The point here is:  Where is the information documenting the existence and
location of the  hard-copy materials,  presumably microfilmed,  that have
be-
come candidates for disposal and/or destruction?

The N.Y. State Newspaper Project made a good start on collecting that
infor-
mation in reference to newspapers.  By this time, a great deal of that
informa-
tion could be obsolete.

What is desperately needed is a clearing house with the mission and
direction
to be the keepers of the details of the existence and condition of the
original
copies of newspapers, magazines, journals, etc. It is needed  to know who
has
what and where and the condition of the items and condition of access.
 That
information has to be easily and readily accessible.

Any chance of something like that happening in our lifetime ?

Leigh

Leigh C. Eckmair
The Local History Collection
THE GILBERTSVILLE FREE LIBRARY
e-mail:[log in to unmask]

On Friday, December 08, 2000 5:28 PM, Phil Lord [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
wrote:
> I think your analogy is Ok for one end of the continuum. Things like
General Washington's sword or Benedict Arnolds boot... scanning and
discarding makes no sense.
>
> But if you have a copy of a newspaper that was printed in the thousands,
and hundreds are already in archives, shy not scane the one in the local
library and send the original out the door? (This is a question designed to
foster debate, not necessarily my opinion.)
>
> >>> [log in to unmask] 12/08/00 17:16 PM >>>
> Discarding the hard copy is like shooting Enrico Caruso in the heart
> after he's recorded for Thomas A. Edison. While overpopulation
> demagogues will celebrate
> the empty space created by the absence of Caruso's body, a couple of us
> will,
> no doubt, miss the original.  Some of us will mourn the original because
> we loved his art, moralists will play the death penalty card, and the
> technicians will report that we should have waited for digital
> technology before we killed him.
>
> Thomas W. Perrin
>
> PS: In conservation, as in medicine, the first principle is to do no
> harm.  There
> are no exceptions to the rule