Old Newspapers

[ozlady]

Dad has just given me a bag of old newspapers dating from the 1960's. They are of no use to me, but make very interesting reading. Most of them deal with the Aberfan disaster, where Dad was a rescuer. What is the best way to preserve them? They're already very yellowed and dry.

[PrueM]

Hi ozlady 

Here are a couple of links from the National Archives:

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0oz/ 

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0m2/ 

I hope those are helpful, if not then just get back to me and I'll find some more info for you.
Basically just keep them flat , interleave with a good quality paper, and put them in an archival-quality box. 

Prue

[ozlady]

Thanks, Prue. Unfortunately they've been folded for many a year and stuffed inside a plastic bag!

[loo]

I read somewhere recently (can't remember where) that you should interleaf them with acid-free paper and put in an acid-free box.  The problem is that this is kind of expensive. 
If they were mine, I would scan the parts I was most interested in into the computer, as there are a lot of adjustments you can make to improve them once they're in your computer, i.e.get rid of yellow.  I did this with a family clipping that had been sitting around for about 60 years and was very yellow;  it looks very good now.