Newspapers are significant sources of information in art research providing many articles on artists and reviews of exhibitions.  

Two important features of newspapers are: 

• The information available is  current,  ie. today's article is available today. You can find reviews to the current exhibitions whilst they are still on show.
• As the full text of newspaper articles is indexed, detailed information about both famous and obscure artists and exhibitions is easily accessible.  Artists are generally listed even if they are only part of a group exhibition. It may be the only source of information on less well known or local artists whose work may not appear in art journals. 

The Library provides access to newspapers in the following forms:

1. The Art Library Newspaper Clippings File
2. Online Newspaper Resources
• Tasmanian art and artists
• Australian art and artists
• International art and artists
3. Newspaper collection. Back Issues of many newspapers are available on Microfilm and a selection of  current newspapers are held temporarily.  Check the Guide to Newspapers for details of which newspapers are available at the University of Tasmania Library and other useful links.

The Art Library Newspaper Clippings File

The Art Library has an Australian newspaper clippings file which has been maintained since 1981.  'The Mercury', 'The Australian', 'The Age' and the Saturday edition of 'The Sydney Morning Herald' are clipped each week and filed by subject or artist in folders stored in filing cabinets in the audiovisual section of the Art Library. There is an emphasis on national and Tasmanian art and artists.

From March 2002, the clippings file is arranged chronologically.  To locate an article, first obtain a citation from the relevant online newspaper index (see list of links below). Then retrieve the folder for the appropriate month and year from the filing cabinet.

Online Newspaper Resources

There are many useful online resources providing indexes to newspaper articles on artists and exhibitions.  

Tasmanian art and artists

For articles on Tasmanian art and artists the online Tasmanian Index to all Tasmanian newspapers and journals, produced by the State Library of Tasmania, is the most useful source.  It provides a subject index with citations to Tasmanian publications and thoroughly indexes art, artists and exhibitions. All index records from 1994 plus the more controversial and popular issues prior to 1994 are available online, while earlier records back until 1964 are available in a card index in the Tasmaniana Library.

The current issue of The Mercury is available online as well as a selection of the main stories from the past week. 

Australian art and artists

Online indexes to newspapers allow up to date access to citations for articles on art and artists. 

The most useful indexes are: 

• News Store - an excellent index to the Fairfax newspapers including the Age, Sun
  Herald, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
  
  
  
• Online Index to 'The Australian' 
  
  

Other useful indexes include:

• ABC Online has a good, current  visual arts section on contemporary Australian artists.
  
  
• Infoquick - a selective index to the 'Sydney Morning Herald' compiled by the State Library of New South Wales from 1988 onwards. 
  
  
• Australian Newspapers on the Internet  from the National Library of Australia, provides links to national, regional and local newspaper sites in Australia. 
  
  
• APAIS ( Australian Public Affairs Information Service ) indexes Australian newspapers and journals by subject.
  

International art and artists

Many newspaper publishers offer an online service via the Internet. In many cases, only selections from the newspapers are made available and in some cases you need to pay a subscription to gain access. However, there are some daily newspapers which provide the full-text of their news stories free, with very little time lag.

• One of the best sites is The Guardian Unlimited
  
  The Guardian archives allow searching of all Guardian and Observer articles which have appeared on the network since September 1st 1998.  Provides full-text access to an excellent arts section including coloured illustrations and scholarly articles.

Other important English language newspapers include:

•    
  The New York Times offers an archive with abstracts from Jan 1st 1996. 
  provides full-text access to New York Times from November 1998. The Morris Miller Library hold Microfilm of the New York Times from 1851 +
  
  
  
• The Times offers free search of the archives which go back to 1985 providing one page of results.  Morris Miller Library hold microfilm of the Times from 1975 +
  

Links to newspapers worldwide:

To find out which newspapers are available and to access them, try  ABYZ News Links  or AllNewspapers.com  

AJR NewsLink is another good source for obtaining access to the text of a wide range of American and international newspapers.

A Journalist's Guide to the Internet has links to newspapers and major news outlets.