It’s true, for years I have extolled the virtues of Wikipedia before my students. As a research tool, “Wiki” offers numerous pointing mechanisms that sometimes, at the click of a button, will take a researcher to a primary or secondary source elsewhere on the web: open source, and for free.

And just when I thought Wiki could not outdo itself – it outdone itself.

What if Wikipedia pointed you to free archived newspaper articles, searchable of course, from – get this – 84 countries? Would you not, as a researcher, be all over this?

Primary Documents Away: Well dust off that keyboard, and click open that mouse, it’s true and it’s here.

Note the word “Free”! If your family heritage derives from the Hudson River Dutch, this would be an excellent way to search for family names.

Welcome to the – List of Online Newspaper Archives – brought to you by the one of the greatest encyclopedia’s ever crafted: yes, Wikipedia. Go ahead, click! You know you want to. But do have a research topic in mind.

Quickly - “Open Source” is a movement, one in which Wikipedia has embraced. The goal is to make data on the web available to all without a corporation acting as a gatekeeper to data and charging you for it.

Also - you will come to know how localized newspapers used to be. They printed wedding announcements, top students in academics, meetings of Masons, all sorts of stuff that may have your name, your family names inside!

The Open Source Newspaper Project is also - like Wikipedia itself - ever evolving!