Re: Current 19th Century Newspaper Thinking

[Philip Weimerskirch <philipwh@lori.state.ri.us>]

Robert R. Shields wrote:
> 
> Dear Fellow Ex-Librans,
> 
>         With much deliberation, the Library of Congress, in its infinite
> wisdom, has determined that after 23 years in Rare Books, the only place I
> am qualified to work is in  the Serial and Government Publications
> Division where I currently provide reference service.  I have just
> returned from our storage warehouse where we keep acres and acres of 19th
> century newspapers.  My new assignment requires me to determine which
> issues we have on microfilm so that we can safely discard the originals.
> These are my questions :
> 
> Are other libraries discarding their original 19th century newspapers?  If
> not, what justification is being used to retain the originals?  Are there
> libraries interested in acquiring 19th century newspapers?
> 
> Thanks for any help or advice,
> 
> Rob Shields                             rshi@loc.gov
> Reference Specialist                    202-707-2016
> Serials and Government Publications
> Library of Congress
> Washington DC 20540


There are many sad stories about microfilms being defective in one way
or another, so it would not be a good idea to dispose of any original
newspapers without first collating them against the microfilms.  But
this would be too time consuming, so it is best to keep the originals.
If one needs a slide from a newspaper for a lecture or a high-quality
photograph for use in a book, one is not going to be able to get it from
a microfilm -- another reason for keeping the originals.  Phil
Weimerskirch, Providence Public Library