Dear Michaele and David Haynes,

Current trends in preservation thought suggest that all other forms of intervention (preservation microfilming and/or copying, storage improvement, developing handling/access guidelines, instituting Integrated Pest Management, environmental conditioning, air purification, light filtration, etc.) should be exhausted before radical treatments (such as deacidification) are performed by untrained individuals.

Many libraries and archives do not store old newspaper for various reasons. I suggest you contact The National Archives in Washington, DC, or The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, at the University of Texas, Austin, for more information. Also, The Society of American Archivists has a wonderful publication describing preservation of library and archival materials, by Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler.

You may be delighted to know that the movement to reformat is fairly well-supported by granting/funding agencies.

As stewards of the past, we should remember that Light Impressions is just a business trying to make money by selling products. Unless one has conservation training (or plans to hire a conservator to provide a proposal and treatment), one should leave conservation treatments to those trained to do so.

Stuart Lauters, Registrar
California African-American Museum
Los Angeles, CA