Newspapers

Most of newspapers at St. Olaf College are collected in electronic databases. These can be found by following the hyperlinked titles on this guide or by browsing the alphabetical database list here.

Contemporary Newspapers

These databases provide access to newspapers on or soon after the date they are published, so they are excellent sources of current information. Each database collects hundreds of individual titles making them great tools for tracking the treatment of an event across a variety of perspectives.

LexisNexis Academic
Provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information. An excellent source for full-text articles in national and international newspapers.

ProQuest Newsstand Complete
Full-text and abstracted newspapers, including New York Times (1999-) and Wall Street Journal (1984- ).

Westlaw Campus Research
Another source for U.S., international, and non-english newspapers.

Historical Newspapers

These databases provide access to newspapers going back, in some cases, to the 17th century. Use these resources to track the evolution of events and ideas over time.

  • Collections of multiple titles

American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900
A collection of digitized magazines and journals published in the United States between 1741 and 1900. APS includes more than 1,000 titles such as Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine, the first American professional journal, and numerous popular magazines. A complete title list is available on the Web.

Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective
An index to and full text of the Charleston Mercury, Richmond Inquirer, and the New York Herald from November 1, 1860 to April 30, 1865.

Civil War Era Newspapers (Pennsylvania)
A full-text database of selected Pennsylvania newspapers during the years before, during, and after the U.S. Civil War.

Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans
Electronic access to a variety of American publications from 1639 to 1800.

Early American Newspapers Digital
America's Historical Newspapers provides access to "cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of historic newspapers" from 1690 to 1922.

  • Individual titles

Chicago Defender, 1905-1975
Offers "full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue."

Daily Defender, 1956-1975

Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1986)
Offers "full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue."

New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)
Offers "full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue."

New York Times (1851 - 2005)
The NY Times is also available on microfilm from 1857 - the present day. This may come in handy as freelance work contributed to the Times (mostly photographs) may not always be available in the electronic version.

Local Newspapers

Manitou Messenger
You can access the digitized full text of the Mess from 1887 - 1916 through Bridge by means of a title search for Manitou Messenger or by clicking here. The most current issues can be accessed directly from the Messenger's web site <www.manitoumessenger.com>. For all the years in between, search Fram, the search engine of the college Archives. This search will not provide the full text of any articles, but will tell you where to find those articles in the library's microfilm collection.

The Carletonian
Carleton's student run newspaper, published from 1877 - today. The most recent two years are archived on the Carletonian's web site here and you can search the archives here.

Northfield News
Search for recent news on their web site here or search Bridge for the microfilm spanning 1908 - today.

Other Resources

African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A national bibliography
[RR PN4882.5 .A37 1998]
A comprehensive guide to known newspapers and periodicals dating back to 1827. Entries include dates and frequency of publication, contact information, and where the microfilm is held. Includes indexes for publishers, editors, and subjects.

Alternative Press Index
Indexes alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines, including topics such as indigenous peoples, democracy, labor, national liberation, feminism, socialism, and gay and lesbian issues. You will need to contact a reference librarian for the password.

Black Studies Center
The Black Studies Center is a fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more. It combines several resources for research and teaching in Black Studies: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), historical black newspapers, and the Black Literature Index.

   You can access the Chicago Defender, Daily Defender, and the New York Amsterdam News from this database. Find this database on the alphabetical list of electronic resources on the library web page here.

Google Books & Magazines
Google is experimenting with a digital collection of magazines to accompany their collection of digitized books. The magazines that they have scanned are made available as full text, full color searchable documents. It's pretty incredible. Use the advanced search to limit your Google search to magazines only.

   They aren't currently providing us with a comprehensive list of titles, so finding the titles you want can be pretty hit or miss. Both Jet and Ebony, however, are included and are digitized back to 1950!