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North Carolina Newspapers: Tools for Locating Newspapers

What's out there: tools for locating North Carolina newspapers and articles

Are you looking for a specific North Carolina newspaper article from a known date (or approximate date) or would you like to try to locate specific papers or types of papers that were available in a given era? There are a number of tools available, online and in print, to help with this process. This page will cover a comprehensive list of these tools.

Tools for locating historical and existing newspapers

There are a number of tools for locating the titles and dates of North Carolina newspapers. Some of these tools are available at the State Library of North Carolina online, other online sites, as well as in print collections. And many of these resources will also help you locate the collections where you can access papers, whether in print/microfilm, or online.

Tool Features
SLNC North Carolina Newspaper Index
  • Online PDF comprehensive listing of North Carolina newpapers, useful for determining historical issues that are known to exist for North Carolina papers.
  • Lists papers by county, through 2002.
  • Includes: date range, first and last known editions, and titles in succession for individual papers.
Union List of North Carolina Newspapers
1751-1900
  • Online directory of North Carolina newspapers 1751-1900. Similar to the SLNC North Carolina Newspaper Index AND adds holdings information at North Carolina libraries.
  • Papers are sorted alphabetically by city.
  • Includes: date range of known editions, locations of specific editions.
U.S. Newspaper Directory
1690-Present
Library of Congress Chronicling America
  • Online database, contains publication information for historical U.S. newspapers.
  • Search by state, date range, keyword.
  • Advanced search features: ethnicity press, labor press, material type.
  • Links to directories of newspaper holdings.
  • Includes a selection of digitized papers from collections across the United States, including North Carolina.
SLNC North Carolina Newspaper Locator
  • Online, searchable database of papers on microfilm at the SLNC GHL
  • Search by town, county, title, date
WorldCat
  • WorldCat is an online library catalog that searches the holdings of libraries around the world.
  • Search to find newspapers -- for North Carolina and beyond -- and to see if a library near you may have the paper in print or on microfilm.
  • Having this information can also help you to see if your local library can obtain newspapers on microfilm through Interlibrary Loan.

Tools for locating newspaper content and articles

There are a number of resources available to help locate specific articles and content from North Carolina newspapers. Some are available online, others are available in print in libraries. 

The SLNC Government & Heritage Library has some of these resources and call also help you strategize how to locate content in other libraries and online, if available.

Tool Features
SLNC News & Observer Index
1926-1992
  • Online searchable index of articles in the Raleigh News & Observer.
  • Citations for specific editions of the paper.
North Carolina Periodicals Index
1930s-Present
East Carolina University Libraries
  • Online searchable index for newspaper articles.
  • Includes 68 historical and current regional publications.
  • Covers a range of North Carolina topics.
Print Abstracts and Indexes of Newspapers
  • Abstracts and indexes are print publications that list articles by topic (e.g. obituaries; marriage notices; etc.).
  • Typically cover newspapers from 18th and 19th centuries.
  • Occasionally found for contemporary papers.
  • Find at the SLNC Government & Heritage Library and local library collections.