Microforms Reading Room

The Microforms Section, Room 100 provides access to over 350,000 microfilm reels and 3,000,000 microfiche resources in the humanities and social sciences. Types of materials include microfilm copy of 12,000 periodical backfiles, collections of antiquarian monographs, historical pamphlets, incunabula, and many unique archives of diverse national and international organizations.

Current issues of approximately 11,000 unbound periodical titles in 22 languages from 128 countries are also accessible in Room 100. The Microform Reading Room is Wi-Fi enabled.

These microfilm guides are subject to change; please verify the titles through our catalog system as well. 

• U.S. regional and local newspapers [PDF]
• New York City newspapers [PDF]
• International newspapers by COUNTRY [PDF]
• International newspapers by TITLE [PDF]
• Early American newspapers [PDF]

In addition, the Microforms Reading Room also collect an extensive collection of phone books and (reverse) address directories from across the country:

NEW YORK CITY & LONG ISLAND: WHITE (Residential) AND YELLOW (Business) PAGES

• CURRENT: 2005 - Present: most recent white/yellow for NYC boroughs are kept in Rooms 100, 108 and 315

• BACKFILES: Microfiche is available for the five boroughs for dates ranging from 1976 to 2005. Earlier dates are on microfilm, although for some areas date ranges continue into the 1980s. For most U.S. cities from 1976 to 2005, they are on MICROFICHE. All U.S. telephone directories end in 2005. 

                              WHITE                      YELLOW         ADDRESS DIRECTORY

BRONX                1929-1976/1977     1929-1975       1929-1980, 1986

BROOKLYN         1925-1976-1977     1929-1979       1929-1980, 1986

(*on reels with Manhattan up to 1943)

MANHATTAN     1878-1988               1929-1976       1929-1980, 1986, 1993

               (MISSING for Address: 1948, 1971 and lacking 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964)

NASSAU*             1913-1976              1929-1976        NONE AVAILABLE

QUEENS*           1933-1976              1927-1976        1929-1980, 1986

STATEN ISLAND*1927-1976              1927-1976        1929-1980, 1986

                                                (combined white and yellow)

SUFFOLK*           1928-1992              1929-1975        NONE AVAILABLE

WESTCHESTER*   1915-1983              1956-1983       1956-1980, 1986

*NOTE: The early Manhattan reels (1878-1929) include the various parts of the tri state area such as Brooklyn, Bronx, Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester, and Connecticut. Every reel varies in inclusion. There are some combined reels for Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island covering the 1920s.  

For City Directories (pre-1934; antedating the telephone directories), please contact the Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History and Genealogy.