Lafayette College Library

Publications generally containing reports on current events, editorials, features, photographs, and advertisements. Often give prominence to stories that have taken place in and around their place of publication. Usually published on a daily or weekly basis.

Suggested resources

This selective list includes some general bibliographies, gateways, and indexes along with some of the more extensive primary source collections available at Lafayette College. For more subject-specific resources or individual titles, consult the library's annotated list of research tools by subject, and follow suggestions for library catalog searches below.

Accessible Archives: African American Newspapers     Full Text 

Full text of African American newspapers covering 1827 to 1855.

Burney Collection of Newspapers     Full Text 

Digital collection of early English news media from the 17th and 18th centuries. Includes pamphlets, broadsides, periodicals, and an extensive collection of London newspapers.

Chicago Tribune historical backfile     Full Text 

Coverage: 1849-1985
Cover-to-cover, full image backfile of the Chicago Tribune from the first issue through 1985.

Early American Newspapers     Full Text 

Coverage: 1690-1876 (focus on 1700-1799)
Searchable, cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of U.S. historic newspapers.

Editorials on File     Collection 

Location: Skillman Ref D839 .E3 (1981-present) ; microfiche (1970-1980)
Coverage: 1970-present
Compilation of editorial opinion from more than 150 daily North American newspapers. Includes brief factual summaries related to editorial topics.

Facts on Film     Collection 

Location: Microforms
Coverage: 1954-1973
Collection includes newspaper articles, editorials, political cartoons, and letters to the editor related to public school segregation in the American South, race relations, and civil rights.

FBIS Daily Reports     Collection 

Location: Microforms
Coverage: 1983-1995
Full text and summaries of foreign newspaper articles, television and radio broadcasts, periodicals, and non-classified technical reports collected and translated by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). Indexes to the fiche collection are shelved in the reference collection.

Historical Guides to the World's Periodicals and Newspapers     Bibliography 

Location: Skillman Library (connect to catalog)
Book series providing historical profiles of periodicals and newspapers with accompanying bibliographical data.

LexisNexis Academic     Index    Full-Text 

Coverage: mid-1970s to present
Provides full text or brief abstracts of articles from newspapers published in the United States and abroad.

London Times Digital Archive     Full Text 

Coverage: 1785-1985
Electronic edition of The Times of London.

New York Times historical backfile     Full Text 

Coverage: 1851-2005
Cover-to-cover, full image backfile of the New York Times from the first issue through 2005. (For an electronic version of articles from 2005 forward, use LexisNexis Academic.)

New York Times Index     Index 

Location: Skillman Ref AI21 .N45x
Coverage: 1851-present
Index to the New York Times. Particularly useful for determining the amount of coverage given to a particular topic by the newspaper during a calendar year.

Washington Post historical backfile     Full Text 

Coverage: 1877-1992
Cover-to-cover, full image backfile of the Washington Post from the first issue through 1992. (For an electronic version of articles from 1992 forward, use LexisNexis Academic.)

World News Connection     Full Text 

Coverage: 1994-present
Full text translations of news items from foreign media.

Library catalog searches 

Use the table below to develop search strings for locating primary source bibliographies and collections in library catalogs.

• Search by keyword in the Lafayette Library catalog.
• Search by subject in WorldCat.
• Additional tips.

Sample searches:

• newspapers and bibliography
• newspapers and chicago

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