Newsclippings Within a Collection

Handling Tips

• Handle clippings carefully so they don’t rip or tear – newsprint is very fragile

Processing Tasks

• Note where the clipping is filed within the collection to ensure it gets re-filed in the correct place.
    
• Remove the clipping.

• Photocopy onto acid free paper.

• Place the photocopy in the collection in lieu of the original clipping.

Newspaper is particularly unstable due to the large percentage of acidic ground wood pulp in the manufacturing process and the lack of protective alkaline buffers.

The best way to save your old newspaper clippings is to make photocopies onto good quality archival paper and discard the originals. Old newsclippings can contaminate other records around them because the newsprint is highly acidic.

Take a look at the damage acid migration from clippings can do to surrounding materials. Click here.

Click here to access Library of Congress information on paper preservation.

For guidelines for storage from the State Library of Victoria, Australia, click here.