How to Preserve Newspaper Clippings

Newspapers are a continuous diary of our world. When an historic event occurs, when you find evidence to be used in genealogical research, and when there's a report about a personal accomplishment, you'll want to clip the article and do your best to preserve the newsprint.

Things You'll Need

• Laminate Rolls
• High-resolution Scanners
• Acid-free Scrapbooks
• Clear Page Protectors
• Mylar Covers
• Scissors
• Acid-free Papers
• Computers
• SLR Camera
• camera lenses - macro, zero focus lens

Instructions

The Original

1. Avoid exposure to sunlight, moisture and extreme temperatures, which causes these newspapers to deteriorate quickly. Unheated garages and humid basements are poor places to store clippings.

2. Turn out the lights! Light causes a reaction with the acid in the paper that darkens it.

3. Refrain from folding the clipping. Folding causes undue wear and also allows two surfaces of newsprint to come in contact, which shortens the newsprint's life.

4. Stay away from staples and paper clips. Interaction between metals and a newspaper clipping will create permanent marks on the paper.

5. Keep newspaper clippings separate from other paper items you're attempting to preserve.

6. Check your stationery store for a polyester-film folder with a sheet of alkaline-buffered paper as the backing.

7. Slip the unfolded newspaper clipping in the folder.

8. Keep the folders in file folders and boxes constructed of high-quality, acid-free, alkaline-buffered materials.

9. Choose a cool and dry location such as a closet in an air-conditioned room as a storage place for the boxes.

Copies

1. Make photocopies for everyday use.

2. Photocopy the newspaper clipping onto nonacidic paper as many archivists do. (They actually dispose of the clipping itself, because newsprint is acidic, deteriorates quickly and can damage other paper.)

3. Laminate it. Lamination, however, ruins the collecting value of historic newspapers. If you're preserving a paper hoping its value will increase, you should not laminate it.

4. Make copies with a single-lens reflex camera equipped with a zero-focus lens.

5. Duplicate your newspaper clipping with your computer scanner.

Tips & Warnings

• Clip a record of the newspaper's name and place of publication, the date of the issue and the page number to authenticate the clipping.

• Check your stationery supplier for special plastic bags made to store entire newspapers.

• Look on the Internet for recipes for creating alkaline solutions in which to soak newsprint for preservation. Be aware that some will color the newspaper clipping.