University of Virginia Library

Newspapers and Microfilm

Our newspaper collection has been increased during the two-year
period of this report by the rather astonishing number of 2,235
issues of newspapers so rare that they have never before existed in a
library. All of these but one happen to be Virginia newspapers,
and some are privately owned deposits; all of them are listed on
pages 192-197 as a supplement to the standard bibliographies by
Clarence S. Brigham and Lester J. Cappon. A few (not so many,
however, as in our last report) are listed as previously unknown
titles. On the same pages and on the final page of this report will
be found statements of what we have done during these two years
to see to it that the titles and substance of the newspapers being
published in Virginia today shall not in future vanish utterly from
the memory of man. A survey just initiated by the Richmond Area
University Center will, it is hoped, lead to better coordination of
this state-wide cooperative project of Virginia libraries and newspaper
publishers.

Microfilming of manuscripts has not been particularly extensive
in recent months, a total of approximately 120,000 pages of
manuscript having been filmed during the year for our collections
as detailed later in this report under the Microfilm entry. Filming
of newspapers (including current subscriptions) and other printed
materials, for which microfilm is in general more satisfactory than
for manuscripts, has proceeded at a greater rate. The use of microfilm
has been considerably facilitated this year by the acquisition of
an additional projector and of cabinets for the storage of the several
thousand reels of film in our collections. We have not found
microfilm to be the cheap expedient which it is sometimes reported
to be. The film and the necessary equipment are costly, and use and
cataloguing of the film are time-consuming. It does save storage
space, and it brings to our researchers source materials from remote
libraries as well as from private owners, in whose hands in many
instances unique materials are not only inaccessible for study, but
also subject to many hazards. Our own photographic laboratory has
turned out the largest volume of work in its history. The microfilming
last year of the major portion of our Miles Poindexter
Papers for the University of Washington and the State College of
Washington was a project of some magnitude, costing those two

institutions $5,000. Use of microfilm in our reading rooms has been
so great this year that we have been obliged occasionally to establish
waiting lists of researchers desiring to use the projectors.