Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Tuesday's Tip - Check Out the WikiPedia List of Online Newspaper Archives

This week's Tuesday's Tip is to:  Check Out the WikiPedia List of Online Newspaper Archives at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_online_newspaper_archives.

The Wikipedia listing of online digital newspapers includes this description:
This is a list of free and pay wall blocked digital online newspaper archives. Most are scanned from microfilm into pdfgif or similar graphic formats and many of the graphic archives have been indexed into searchable text databases utilizing optical character recognition (OCR) technology. Some newspapers do not allow access to the OCR-converted text until it is proofread. Older newspapers are still in image format, and newer newspapers are available as full text that can be cut and pasted. Most text is in ASCII, some are using Unicode for diacritical marks not available in ASCII. Google now indexes many newspaper archives.
Some local public libraries subscribe to certain online newspaper archives. For instance, some UK public libraries subscribe to The Times Digital Archive (1785–1985), and any member of one of these libraries is able to access this resource free from their home computer using their library card number. In many instances, library access may be restricted to in-building use, in the confines of the library itself, and not a service otherwise available away from that structure to cardholders.

The Wikipedia listing of online digital newspapers has a list of countries (and other jurisdictions, like states or provinces) in the "Contents" list: 

Down the countries list is the United States.  I clicked on the link for United States and saw the list of States with the online newspaper archives available:


Down near the end of the United States listings is a listing for "Multistate" which includes larger digital newspaper collections like Chronicling America, GenealogyBank, NewspaperARCHIVE, ProQuest, Ancestry.com, etc.



Readers should check this list regularly for new additions as more newspapers are added over time. Note that the newspapers on this list may be current or historical.

You never know when you might need information from online historical newspapers for your genealogical research.  You may find a gem in these lists.  It may be freely accessible, or not.

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Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver



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