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I have to disagree. I have worked as a librarian for 10 years, including a couple at the Minnesota Historical Society, which is the newspaper archive for Minnesota. Although the American Newspaper project, and microfilm in general have many positive features (as I mentioned in my original post) the wholesale destruction of newspaper originals that Baker mourned is absolutely true- as is the fact that many of the newspapers and books destroyed were in readable condition. To this list, it would be akin to copying a 78 onto a CD with a high loss rate, then throwing out the 78 because it is "brittle." -Tony Greiner >If you want some real answers about newspaper preservation, the last >place you should look for guidance is in the work of a hack fiction >writer like Baker. Check out the work that's been done by the >United States Newspaper Program. If you are good at research and >check out Baker's "extensive" bibliography, you will find yourself >wondering why he left out significant information simply because >what others said did not support his crackpot argument. Baker is in >microfilm denial and seems to think that one page that will not >break when folded somehow magically represents millions of pages of >newspapers and books that broke when handled. Double Fooled is not >a work of scholarship to be relied on. He's probably got you >believing every reel of microfilm is a deteriorating compilation of >mistakes. Nothing could be further from the truth. > >- Walter Cybulski > >>>> [log in to unmask] 07/19/03 03:12PM >>> >On the philosophy of preservation: > >Newspapers could be preserved if one library in each area decided to >save one newspaper. Here is Portland, one could save the "Oregonian" >another the "Tribune" another "WIllamette Week" etc. Thus, no >institution would take on too great a burden. The same sort of thing >could be done with sound and video records- if some sort of voluntary >organization was set up to coordinate things. > >Nicholson Baker's "Double Fold" is an astounding look at what >libraries threw away- but the simple principles of preservation he >lays out could be applied to many fields. > >Tony Greiner > > >> > The problem is that in most cases newspaper articles are >>researched to trace >>> either trends or series of events...so that having every third >>>(or whatever) >>> day would be worse than useless in research! For example, suppose you were >>> tracing the history of WWII, and your arbitrary selection left out June 6, >>> 1944! Or stock market trends, and omitted "Black Thursday!" >>> Or, worse yet, were culling an archive of the Chicago Tribune, >>>and kept only >>> a copy headlining "DEWEY WINS!"... >>> Steven C. Barr >> >>Then it wouldn't be a problem -- because SIGNIFICANT news stories have >>follow-up stories. Thus, June 7, 8, 9... would cover the events of June >>6th; "Black Thursday" would continue to be commented on; and it would >>become clear from archival analyses that "Dewey Wins" was inaccurate. :) >> >>Plus, you would have a cross-section of OTHER newspapers, where you >>**did** have data for those specific dates -- just from different cities. >> >>That being said: A professor here did a study on lynchings in the U.S. >>South, and studied newspaper accounts to attempt a complete list of ALL >>events. During certain periods, lynchings (unfortunately) were such >>mundane events that they only received a two-paragraph write-up, with no >>follow-up. >> >>It depends on the specific research question being asked -- in which case, >>those who would USE the archives -- historians, historical sociologists, >>and the like -- would have VERY specific instructions on what degree of >>archival retention would be in the "nice, but not necessary" realm, vs. >>"must-have." >> >> --Travis > >-- >Tony Greiner/Mary Grant [log in to unmask] -- Tony Greiner/Mary Grant [log in to unmask]