Newspapers provide an important primary source of information about historical events. Some of the benefits of using newspaper articles as primary sources include:

• Seeing how people viewed an event when it happened
• Providing multiple points of view about an issue
• Permitting researchers to trace the historical development of subjects over time
• Examining issues in the context of their time (by seeing how stories about an issue relate to other stories, or by examining the type of coverage provided)
• Giving a snapshot of a time period detailing how people lived and what they purchased

Because newspapers also contain commentaries or retrospective articles about events, they can also serve as a secondary source.

Access our listing of known digitized newspapers for British Columbia communities on this page.

A city directory is a listing of residents, streets, businesses, organizations or institutions, giving their location in a city. It may be arranged alphabetically or geographically or in other ways. Directories have been in use in British Columbia for centuries and pre-date modern telephone directories. Historical directories are an important research resource for genealogists, historians, land use planners, business owners, detectives, and others.

Historical directories often contained more detailed information than can be found in today's phone books:

• Personal information of residents including full names, residential address, occupation, marital status (spouses names may be listed in parentheses)
• Business information, including owner names, addresses, advertisements
• Listings of local officials, including staff of fire and police departments and municipal staff
• Addresses and locations of schools, places of worship, hospitals, and other community organizations
• A "reverse look-up" for searching by street address
• Population counts
• Area maps
• A brief local history and description of the area

We have provided a listing of known directories for Northern and Central BC communities on this page along with information about how to access them.

If your research topic focuses on a certain community or geographic area, its worth looking into what that area's community archive(s) hold.

A full listing of Northern and Central BC community archives can be found on this page.