The University of Georgia Libraries has been microfilming Georgia newspapers since the early 1950s. The Georgia Newspaper Project is part of the U.S. Newspaper Program, run by the National Endowment for the Humanities with assistance from the Library of Congress, which coordinates the efforts of all state newspaper projects. The goal of the U.S. Newspaper Program is to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present.

To date the Georgia Newspaper Project has microfilmed at least one newspaper title from every county in Georgia in which newspapers were ever published. More than 2500 titles altogether have been filmed, including over 200 current newspapers that continue to be filmed on an ongoing basis. Microfilming is done in accordance with all ANSI/AIIM standards to produce film with a life-expectancy rating of 500 years. All master negatives are stored in a vault at the State Department of Archives and History in Atlanta. The UGA Libraries retain a copy negative for reproduction purposes (located within the Georgia Newspaper Project) and a use copy for the public, which is located in the basement of the Main Library.

Archival silver halide copies of microfilm produced by the Georgia Newspaper Project are also available for purchase by any institution or individual. Please contact us for current prices per reel (postage included), particularly as the dates on our Microfilm Holdings page show the years we have for each newspaper, which may be on one or more microfilm reels. Institutions may establish standing orders for titles filmed on an ongoing basis. Please note that Georgia newspapers filmed by agencies other than the Georgia Newspaper Project are not available for purchase from the UGA Libraries.

The UGA Libraries can provide information about newspaper holdings, but cannot perform research of any kind. Please follow our Researchers link to view a list of individuals who perform research for a fee.

In addition to a long and continuing career of microfilming Georgia newspapers for preservation and access, the Digital Library of Georgia and GALILEO have begun an ambitious effort to convert microfilmed newspapers to digital format, available to the public as a searchable database in GALILEO. To date portions of the Dublin Post, the Cherokee Phoenix, and the Colored Tribune have been digitized. To search and view these newspapers, please choose the Georgia Historic Newspapers database in the Digital Library of Georgia component of GALILEO.

For inquiries about newspaper holdings, microfilm purchase orders, or further information about the Georgia Newspaper Project, please contact:

Georgia Newspaper Project
University of Georgia Libraries
Athens, GA 30602-1641
Phone: (706) 542-2131 / Fax: (706) 542-4144
Email: gnp@uga.edu