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, and on the Northeast Document Conservation Center website
http://www.nedcc.org/plam3/tleaf64.htm.
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 <
[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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