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Re: New Yorker Article and a question re: moving newspaper volumes



At 04:59 PM 7/19/00 -0400, you wrote:
>From: Daniel Sokolow@MCGRAW-HILL on 07/19/2000 04:59 PM
>
>
>To:   archives@listserv.muohio.edu
>cc:
>Subject:  New Yorker Article
>
>It looks like no one else has mentioned this, but I just finished a rather
long
>article in the July 24 New Yorker about an author's attempt to save actual
>copies of old newspapers that are being tossed out (it's not available online
>that I could see, or I'd add the URL).  There are several interesting
assertions
>in the article, including one that newspapers, bound and stored properly,
will
>not degrade to the degree commonly accepted in the library world.

Hmmm...guess he hasn't seen our bound volumes of newspapers. Although the
oldest ones are pretty good, some of the ones from the 1930s have this
tendency to turn to dust when you open the cover. I'd be happy to give him
those!

But this does bring up a question for the group. We have several hundred
(maybe even a thousand) bound volumes of newspapers (1820s-1960s) whose
disposition we've been discussing for quite some time. They are all
allegedly on microfilm, though we suspect that the film is not 100%
complete or 100% legible, so we don't want to get rid of the
originals--especially the 19th century ones. Also, we get frequent requests
from the local media to film the original pages--the microfilm just won't
do in those cases. So even though they're a pain to retrieve, we're kind of
stuck with them.

So what's the problem? We have to move all the volumes from their present
storage area to another location. Boxing them for the move would be
prohibitively expensive, and carrying them unboxed would be hazardous to
the more fragile ones. I noticed that some of the archival supply companies
carry mega-sized polyethylene zip-lock bags, which seem to be the most
affordable solution. Once we get the volumes to their final destination,
though, we wondering whether it would be a bad or a good idea to leave them
in the plastic bags. It would certainly keep them a lot cleaner, but would
the bags speed up deterioration or slow it down? Would it help or hurt to
leave the bags unzipped or should we keep them sealed and put something
like silica gel inside? Or should we remove the bags after the move is
completed and leave the newspapers uncovered (except by dust) on the
shelves? Thoughts, suggestions, etc., greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Michele
Michele Plourde-Barker
Library Associate
Genealogy and Local History Library
Connecticut Valley Historical Museum
220 State Street
Springfield, MA   01103
(413)263-6800 x 308
fax: (413)263-6898
mbarker@spfldlibmus.org

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