Skip to Main Content

News

Our news collection is a unique and extensive archive of newspapers, which has been acquired by legal deposit, purchase and donation, dating from the 17th century to today, including 36,000 titles

Microfilm

Newspapers on microfilm are held in St Pancras, London, and are available to request to all Reading Rooms. 

Microfilm newspapers have shelfmarks beginning MFM, NRM or SM. Shelfmarks and general date ranges are given in our interim catalogue, but for further information on our holdings and availability please contact the News Reference team

Normally we have digital microfilm viewers in the Newsroom, but we are currently limited to a small number of analogue microfilm readers. These are available on a first come, first served basis and availability cannot be guaranteed. The microfilm readers do not have printing or email functionality. You may take photographs of the screen to capture images for your own personal use.  

We can supply up to six consecutive microfilm reels per request. It is not possible to know how much is on a particular reel until you request it, as it can vary hugely between dates and titles.   

Some UK national newspapers are held in open access cabinets in the Newsroom, with no need to request them. A list of titles available in this way can be found here: