to the Library’s “Online Research Resources” web page (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr) and type “Early American Newspapers” in the search box.

Numerous other newspaper digitization projects are underway all throughout the United States and abroad. A listing of some of the more popular projects to date are listed on the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library's web site. Stay tuned for more news on digital newspapers.

For newspapers that have not been digitized, article-level indexing is limited, particularly before the 1970s.  The digital versions of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, and Times (London) are fully searchable, so you don’t really need a separate index to use them.  (If you prefer paper, there is a print index for the New York Times from its inception in 1851, located in the Reference Library, and for the Wall Street Journal from 1957, and there is also indexing for the Times (London) from 1790 to 1905 and from 1906 to 1980 (both online and in print.)

Most newspaper indexes begin around 1970 or later, and few of these are online before 1990.  The print (or paper) index for the Chicago Tribune  begins with 1972, for the Washington Post  in 1971, and for the Los Angeles Times in 1972; these are located in the Library’s remote storage facility (and can be sent to the main Library upon request).  There is an index for the Chicago Defender and several other African American newspapers that begins with 1977 (Index to Black Newspapers, 016.0713 In2 and 016.0713 In21, located in the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library).  Note that the print version of the Alternative Press Index (located in the Undergraduate Library) goes back to 1969, whereas the online version starts with 1991.  Older print indexes include the New York Tribune, covering the period from 1875 to 1906, the Cleveland Plain Dealer (1930s), the Christian Science Monitor  (1950- ), and for Le Monde in the late 1960s and 1970s.  Most of these print indexes are located in the Library’s remote storage facility and can be sent over to the main Library on request.  Online abstracting and indexing for some major and regional papers is available through Lexis-Nexis, Newsbank, and EBSCO Host (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/, “Journals & Newspapers”).