The newspaper collections at the National Library of South Africa include press clippings collections of the period 1919 to 1996, when clippings were replaced by electronic full-text searching. These clippings collections are a record of information extracted from the Cape Times and Cape Argus and, more selectively, from other contemporary newspapers such as Die Burger. The collection includes biographies, court proceedings and sports reports, and comprises about 100 000 files. Other personal clippings collections have been added to the main collection, notably those of Miss K M Jeffreys (1900-1970) and A A Fullalove (1875-1960). Other clipping collections in South Africa were compiled by INEG (University of the Free State), which is now continued by SABINET in digital form. The purpose of the paper is to research the role of clipping services as monitors of social and political change in South Africa in the 20th century.