August 23 marks the date on which the British Museum opened the Newspaper Library in Colindale to the public for the first time, in 1932.  This week, in a series of posts, we will look at the Library’s rich newspaper and magazine holdings from the Americas.

Credit: Caroline Ford, Wikimedia Commons

To help celebrate the Colindale anniversary the Eccles Centre for American Studies is delighted to announce that its guide to the Library’s US and Canadian newspapers is finally available in digital format!

Download PDF British Library Newspapers US & Canadian holdings

This guide was first published in hardcopy in 1996. 

Shelfmark 2719.k.1795, or Open Access Humanities 2 Reading Room HUR Enquiry Desk 011.350973, or Document Supply m02/16737

At that time the catalogue at Colindale only offered access to these newspapers by title and town: searching for these publications by state or province was completely impossible. To address this, the Eccles guide listed the newspapers by title – the US newspapers first, followed by those from Canada – and then provided an index to these holdings by state/province and town.

In the years since the guide’s publication there have obviously been updates to the Library’s holdings. Some titles are no longer received, while others have been added. All of the titles in the guide, and more recent acquisitions, are included in the Library’s online catalogue Explore.  Yet, in spite of these changes the guide still provides the easiest and most effective way into these collections.  It is constantly used by the curators themselves, who find it invaluable, so please do take a look!  And do remember that you can always ask for help from reading room staff in the Newsroom, and from reference services.

We'll be posting more about newspapers in the Library's collections over the coming days, so be sure to watch this space.

- Jean Petrovic (née Kemble)