West Virginia Newspapers

The West Virginia and Regional History Collection holds the largest collection of historical West Virginia newspapers in existence. The newspapers are available for viewing on microfilm at the West Virginia Collection. Users can research the Collection’s holdings using MountainLynx, the WVU Libraries' Online Catalog.

To determine newspaper holdings for a particular West Virginia city or town:

Perform an Assisted Search.
Enter the name of the town in the first Search for box.
In the second Search for box enter the words daily weekly newspaper (be sure not to use the plural newspapers).
On the search bar at right, change all of these to any of these.
Click on Search.
View an illustration of these directions

Because of the high demand for access to the newspaper collection, only duplicate reels of newspaper microfilm are available through Interlibrary Loan. Please see our Interlibrary Loan section for a listing of duplicate microfilm.

Duplicate copies of West Virginia newspaper microfilms that were microfilmed by the WVU Libraries are available at a charge of $75 per roll. Microfilm Reproduction Request Form

Recent current issues of West Virginia newspapers are maintained in the Periodicals Department on the 2nd level of the Downtown Library Complex until they are transferred to the microphotography unit( 2 weeks for dailies, 4 weeks for weeklies). The Downtown Library also has extensive holdings of out-of-state and international newspapers. Please see the Downtown Library Complex Periodicals page for information on available newspapers.

The Charleston newspapers are the only papers that are indexed on a regular basis. Please see Charleston Newspapers Index- January 1985-Present for access to this index.

A list of West Virginia newspaper websites is available on the Downtown Library Complex Periodicals page.