I agree with everything that Mr. Cutshall-King says in his note.  For more
information about Nicholas Baker's valiant attempt to REALLY save old
newspapers that have supposedly been saved on microfilm, I recommend his
website at http://www.gwi.net/~dnb/newsrep.html.  As a historian who has
used many old newspapers in my work (too many on microfilm), I wish him and
other preservationists well.

Philip M. Katz
New York Council for the Humanities
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----- Original Message -----
From: Joseph A. Cutshall-King <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: New York Press and "newsmen's race"


> I absolutely agree. Any newspapers I've had microfilmed in the Washington
County
> Historian's office have been saved, understanding that better technologies
may
> come along to better reproduce. Scanning will be, ultimately, such a
technology,
> in spite of the pooh-pooh-ing of those who dismiss the technolgy as too
fragile,
> etc. Coming from a museum background before I became a municipal
historian, my
> training was that we saved everything we could. It's anathema to me to see
papers
> copied and dumped because they are "crackling away," or "too brittle to
last."
>
> Regarding that last issue, Nicholson  Baker's article "Deadline" in the
July 24,
> 2000 issue of The New Yorker magazine is a must read for anyone who places
total
> faith in the permanence of film. It shatters that concept. I've worked
with film
> collections since 1975 and I have seen nothing to suggest that any
microfilm can
> last the length of time they are suggesting. Moreover the initial quality
leaves
> so much to be desired, I can't imagine heaving the whole lot of a local
paper on
> someone's say so that a microfilm master copy will be all that is needed
for a
> few thousand years. It flies in the face of preservation, the laws of
physics,
> andof  museum conservation training to place that kind of faith in a
single
> medium of storage, especially that stores not the original but a captured
image.
>
> I've felt this before I read Baker's article and I feel more strongly
about it
> now. There needs to be open discussion and free questioning in the
scientific
> community dealing with preservation and conservation on this matter.
>
> A local newspaper in our region nearly ended up in the dump because of
such
> philosophy. It's been preserved, though heaven only knows where it will
end up
> without money. I am at loss as to understand how we can have absolute
faith in
> the prospect of a medium that has only been around for less than two
centuries,
> and itself so fragile, being the saving element in our printed history. It
also
> seems to be contradictory when one considers the notion that newspapers
are being
> thought of too fragile to last, hence the "film them now before it too
late
> theory." Is film's substance that much more durable? I need more proof. A
sad
> point about newspapers are the tons of them being resurrected from
landfills and
> barely showing any signs of disintegration after decades and decades of
being
> expected to rot away.
>
> Will this issue be discussed openly?
>
> [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> > Is any effort being made to preserve or archive the original newspapers
(many
> > printed on crumbling, acid paper)?  Despite the fragility and crumbling
> > nature of these yellowed originals, they nevertheless contain
photographs and
> > illustrations that reproduce terribly on microfilm.  Many of these
printed
> > newspaper photographs, despite their screened format and grain, are the
only
> > "originals" we'll ever have.  These crumbling papers should just be put
away
> > somewhere and saved anyway.  Future technology may make it possible to
make
> > further use of them.  I fear that libraries may be all too eager to
destroy
> > originals once they are microfilmed.
>
> --
> ________________________________
> Joseph A. Cutshall-King
> Grant Writing/Fund Raising Services
>   Affiliate of Charles R. Putney, Development Services for Nonprofits;
> Bennington, VT
>
> PO Box 154
> 693 County Route 49
> Cossayuna, NY 12823
>
> Tel.: 518-692-9505
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]