The African Newspapers Union List (AFRINUL) is a centralized electronic database of holdings information for newspapers (all formats and all languages) published in sub-Saharan Africa.
Search Tips
Title
AFRINUL uses Uniform Titles (UNF titles) in accordance with MARC bibliographic standards. This will help the user best identify the title(s) being searched.
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Example: Both Malawi and Liberia publish a newspaper with the title Daily Times. Moreover, The Daily Times in Liberia began in 1950, but a new publication under the same title began in 1997. In order to distinguish between the titles, the UNF titles would be displayed as follows:
Daily times (Lagos, Nigeria)
Daily times (Monrovia Liberia)
Daily times (Monrovia, Liberia : 1997)
For many searches, AFRINUL will also include entries for earlier or later titles of the newspaper being searched. Users may search for all or a portion of a title. If your first search produces no results, try using a fragment of the title. For best results, do not include articles such as the or le at the beginning of a title.
City
Cities are spelled according to authority record standards. For instance, the database will only accept the spelling of Addis Ababa in a city search. A search for Adis Ababa will yield no results. If your search yields no results, broaden your search to include only the country name.
Country
A list of countries available in the database has been provided as a drop-down menu. This will eliminate spelling differences or confusion in country name changes over time. The database also supports keyword-based searches for country names.
Language
A drop down menu of all languages available in the database has been provided. In some cases, more than one language may be used within a newspaper. The database also supports keyword-based searches for language names.