Andrew,
As an aside, you might also want to contact folks in NY who are involved in
the National Digital Newspaper Program, a partnership between NEH and LC to
digitally preserve and provide access to significant newspapers (especially
those with local interest) at the statewide level. NDNP will create a full
text searchable digital resource that will be freely accessible via the
Internet.
The NY folks might be interested to hear what you have and could likely
give you some good advice about how to deal with your original newpapers.
See LC's site: http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/
and, the NY folks:
New York Public Library, New York City
NYPL Digital: National Digital Newspaper Project -
http://www.nypl.org/digital/projects_NDNP.htm
Good luck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary W. Elings
Archivist for Digital Collections
The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
melings*library.berkeley.edu
Ph 510-643-2273
Fx 510-643-2548
>>>>
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:36:15 -0800
Reply-To: "K. A. B."
Sender: ART LIBRARIES SOCIETY DISCUSSION LIST
From: "K. A. B."
Subject: Re: [ARLIS-L] Archives question
Comments: To: Andrew Bollerman
To: [log in to unmask]
Bravo for wanting to save the actual artifacts, rather than microfilming
the newspapers then tossing them! (Nicholson Baker would salute you, no
doubt.)
Before you embark on your preservation endeavor, you need to survey your
newspaper collection, and take stock of your resources: How many papers
have you got? What size are they? Were they daily or weekly papers? How
embrittled is the newsprint paper? Is any of it moldy or mildewy? Where
have they been stored (e.g., in a damp basement or humid warehouse which
might have promoted mold growth)? What kind of archival (acid-free,
buffered) storage folders and boxes can you purchase or construct on your
own? (I am assuming you do not have enough flat file space for
decades'-worth of unfolded newspapers.) What should be the logical storage
order within the folders and boxes, based on the frequency of the
newspaper? Do you have adequate storage space? Is that storage space kept
at a constant temperature and relative humidity, so that the newsprint
doesn't degrade? What is your staffing situation; can you get volunteers
to help you? Do you have a well-ventilated, temperature- and RH-controlled
place to work in, and can you devote this place to your project for a month
or more? Once you've got a plan, you can consider the following treatment.
For ease of use by library patrons, the newspapers should be unfolded at
the horizontal fold, and flattened. (Ideally for the paper itself, you
would also unfold the newspapers at the vertical fold, but this would make
them quite unwieldy for staff and patrons, and you probably couldn't find
huge storage boxes for all these spread-out newspapers, anyway.) HOWEVER,
any folded or rolled paper needs to be humidified before it can be
flattened, so that the paper relaxes sufficiently. This can be tricky if
your newspapers have any mold, as the mold can re-bloom -- you'd have to do
mold treatments or even photocopy affected pages. Humidification also
won't do any good to crumbling or cracking paper.
You can construct humidification chambers out of trashcans or large plastic
storage boxes (Rubbermaid, etc.). This was discussed on ARLIS-L in
February 2005 -- see the archives under "Flattening posters" -- and the
illustrated instructions can also be found at the Missouri State Archives
at
<http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/localrecs/conservation/notes/humidification.
asp>http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/localrecs/conservation/notes/humidificati
on.asp, and on the Northeast Document Conservation Center website
<http://www.nedcc.org/plam3/tleaf64.htm>http://www.nedcc.org/plam3/tleaf64.h
tm. You can put a few newspapers in each chamber at a time.
After humidifying for an hour or so, the newspapers can be flattened
between sheets of acid-free blotting paper under weights. For the weights,
use pieces of Plexiglas cut a little larger than the size of the newspaper,
and atop them place a few heavy books like encyclopedia volumes, or
paper-wrapped bricks, maybe 4-6 bricks per newspaper. (To save money you
could substitute plate glass, or smooth plywood wrapped in craft paper, for
the Plexiglas; the lignin and adhesives in the plywood would be shielded by
the blotting paper.) You could possibly stack a couple of newspapers under
the weights, with blotting paper between each. Allow to flatten at least
overnight, preferably a couple of days.
Put the newspapers in acid-free buffered folders, perhaps 2-4 per folder,
depending on thickness and condition. The folders can be homemade using
rolls of folder stock (available from Gaylord). Place the folders flat in
acid-free buffered boxes. The weight of the folders on one another should
provide additional flattening.
I picture this all happening in a designated corner of your tech services
area, or in a meeting room, where you can set up a couple of folding
tables. Your volunteers would work in shifts based on the flattening
periods (every other day, or whatever you decide). You might be able to
get a grant from your town or state government to help with buying
supplies, or maybe the newspaper company would give you a donation.
Presumably the New York State Archives can give you advice, too.
--K.A. Bayruns
Seattle, Washington
On 3/23/06, Andrew Bollerman <<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
[log in to unmask] > wrote:
I am a librarian at a public library on Long Island and I just found the
complete run of a local paper that really should be archived properly. The
papers are folded in half (showing half of the front page) and I was just
wondering if when storing them should they be kept that way or unfolded
(showing the whole front page). No one here including myself has ever done
any archival work and we want to do it right. Any input would help
tremendously, Thank you in advance.
Andrew
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