Out With the Old, In With the New

For decades librarians and archivists have been microfilming newspapers and then discarding the originals. This practice seems to have been universally accepted in the past because under the right storage conditions microfilm can last over 300 years, while a newspaper will become brittle within months. Again, writer Nicholas Carr was one of the first to decry the practice of discarding newspapers, and if I recall correctly he even proposed starting a private archive to store stacks and stacks of old issues from various publishers. If true, this practice seems even more quaint when we consider the modern practice of scanning the microfilm for digital image storage, a format that allows free text searching and all kinds of research possibilities. But wait before you go softly into that good night. Paper has something a digital image will never have; a demonstrable authenticity as to the information available to the planet at a certain time and place. Take that, Mr. Information Scientist!!!!!