On this page

  • General U.S. and World News databases
  • Regional news databases
  • Specialized news databases
  • News-monitoring services
  • Harvard collections on microfilm

E-Resources: News and Public Opinion

While many of us get most of our news from newspaper websites, for your research you may need to have additional resources at the ready, in case you encounter pay-walls or need fuller, deeper access than what open webistes provide. Below, we've identified and briefly described some of your options.

You can get to these e-resources (library "databases" as they're sometime called) through the HOLLIS catalog, but the fastest route is via the Databases page, linked from the Harvard Library portal. Simply type the name of the database in the title box at the top of the screen.

If you are off-campus (or in a non-library location), you will be asked to "authenticate" (i.e., sign in with your HarvardKey and password) before you can use these databases.

Harvard Subscription Access to Certain News Websites

While the library system can't provide subscription access to all newspaper websites, we do have access to certain ones:

See this FAQ entry for further details.

General News Databases (U.S. and world)

  • Nexis Uni (the successor to Lexis Nexis Academic): a standard library database for English language news, it allows you to search thousands of newspapers and newswires and to see the articles, in full-text format, back to about 1980. Searches can cover international, national, regional and local news sources. The database also allows you to search news broadcasts (radio and TV).
  • Factiva: consider this e-resource as your best alternative to LexisNexis Academic. Owned by the Dow Jones company, it allows you to search across 8000 or so news publications from the U.S. and around the world. Some news publications that are not available in full-text in LexisNexis (the Wall Street Journal being one famous example) will be accessible in Factiva and depending on the title, full-text coverage sometimes extends further back than the 1980 cut-off point for Lexis-Nexis.

Regional News Sources: Africa

  • Africa Confidential: one of the longest-established specialist publications on Africa, it has a reputation for indepth, breaking news coverage of significant political, economic and security developments across the continent. Harvard's subscription allows access from 1998 forward. 
  • AllAfrica.com: collects and publishes in French and English daily news stories from over 130 African publishers (government, opposition-controlled, and independent), as well as text and audio from the BBC and RFI. AllAfrica.com also publishes pages on business, conflict resolution, environment, the arts, books, education, media and more. Harvard's subscription allows access to a searchable news archive from 1997.

Regional News Sources: Arab and Mideast

  • Mideast.com: a daily email newsletter of concise, translated briefs covering some of the key political, cultural, economic and opinion pieces appearing in the media of the 22 Arab countries, Iran and the Arab diaspora. Links to the full-text stories are included when available. Coverage is from 2005 forward.
  • Multidata Online: provides access to the content of selected newspapers and periodicals from the Arab world in Arabic, English, and French languages. Newspaper coverage is from 1998 forward.
  • Pan-Arab News Index (PANI): provides news and editorial content from the leading news sources of the Arab world including over 435 print newspapers and news magazines, 160 online editions, and over 2000 Internet news sources. Searchable in Arabic or English; a virtual Arabic keyboard is provided for easy text input. Coverage is from 1998 forward.

Regional News Sources: East Asia

  • China Core Newspapers Full-Text Database: full-text access to 673 Chinese national, regional and local newspapers or periodicals that appear at least on a weekly basis. The database includes current issues of journals as well as archives of back issues of journals, and articles are reproduced with original pagination. Special newspapers relate to legal issues in China, the environment, foreign policy, literary production, economics and finance, education and various areas of science and technology. Harvard's subscription allows access from 2000 forward.
  • Kikuzo II Visual for Libraries: full text reproductions of Japan's daily newspaper Asahi shinbun　朝日新聞 from 1945 to the present; the weekly journals Aera アエラ from May 1988 (first issue) and Shukan Asahi 週刊朝日 from April 2000 to the present; and the latest edition of Chiezo 知恵蔵, the annual contemporary word dictionary.
  • KPM : 조선언론정보기지: full-text access to major daily and weekly newspapers published in North Korea (and some journals, videos, and photographs). Includes the English-language Pyongyang Times and the Japanese edition of Choson sinbo, as well as translations of some news articles into Japanese. Newspaper coverage is typically from 2005 forward.

Regional News Sources: Latin America

  • Latin America Newsstand: full-text access to 37 Spanish and Portuguese language newspapers from 11 Latin American countries and Puerto Rico. The database includes eight Brazilian newspapers, three Mexican newspapers, two newspapers each from Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru, and Uruguay, and single newspapers from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. The remaining titles are regional magazines and wire services including Noticias Financieras financial newswire; InfoAmericas market analysis and regional economic trends; IPS-Inter Press Service news agency; El Reporte Delta weekly technology newsletter; and Business Wire Latin America. Key newspaper titles include El Universal, Mexico City's largest-selling newspaper; O Globo (Brazil); La Nación (Argentina); and El Mercurio (Chile). Three business titles, El Economista (Mexico), Valor Econômico (Brazil), and Portafolio (Colombia) are also important resources for researchers.

Regional News Sources: Russia, CIS, and Slavic countries

  • East View Universal Databases. Central Newspapers: provides comprehensive coverage of national news, current events, economic developments and cultural events in Russia. Official sources (Rossiiskaia gazeta, Krasnaia zvezda, ITAR-TASS), independent media and partisan publications are all represented in this database, thus offering a wide array of opinions and perspectives. Several English-language newspapers, including the Moscow Times (widely read by the international community in the Russian capital), constitute an important part of the database.
  • East View Universal Databases. Regional Newspapers: provides access to newspapers from all seven Federal Districts of the Russian Federation and includes coverage of local issues in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Some titles are drawn from the Northern Caucasus (Groznenskii rabochii from Chechnya, Severnaia Osetiia from Northern Osetiia-Alania, etc.), oil and gas rich Western Siberia (Tiumenskie izvestiia, etc.), and the investment-friendly Volga region (Nizhegorodskie novosti from Nizhnii Novgorod and Samarskie izvestiia from Samara), among many others. The newspapers included have the largest circulations in their regions and are considered authoritative. Coverage typically begins around 2000.
  • East View Universal Databases. Russian/NIS Newswires: includes several outstanding sources to follow the day-to-day developments in Russia and the CIS. ITAR-TASS delivers a detailed account of events in Russia and worldwide. The Moscow information agency, Oreanda, specializes in economic news, and the Russian Press Digest offers daily selections of reports on political, economic and public life from Moscow newspapers, translated into English. The daily newswire AP-Blitz is produced by the Tajikistan-based information powerhouse Asia-Plus, and covers developments in the Central Asia region.

Specialized News Databases:

  • Alt-Press Watch: a full text database of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press. It serves a broad spectrum of subject areas including the arts, media and popular culture, business and labor studies, education, environmental studies and ecology, global studies, history, journalism, literary and critical studies, political science, government and public policy. Coverage begins about 1995.
  • Ethnic News Watch: provides full-text access to more than 300 newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press. Coverage begins about 1990 for most title.
  • Gender Watch: a full text database of unique and diverse publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. Approximately 175 titles are included. Coverage is from 1974 forward.

News-monitoring services (English language)

  • FBIS Daily Reports (Foreign Broadcast Information Service):the precursor to WNC, FBIS covers the period from c.1941-1996.

Collections on microfilm at Harvard

  • Widener Library Newspaper and Microfilm Reading Room: is currently closed because of Houghton Library staff having moved into Widener during a renovation. The collection is still accessible to patrons with Widener stacks access, however; just go to the Widener circulation desk or the Phillips Reading Room for help with locating and using the newspaper microfilm.