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Newspapers and Journalism
Scope
This is an overview of the Library's collection of newspapers and journalism. Other materials supporting research in broadcasting media, and the subject of journalism, are also covered here.
Size
The Library's newspaper collection comprises over one million loose issues, 33,289 bound volumes, and 500,000 reels of microfilm. Approximately 359 United States and 1,134 foreign newspaper titles are regularly received and retained on a permanent basis, and an additional 120 United States and 43 foreign newspapers are retained only on a current basis. About 1,600 currently published titles from around the world are received each day (or week) and approximately 12,000 reels of microfilm are added to the collection each year. On a current basis, the Library collects the major titles published in all 50 states and territories of the United States, and from 179 foreign countries. In addition, the Asian Division and the African-Middle Eastern Division maintain their own sizable collections of print media, totalling over 1,500,000 items and 33,350 titles.
Furthermore, some titles which by current definition are considered newspapers but have been classified as periodicals in the past are located in the main stacks, in the Microform Reading Room, and in the Rare Book Division -- the latter having in its custody single issues of newspapers which are a part of special collections. Additional publications commonly considered to be newspapers but classified as periodicals are the underground press, military camp newspapers and other specialized titles such as Women's Wear Daily and the National Enquirer.
General Research Strengths
Both the size and the diversity of the Library's newspaper holdings constitute its major strengths. Scholars doing research in newspapers covering a broad geographic base are able, in a visit to a single institution, to examine a wide range of newspaper titles. The completeness of the Library's collection representing 20th-century United States and foreign titles, is another important element. Scholars visiting the Library may examine comprehensive, long runs of many titles. Both online and printed catalogs of Library newspaper holdings allow specific chronological and geographic access to older United States titles and geographic access to holdings of foreign titles.
Areas of Distinction
The Library's newspaper collection is the most important and extensive anywhere. It contains titles from all areas of the globe, representative of most of the independent countries that have existed during the last 350 years, and it contains newspapers printed in almost all modern languages. The Library's holdings include a separate group of originals of hundreds of special commemorative and anniversary newspaper editions reporting selected major historical events, and specialized microfilm assemblages, such as underground newspapers, Japanese and German prisoner of war camp newspapers, and early Afro-American newspapers.
The Library's holdings of 18th-century American newspapers are second only to those of the American Antiquarian Society. The Library has the most comprehensive collection of newspaper microfilm in the world, and the largest collection of newspaper indexes in the United States. The Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room has an extensive reference collection on the subject of journalism.
The Library's newspaper holdings are also complemented by rich collections of monographs, serials, and special format materials in the areas of journalism and media studies.
The study of journalism and mass communications covers such diverse areas as journalism history, broadcasting, communication theory, public opinion, and communications law. The Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room's reference collection includes indexes to newspapers, biographies of journalists and histories of newspapers, and both online and printed union lists of newspapers.
The Library has the largest and most varied collection of sound recordings, motion picture and television films, and videotapes in the United States. Included in this are broadcasting news collections such as the NBC Radio Collection, Meet the Press, the Office of War Information Collection, the NBC Television Collection and the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service Collection.
The collections of the Library's Prints and Photographs Division are rich in material relating to the history and culture of the United States, and include photographic prints and negatives of documentary interest such as news photos, cartoon drawings and printed advertisements. Special collections in the Division related to journalism include the Civil War Photograph Collection, the Look Magazine Collection, Meet the Press Collection, The New Yorker Collection, New York World-Telegram and Sun Collection, and the Washington Press-Photo Bureau Collection, as well as the recently acquired U.S. News and World Report Collection of news and documentary photographs.
The Library's Manuscript Division holds the papers of many well known and influential journalists, such as Horace Greeley, Joseph Pulitzer, Joseph Alsop, Anthony Lewis, Eric Sevareid, and Janet Flanner.
Weaknesses/Exclusions
A major weakness of the Library's collections is in 19th-century Western European newspapers. There are many gaps in the Library's microfilm newspaper collections for the 1970s and 1980s.