Log on with your library card and read newspaper articles - from 1817 to yesterday. If you don't have a library card you can apply for one online:

UK Newsstand is a database of UK and Irish national and local newspapers. Each issue is indexed including editorials, obituaries and letters. The service is kept regularly updated with new stories appearing 1-3 days after publication.

International Newsstand provides information from more than 280 of the world's top newspapers. Titles include Asian Tribune, El Pais (Spanish/English), Gazeta Wyborcza (Polish), Le Monde (French), Pakistan Observer and the Wall Street Journal. The interface is also available in 17 different languages including Polish, Hungarian, French and Japanese.

The Scotsman Digital Archive allows you to search every Scotsman newspaper published between 1817 and 1950. Use it to find significant moments in the history of Scotland, major historical world events or discover if your ancestor appears in the births, marriages and deaths notices, or even in a news story. (Click the 'Historical newspapers' button once you've logged in.)

The Times Digital Archive (available in the Reference Library) contains every page of every issue of The Times newspaper from 1785 up to 2006. (Use UK Newsstand to search more current issues.)

Download and read magazines online including Newsweek; Harvard Business Review; New Scientist; and National Geographic.