All newspapers and periodicals held at British Library Newspapers, Colindale, are listed in the Library's catalogue, Explore the British Library.
Explore the British Library
Explore the British Library includes entries for over 52,000 newspaper and periodical titles. The collections include:
- All UK national daily and Sunday newspapers from 1801 to the present
- Most UK and Irish provincial newspapers, some dating from the early 18th century
- Selected newspapers from around the world in European languages, some dating from the 17th century
- A wide range of UK and Irish popular periodicals.
To search for items held at British Library Newspaper, Colindale:
- Go to Explore the British Library (http://explore.bl.uk)
- Enter your search term in the 'Main catalogue' search box; help on searching is available
- Click the arrow at the side of 'Everything in this catalogue' and select 'Newspaper Library'
- Click 'Search'
When searching you should note that some national newspapers can be difficult to find due the use of common title words such as "Times", "News", "Press", "Chronicle" etc., so we have provided a guide to the shelfmarks of the major UK national papers published in London.
NB: Titles which are listed as being held 'to date' are currently being received, but issues published in the last few months or years may not yet be available. Readers are therefore strongly advised to order in advance of their visit to the Newspaper Reading Room; please give at least 48 hours notice.
Please read: Transfer of selected periodicals to the British Library (St Pancras) Humanities Collections before making a journey to the Newspaper Reading Room.
Asian language newspapers
Many Asian language newspapers are included in the Library's catalogue, Explore the British Library, but a more comprehensive listing of the British Library's holdings of newspapers in the languages of Asia and North Africa is available on the Mapping Asia Newspapers database. The database does not include newspapers published in Europe or America, so readers seeking Asian language newspapers published in Europe and America which not found in Explore the British Library should contact apac-enquiries@bl.uk. These newspapers can be consulted at the St Pancras Reading Rooms. Advance ordering is necessary for newspapers held in hard copy as they are stored off-site, but microfilm is stored on-site at St Pancras.
Western language newspapers from India
In addition to the holdings of British Library Newspapers, the British Library holds an extensive range of Western-language newspapers compiled by the India Office Library. These are all available on microfilm, and are included in the Library's catalogue, Explore the British Library. They may be viewed at St Pancras.
Printed Catalogue
A printed catalogue of the British Library newspaper holdings was published in 1975 as the eight-volume Catalogue of the Newspaper Library Colindale, compiled by P. E. Allen (London: British Library, 1975). It is available for consultation in many of the larger public and academic libraries, although it has now been superseded by the online catalogue. A copy of the printed catalogue is also held in the main Reading Room.
As the information in this printed catalogue may be out of date, it is always advisable to check the Library's catalogue, Explore the British Library, before visiting the Newspaper Reading Room or placing an order. For example, a number of high use periodicals and some South Asian newspapers have been moved to St Pancras since the publication of the printed catalogue in 1975. Many new titles have also been added to the collection since 1975 including the retrospective acquisition of sets of historic newspapers.
- Volume 1 of the printed Catalogue covers London and provides entries indexed according to title for:
i) national newspapers and journals published in London since 1801; and
ii) local newspapers of the Greater London area, subdivided into thirty-three boroughs. - Volume 2 covers England and Wales : Scotland : Ireland and provides entries indexed according to title for:
i) local newspapers and journals entered under the places in which they circulate or in which they were published;
ii) publications of the armed forces of the United Kingdom, wherever published; and
iii) ships' newspapers. - Volumes 3 and 4 cover Overseas Countries, with entries for each country arranged in the same way as in Volume 2. Newspapers whose places of publication are unknown are entered at the beginning of the country.
- Volumes 5 to 8 provide an Alphabetical Title Catalogue, produced from the same set of master cards used for Volumes 1 to 4. The headings used in the geographical arrangement appear at the end of the entries. Secondary titles preceded by the word 'or' (or its equivalent in other languages) are ignored in the alphabetical arrangement. Publications of the same title are further arranged according to their places of publication (in alphabetical order), and chronologically within each place.
