In this way the original is supported, surrounded by good materials and protected from light, and the object might not need to be flattened or damaged during use when opening it many years from now. Newspapers, as important historical documents, are favorites of both amateur and professional preservationists. The Northeast Document Conservation Center has put together very useful technical leaflets on storage enclosures for paper items as well as a list for Conservation/Preservation Supplies and Equipment — Archival Supplies. The preservation procedures described here have been used by the Library of Congress in the care of its collections and are considered suitable by the Library as described; however, the Library will not be responsible for damage to your collection should damage result from the use of these procedures.

Polyester Products - Preservation Equipment Ltd Polyester Products - Preservation Equipment Ltd

Polypropylene label holders: Self-adhesive pockets hold slip-in cards to label document cases, binders, and archive boxes. Damage from light is cumulative and irreversible, and can cause not only fading of inks but yellowing, bleaching or darkening of paper.Clearly label the box with the title(s) and range of dates contained within and attach a list of issues missing from the box to the inside of the lid to prevent unnecessary handling. When newspapers or clippings are valued most for the information they contain, and not as artifacts, copying the information onto a more permanent quality paper should be undertaken.

I preserve an important edition of a newspaper? How can I preserve an important edition of a newspaper?

Because newsprint has lots of acid, keeping pages pressed together encourages acid to spread and break down the wood pulp fibers. Taking care when handling any collection item, especially large format, poor-quality paper items like newspapers, is one of the more effective, cost-efficient, and easily achieved preservation measures. Archival document cases are designed to be portable file cabinets for selected document collections. Even in this time of changing news distribution, we wrote up a Note for our Facebook page when President Obama was elected because so many people bought out city and national newspapers to preserve that historic front page banner headline. For personal newspaper collections and newspaper clippings, digitization following digitization guidelines used for manuscripts and similar cultural heritage materials makes more sense.

Before storing, have the item professionally dry cleaned by a local company experienced with vintage textiles. You should also have a clean workspace – like a big, clean table – to use while handing the newspapers. If contracting for preservation microfilming services, the service provider should have proven experience with preservation microfilming projects.