Introduction:

WPA PROJECT No. 14066

The record of our culture contained in our newspaper files is more nearly complete than any other single type of record. The newspaper

files of the country contain more words than all the printed books in the

Library of Congress, and there is no guide to their subject matter.

Efforts to control the situation include the following:

1. The American Library association is making a union list of newspaper holdings throughout the country.

2. The New York TIMES, since 1914, has published an index. other newspaper indices are being made.

Various

3. A number of newspapers microcopy their current news on permanent cellulose acetate film, to preserve them from the certain disintegration that awaits the newsprint paper.

4.

5.

The Boston Public library is sponsoring a WPA project to index, and

in some cases microcopy, 10,000 volumes of newspapers.

A Works Progress Administration project to compile a newspaper digest is under way in Cleveland.

6.

A newspaper clipping and bookbinding project is in progress in
Washington.

The essential difference between a digest and an index is that the index calls for reference to the original newspaper file, while the digest will be intelligible without reference back to the file. But the distinction is not clear cut. An index which develops subject entries to the place where every entry includes an explanatory phrase approaches the digest both as to means of use and technique of preparation. And of course a digest will serve the purpose of an index, because all items in the digest will have references back to date, page, and column of the newspapers.