From A Room Full Of Newspapers In Boxes To A Bound And Digitized Archive
March 8, 2025 12:50 PM Subscribe
Librarians & Project Managers of MetaFilter: do you have any words of wisdom for us?
I work for a publication that publishes on newsprint. We have a room full of newspapers and we are finally about to embark on an ambitious sorting, scanning and archiving project.
newsprint hoard snowflakes inside.
Over the decades, We have accumulated an entire room of somewhat haphazardly organized boxes of newspapers. They are gonna re-do all the floors in our office during the summer, and we need to move these ~150 boxes before then, and we might as well tackle this ambitious scanning and archiving process now.
We are seeking tips about how to best to organize ourselves as we unbox, rebox, and try to pull complete sets for scanning, binding, and displaying in our office.
The whole archive probably spans 20 years of a mostly weekly paper. most of the ~150 boxes has a label on the outside of it with the dates and issue numbers, but each box might contain 4 issues with 100 copies each or it might contain 12 issues with 24 copies each.
Most of the newspapers are tabloid format (so, only folded once along the spine, more square-ish in orientation) but some of the papers are folded twice, once along the spine and again in half.
We know we need to unbox them and re-box them, we want to get them scanned, we know we want to display them in a reading room someday, and we know we want to look into binding them into big books. We will also have an absolutely huge number of them left over, like dozens to hundreds of each issue.
we are pretty sure we have chosen our right scanning vendor, but first we have to get ourselves organized to pull a complete set.
We do have a lot of space to spread out if we need to to un-pack and re-pack. We know about newspaper sticks, we have also been googling around about newspaper sleeves. I am definitely interested in your opinion about the most attractive periodical displays and archiving supplies.
None of us are librarians, we might be open to getting help from a library student, but mostly looking for any tips or thought starters about organizing ourselves for what is gonna be a big project. We are in Chicago. Feel free to memail me if you want to see a photo.
Thanks, MetaFilter!
Over the decades, We have accumulated an entire room of somewhat haphazardly organized boxes of newspapers. They are gonna re-do all the floors in our office during the summer, and we need to move these ~150 boxes before then, and we might as well tackle this ambitious scanning and archiving process now.
We are seeking tips about how to best to organize ourselves as we unbox, rebox, and try to pull complete sets for scanning, binding, and displaying in our office.
The whole archive probably spans 20 years of a mostly weekly paper. most of the ~150 boxes has a label on the outside of it with the dates and issue numbers, but each box might contain 4 issues with 100 copies each or it might contain 12 issues with 24 copies each.
Most of the newspapers are tabloid format (so, only folded once along the spine, more square-ish in orientation) but some of the papers are folded twice, once along the spine and again in half.
We know we need to unbox them and re-box them, we want to get them scanned, we know we want to display them in a reading room someday, and we know we want to look into binding them into big books. We will also have an absolutely huge number of them left over, like dozens to hundreds of each issue.
we are pretty sure we have chosen our right scanning vendor, but first we have to get ourselves organized to pull a complete set.
We do have a lot of space to spread out if we need to to un-pack and re-pack. We know about newspaper sticks, we have also been googling around about newspaper sleeves. I am definitely interested in your opinion about the most attractive periodical displays and archiving supplies.
None of us are librarians, we might be open to getting help from a library student, but mostly looking for any tips or thought starters about organizing ourselves for what is gonna be a big project. We are in Chicago. Feel free to memail me if you want to see a photo.
Thanks, MetaFilter!
Riffing on TimHare, when you don't have a particular date, you'll put a sheet of colored paper in the pile in the place of the missing issue with a note stating what is missing, which sticks out of the pile so you can see it. After (or at the same time) you've set up all the piles, then you'll start your hunt for the missing issues.
posted by JimN2TAW at 2:35 PM on March 8 [2 favorites]
posted by JimN2TAW at 2:35 PM on March 8 [2 favorites]
I am a librarian but not a conservation expert.
Is your publication of regional interest? If so, you should look into whether the Illinois Newspaper Project will do the scanning for you. If you don't think they'd be a good fit, perhaps there is a library or archive that collects periodicals similar to yours and can partner with you to provide preservation and access? If you want to preserve these issues for posterity, letting experts do the work is the best option.
I don't think bound volumes are a great preservation option - the bound newspapers I am familiar with are all crumbling to dust. This is specifically an issue with historical newsprint, but I assume more recent newsprint is similarly acidic and not made to past. If they're already fragile or will become fragile over time, they should really live in acid-free boxes. You can buy these from an archival vendor like Gaylord.
If you want bound volumes for institutional reasons, perhaps once you scan them you could create bound reproductions?
Here's more information from Library of Congress.
posted by toastedcheese at 2:50 PM on March 8 [4 favorites]
Is your publication of regional interest? If so, you should look into whether the Illinois Newspaper Project will do the scanning for you. If you don't think they'd be a good fit, perhaps there is a library or archive that collects periodicals similar to yours and can partner with you to provide preservation and access? If you want to preserve these issues for posterity, letting experts do the work is the best option.
I don't think bound volumes are a great preservation option - the bound newspapers I am familiar with are all crumbling to dust. This is specifically an issue with historical newsprint, but I assume more recent newsprint is similarly acidic and not made to past. If they're already fragile or will become fragile over time, they should really live in acid-free boxes. You can buy these from an archival vendor like Gaylord.
If you want bound volumes for institutional reasons, perhaps once you scan them you could create bound reproductions?
Here's more information from Library of Congress.
posted by toastedcheese at 2:50 PM on March 8 [4 favorites]
Make a plan for the future of the digital files. I saw a 100+ year old archive of a college paper get scanned only for the files to be lost when the only server with the files was accidentally discarded.
That's less likely to happen today but what could happen is your cloud storage account is no longer paid for and ... poof. If you host them on the internet, it is possible Internet Archive would, ahem, archive them.
posted by miscbuff at 7:39 PM on March 8 [3 favorites]
That's less likely to happen today but what could happen is your cloud storage account is no longer paid for and ... poof. If you host them on the internet, it is possible Internet Archive would, ahem, archive them.
posted by miscbuff at 7:39 PM on March 8 [3 favorites]
While nothing like the scale of your task, I've done this twice with archives of quarterly newsletters running to ~15 years. A key insight was realizing that, to the nearest whole number, nobody was ever going to request a single back-issue and reducing the physical size of the problem to ~3 copies of each issue. ie Wot TimHare sed.
Also, it's easier to inventory and shuffle items about in a spreadsheet.
And finally, "gonna be a big project" is daunting. Make a start in the NW corner of the room and you'll be amazed at what you've achieved by the first tea-break.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:41 PM on March 8 [1 favorite]
Also, it's easier to inventory and shuffle items about in a spreadsheet.
And finally, "gonna be a big project" is daunting. Make a start in the NW corner of the room and you'll be amazed at what you've achieved by the first tea-break.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:41 PM on March 8 [1 favorite]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by TimHare at 2:15 PM on March 8 [1 favorite]