[Foundation-l] Old newspapers going to destruction

[Andrew Gray]

2008/9/24 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>:
> 2008/9/24 John at Darkstar <vacuum at jeb.no>:
>> In Norway a university has a large collection of newspapers, the
>> collection is claimed to cover around 3000 running meters in the store
>> house - without the norwegian and nordic newspapers, whats left is
>> international newspapers from the last 150 years. If no one is coming up
>> with a solution the collection is going to be destructed (actually burned)
>
> Traditionally, old newspapers in libraries would be converted to
> microfiche, why aren't they doing that?

It is quite possible that they already have been, or that a similar
collection elsewhere has been done, at which point it becomes moot.

Alternately, it could be that they've said - well, thirty other
institutions have these, we never use them, they're a dead weight in
our collection so we need to dispose of them. (This is very convincing
- all libraries always need more space, and freeing up 3km of
shelving? It's a dream). If there are several other copies around,
then there is no pressing need for *this* to be the collection that
gets digitised - someone else, someone with funding, is probably
already planning it.

I note that no other institution is interested in taking this
collection. That, to me, would strongly suggest it isn't unique...

-- 
- Andrew Gray
 andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk