How to Use Google Play Books, Magazines & Newspapers

Google has worked with newspapers to digitize materials via the News Archive Partner Program. The date to which these newspapers go back varies by newspaper, but many go back to the mid 19th century, and some even earlier. 

You can create Google news alerts to get automatic updates on your news topic. Here's how:

1. Go to Google News. Do a search for your topic.
2. Scroll to the bottom of your search results page.
3. Click on "Create an email alert for "your topic".
4. Select the desired options on the form.
5. Enter your email address, and click "Create alert".
6. Google will periodically email you newly published papers that match your search criteria.

When viewing a scanned newspaper in Google News Archive, you can easily browse through pages and navigate its articles like you would for a physical newspaper. In the top right corner of of the News Archive Viewer, you'll see a navigation bar like the one pictured and described below.

See this example from the Montreal Gazette, August 6, 1966.

1. Back to the article

Click this any time while browsing to be taken back to your original search result article in this paper.

2. Zoom out / Zoom in

Use these icons to zoom in and out while browsing newspapers.

3. Fit to height

Click this to fit the entire newspaper page you are viewing to the height of your browser window.

Full screen

Click this to minimize the search bar at the top of the page and sidebar and view newspaper pages in full screen mode.

Page navigation

Click the left and right arrows to page through the newspaper, or simply enter the page number and jump directly to that page

In addition to these toolbar options, you can use a number of mouse and keyboard shortcuts to view newspaper pages in News archive search:

• Panning vertically: Use your mouse scroll wheel, or the Page Up/Page Down keys.
• Panning horizontally: Use the 'J' key to move forward a page, and the 'K' key to move backward a page.
• Centering: Double-click a spot in the viewing pane to center the page.
• Use the 'J' key to move forward a page, and the 'K' key to move backward a page.