Journals, eJournals & online resources

The library subscribes to a wide number of online newspapers through individual archives for specific titles and databases. To access any of the newspapers the library subscribes to remotely or from your device, you must sign into the Library’s Catalogue.

These are some of the most popular newspaper sites the library subscribes to online:

17th-18th century Burney collection
British Newspaper Archive
Gale OneFile: News
Gale Primary Cources
Illustrated London News 1842-2003
NewsVault
The Guardian and The Observer archives 1791-2003
The Sunday Times digital archive 1822-2016
The Times digital archive 1785-2016
The Telegraph digital archive 1855-2016
The Daily Mail historical archive 1896-2016

The newspaper databases are primarily archived holdings, that is past or older newspapers of particular publications. Once you select a newspaper database, you can opt to conduct either a basic or advanced search of the newspaper’s issues. Advanced searches are useful if you are searching for a specific the date, and perhaps the title or keywords from the article you are searching for.

Here are our key online newspaper databases.

British Newspaper Archive (BNA)

This database gives access to the British Library’s digitised collection of local and regional newspapers. Please note, that it does not include the national tabloids such as the Daily Mail, The Sun or Daily Mirror (although you may find the odd article)

Gales Newspapers

Gales has several online platforms that allow access to both historical and more recent editions of newspapers. To access the databases, the library subscribes to, you will need to sign into Catalyst. Gales will give you access to archived newspapers including The Time, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph and recent editions of the above and The New York Times. Please note The recent editions will be in text format only and are not digitised versions of the print newspapers. They are normally available a day or two after publication. There is an advanced option for searching via date or keyword.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers

The library subscribes to the historical archives for The Guardian and The Observer via ProQuest Historical Newspapers. A complete digital archive covering the period 1791 to 2003. For historical reference The Guardian was founded in Manchester 1821 and known as the Manchester Guardian. It became simply The Guardian in 1959. The Observer was founded in 1791 and is the oldest English language newspaper to have a Sunday edition.

The advanced search option allows you to cross search across both newspapers simultaneously.
Please note that the search options do not include The Observer Sunday Colour Supplement.

If you have any questions about how to search the print and online newspaper collections, please ask staff at the Circulation Desk, or email returns.desk@londonlibrary.co.uk