How to find newspapers

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N= paper copy held onsite
NM= microfilm on open access
NSM= microfilm in onsite storage
NMR=paper copy held offsite

For example The Age is found in several locations.

There are over 3,000 different newspapers in the State Library of Victoria's newspaper collection including Melbourne's Herald Sun and The Age. There are also hundreds of newspapers accessible through the Databases, journals and ebooks page. This guide will help you find newspapers using the Library catalogue, eresources and selected websites.

It will also show you how to use the online catalogue to search by newspaper title, search for all newspapers published in a particular place, by type of newspaper, e.g sporting or business newspapers, and to find current or historical newspapers.

Newspapers can be found across a variety of formats such as print, microfilm, online, or a combination of all of these. This guide has grouped newspapers into time periods regardless of format. To find newspapers published or circulating in a specific place use the 'in place newspaper published' option in Advanced search. For example Swan Hill. 

You can purchase copies of pages from newspapers (subject to copyright) in our collection through our online copy ordering service. If you would like to buy an original newspaper, you can ask second-hand or antiquarian bookstores or contact PaperWorld which sells original newspapers.

For the early history of the Newspaper Collection see 

• Transactions and proceedings of the Library Association of Australasia at its second general meeting, held at Adelaide, October 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th, 1900.  Newspaper Reading rooms by A Neville p.47

Watch this video on our newspaper card indexes.

For the best view choose fullscreen and the highest resolution

For details of the sessions see our What's On calendar.  The handout for the Newsworthy session can be downloaded here:

Learn how the Library digitises newspapers; from selection of titles through conservation to the scanning of the pages.

The annual Local History Grants Program, run by Public Record Office Victoria, supports digitising projects. It also has a list of funding sources. The National Library of Australia runs Community Heritage Grants. Other avenues of funding maybe your local council, university or philanthropic sources.

The Library receives over 100 hardcopy papers each week. This blog describes the daily journey of a newspaper- from dispatch through accessioning and to the public Reading Room.

Rennie Ellis Newspaper boy (1982) H2010.104/928

  Mark,Strizic, . Newspaper boy, Melbourne H2008.11/2178