Newspaper clippings

[nou]

Hello! I need some advice on newspaper clippings, specifically clippings from local newspapers for local history purposes.

At the moment, I'm physically clipping articles out of the newspaper and glueing them to sheets of A4 paper, then labelling them with name/date/page of newspaper and subject of article (usually a specific local business [someone else is doing this for specific local people]). This is a giant faff.

What I would like to do is take photos of the articles, label them in the filename (perhaps with keywords too), and back them up in multiple places. However I wonder if copyright law would stop me sharing these photos with others in the future. Or if there's any other disadvantage of doing it this way.

I would like to preserve these clippings (physical or digital) for the long term; they might eventually go to Croydon local studies, or to the CNHSS. (I'm aware of newspaper digitisation projects, e.g. the excellent British Newspaper Archive, but I do think it's worth preserving things in more than one way and with more than one focus.)

Any advice?

Comments

[flick]

I've no tips on the digital side of things, but in case it's useful here are some things to think about on the paper side:
- newspaper is very cheap and acidic (this is why it goes yellow and crumbly as it gets older)
- it's therefore best if you glue it to non-acidic archival paper, rather than just standard printer paper
- it also helps to preserve it if you keep it in stable conditions, eg keeping it in a box (stable microclimate) in a cool place out of direct sunlight, maybe with some silica sachets to keep it dry
- PVA is probably the most convenient useful glue to use, unless you feel like making your own from flour and water (not very difficult, and you can freeze it in small batches)
- if you're feeling really keen, you could wash the newspaper in a slightly alkaline solution first: float it carefully in a flat pan of liquid, then dry flat. If you want to try this, let me know: I've got some magic non-stick stuff that you can lay it on to dry that I can post you!