Pacific Islands Newspapers : Newspapers in Micronesia

As part of the Pacific Collections policy, items are collected comprehensively across a wide range of formats and languages.
The newspapers held by the Pacific collection from Micronesia reflect the work of librarians who have traveled to different countries and territories to collect items for the collection. With this in mind it is important to note that in most cases collecting is done on main islands and mostly in the capitol.

Strength of holdings:
A wide range of opinions and ideas are contained in these papers. Coverage for the majority of the 20th century is represented in these holdings. In particular, many of these papers have interesting articles related to the periods of decolonization or independence. The periods of the Trust Territory werean especially fruitful time for publishing in what is now known as the “American Affiliated Pacific” many items may also be found at the Pacific Digital Library.

 
Weakness of holdings:
Not enough of the materials are in the indigenous languages of Micronesia, the vernacular. This may reflect many things: costs of printing, colonial history, more recent American colonization/influence of American education, who the newspaper was written by and for, or any combination of these reasons and more. Related to this is the lack of comprehensive coverage.

The Pacific collection tries hard to remain up to date, but for some more isolated areas this has been difficult. This has meant gaps in overall coverage.

Still, for those wishing to get firsthand accounts of events and history in Micronesia, and from different points of view (missionary, military, native islander, government, etc …) there is no better starting place.