1918 .
III
librarians both at home and abroad , it establishes its own library
and puts it in charge of a special librarian , and in its office equipment it adopts many of the devices first introduced by the library .
The library on its part is specially interested in the newspaper on its material side, - in the quality of the paper used , in the
color and the permanency of the ink , in the size and legibility of the type, and the nature of the illustrations; it must choose the papers for the reading-room use and those for binding ; it
must decide for or against the binding of advertisements with
periodicals ; it is confronted with the serious problem of the storage of long files of bound newspapers; and it is often handi capped by the lack of newspaper indices .
The problem of the material preservation of the newspaper
as it confronts the library has been best stated by W . C . Ford when he says: “ As to newspapers there can also be no doubt on the point of
policy , but to carry it into effect involves difficult and costly problems ofmanagement. The papers of the colonial period were of excellent quality , homely in color, but strong and lasting, some
that have seen little usage being as bright and crisp as on the day of issue. Even if they have suffered modern methods of treatment
will renew their lives with no damage to texture . The news papers of the first half of the nineteenth century are also of good quality , and when bound are as permanent as printed matter
can well be. But those issued after 1870 have steadily degenerated
in quality of paper and have long presented insuperable difficulties in the way of preservation. These difficulties need not be here
repeated . Every librarian hasmet them ,and in our Society , with its immense newspaper collections, it constitutes a true problem
involving a continuance of its shining preeminence among collecting institutions. Today the situation is more acute than it ever was, and the solution of the problem is as distant.” 71 71 Report of the Council, American Antiquarian Society, 1918 . The Report is so important in presenting a question that concerns alike the newspaper ,
the library, and the historian that these specific points presented by it must be added :
“ Yet this great treasury of information rests upon a foundation almost as light as air, for it is recorded on a paper which rapidly disintegrates whether used or not, whether bound or in sheets, whether sealed or exposed . A few hours in the sunlight irreparably injures the texture; exposed to sun and air a neglect of a month reduces it to a condition in which it cannot be handled . And such it must be the chief task of this Society to co
