Earlier this year, we shared some of our favorite regional repositories. Though most of our research happens in-person, at libraries, archives, historical societies, and universities, we are also adept at online sleuthing—a skill we further honed during the pandemic. Just as navigating an in-person archive requires skill and experience, effectively using both online archives and related online databases necessitates patience, attention to detail, and a knowledge of how each repository catalogs its materials. At the same time, casual users can still enjoy browsing these digital offerings for fun!
Without the expertise of archivists and librarians, none of this would be possible. Twenty years ago, online repositories were not as robust as they are today—and many did not even exist until the 2010s. In the past decade, archives and libraries have exponentially increased the amount of digitized content available. For example, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had an impressive 35 million pages of digitized content in 2017. By 2022, NARA had over 205 million pages of digitized content. This achievement is due to collaborative efforts between archives staff and external partners like Ancestry.com. Advances in imaging technology and digital storage have sped up the digitization process. In 2021, the United States Copyright Office, a branch of the Library of Congress, began digitizing their Historical Record Book Collections. These collections contain registrations, copyright renewals, transfers of copyright ownership, and notices of use for copyrighted literary, visual, musical, and performing arts works. By September 2023, the library had digitized and released to the public over 9 million pages of content, accounting for 35% of the Historical Record Books Collection.
While digital repositories are not the be-all-end-all of historical research—physical collections are irreplaceable and seeing a document in-person can reveal information that scans sometimes can’t—having access to robust online repositories has broadened the scope of our research abilities. We can now review collections holdings and explore new avenues of research more efficiently before traveling to an archive.
Here are some of our favorite online repositories:
WorldCat
worldcat.org
John Taylor
WorldCat helps us find all kinds of subjects
One of the first steps in most TRG research projects is to visit this catalog, which, according to their website, is “the world’s largest library catalog, helping you find library materials online.” This site gives researchers the ability to quickly search for repositories around the country (not to mention world) that may have the resources or records that they seek, including personal papers, books, popular literature, dissertations, and digital content. Moreover, once a collection has been identified, WorldCat will link you to the finding aid (if available) to that collection allowing for seamless researching.
HathiTrust
Hathitrust.org
Tyler Goodmanson
HathiTrust has over 17 million digitized items
HathiTrust is incredibly useful due to its vast digital collection of millions of books and materials, providing accessible and often full-text content for users. It offers powerful search and discovery tools, aiding researchers and students in finding valuable resources. Furthermore, its commitment to preserving and archiving materials ensures the long-term availability of scholarly and cultural content.
Newspapers.com
Bennett Koerber
Newspapers.com is one of the largest newspaper archives on the internet
A simple name with a lot of content! Newspapers.com has digitized over 900 million pages of newspaper content, which means you're always likely to find at least something on the topic that you are researching. I often make it my first start when beginning research. Moreover, it's just a cool database for gaining a contemporary perspective on historical events. Curious what American newspapers were saying during the American bicentennial? You can find it here! Do you want to see how the myth of the Y2K bug spread? You can have your answer in mere minutes!
Internet Archive
archive.org
Maayan Rosen
The Internet Archive also has audio books and video games!
One of the web archives that I enjoy using is Internet Archives. It provides a wide variety of different databases and digital collections. I like that Internet Archives provides free access to many institutions’ collections worldwide, which is important because, more often than not, many international collections are blocked due to international copyright and/or local restrictions. While the majority of collections on the website are from American institutions, Internet Archives offers a range of European and Asian based collections.
Wayback Machine
web.archive.org
Ama Ansah
2006 era HBO.com is one of over a billion websites you can visit with the Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is an archive of websites and web-born content. Wayback Machine has been crawling the internet since 1996 and, as of this writing, there are currently over 843 billion websites archived! You can view archived versions of major websites as well as smaller blogs. I’ve been using the Wayback Machine since I was in undergrad, both for serious research and for fun. When I was growing up, we were told that “the internet is forever.” While that is true to some extent, I’ve also seen many blogs and websites that were popular when I was younger disappear—the owner loses interest, the site stops updating, someone stops paying for the domain, and poof! I’m glad we have the Wayback Machine. You can also get involved in the archives by adding sites to the Wayback Machine.