Navigating access routes to historic newspapers

I've spent a lot of time this week thumbing (virtually, online) through back editions of vintage newspapers looking for scraps of information. 

One of the curiosities of our current age is that as the newspaper industry fades, an increasing percentage of its historic product becomes easily available to researchers. But you do have to know where to access these databases in order to use them. And in Iowa, that's mildly complicated.

Newspapers.com, owned and hugely promoted by Ancestry.com, probably is the most widely known commercial site. But its coverage is spotty. You'll find no Lucas County newspapers, for example, with a Newspapers.com subscription. Another commercial site, newspaperarchive.com, does contain the archives of newspapers from Lucas County, however. So if you're thinking of investing in a subscription site, make sure the newspapers you want are included in it.

But the good news is --- increasingly, public libraries, historical societies and other institutions in Iowa and elsewhere are offering free access to the historic files of newspapers in the areas they serve. Courtesy of the Chariton Free Public Library, you'll be able to access most Lucas County newspapers here and it won't cost you a thing.

There are dozens and dozens of these free access points across Iowa and an excellent guide to them can be found at a site maintained by the University of Northern Iowa's Rod Library. You'll find that resource here.

The Rod Library site also will point you when appropriate toward the Library of Congress newspaper repository, Chronicling America, where free access to many newspaper files from across the nation is available.

I was really happy when researching in other states this week to find two evolving sites. The Wyoming Digital Newspaper Collection, maintained by the University of Wyoming at Laramie, can be accessed here.

And an increasing number of Missouri newspapers are becoming available via the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project, accessible here courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri.