The foreign newspaper collections at the Library of Congress are extensive, but not comprehensive. The most complete collections of a country’s newspapers are often held by the national library or archives and/or local institutions, such as public libraries, academic libraries, and historical societies. Fortunately, there is an ever-increasing amount of digitized historical and current newspaper content online. On this page you will find links to many other national libraries that hold newspaper collections, links to major freely available digital collections of non-U.S. newspapers, and links to free online resources that can facilitate newspaper research.
At the bottom of this page, find a list of selected subscription-based databases that contain digitized, word-searchable foreign newspapers with various titles and dates. These databases are only accessible on-site at the Library of Congress.
Keep in mind that there is not a single source or collection that holds information about every newspaper; you may need to consult several sources in order to determine the answers to questions such as: What newspapers were published in a certain place during a certain time period? Where can I find issues of the newspaper I need, and in which format? Has the newspaper I need been indexed or digitized?
Please contact reference staff through Ask a Librarian for assistance with locating collections of foreign newspapers.
Research guides to the Library's general collections of books and periodicals, as well as general subject guides, are prepared by Library of Congress reference librarians. Below is a sample of foreign newspaper related guides:
There are also a number of "Country Guides" or language-specific guides that include a selection of foreign newspaper holdings information. Here are just a few examples:
The following is a list of online resources that can assist with determining what newspaper titles are published where and when, the existence of a newspaper in library collections, and/or the availability of digitized content. Reference staff cannot vouch for the accuracy or currency of these external resources.
The following links lead to free online digitized newspaper collections that bring together content from many countries and regions. For links to newspaper collections by individual country, please scroll to "Newspaper Archives by Country."
The following links lead to free online collections of digitized newspapers. The list may not be comprehensive. If there are resources not included in this list, please feel free to let us know through Ask-a-Librarian.
The Library of Congress provides researchers with access to hundreds of electronic resources and the following are some of the most frequently-used databases that the Library subscribes to that contain foreign newspaper content. Please note that there are many more available, including databases with newspapers in non-Roman languages. We recommend contacting reference staff in the area studies reading rooms regarding databases in, for example, Arabic (African & Middle Eastern Reading Room) or Japanese (Asian Reading Room).
The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.