I’ll just attribute this question to the spring cleaning reflex.
I spent the past two days scanning an old blue binder’s worth of snapshots dating back to the period around 1987-1988. I can pretty confidently assign the dates based on the photos of our cats, including our first pair of calicos, Miki and Kua. We adopted Miki on Christmas 1986, and Kua in July 1987, while living in a townhouse project near Kahala Mall. And by May 1988, we had bought a house in Kaaawa and were in the process of moving. Photos of Kua as a kitten, and as a young cat, were scattered through this album, making the dating a relatively easy task. These photos all fell in that window of time, between mid-1987 and mid-1988.
And while pulling out the photo albums, I looked through other boxes containing miscellaneous files.
I’ve got boxes and boxes of old file folders containing notes, correspondence, documents, and newspaper clippings about a variety of topics. Back before the internet and readily available news databases, if you wanted to follow an issue, you clipped and filed news stories. Or you went to the library and worked your way through newspaper microfilms. I spotted a couple of thick folders of Kahoolawe-related clippings from 1976-1980, but there are many others. Underscore the “many.”
Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and most of the 1990s as well, this was the way it was done. Read, clip, and file. And if I misplaced a file and needed to recreate that history, about the only recourse would be to go through those newspaper microfilms and their printed indexes to essential recreate the clipping file.
Today, of course, it’s quite different. Those clipping files are not an indispensable resource. An account with Newspapers.com now makes it simple to find news stories about a topic within a specified range of dates.
So here’s my problem. I would like to scan these old files, organize the scans, and dump the original paper copies. With written notes, letters, or documents, that’s easy. With newspaper clippings, not so much. It’s hard to feed them through the scanner I’m using, and they are often oddly shaped to fit into empty blocks on a newspaper page, or continued from one page to another. Scanning isn’t impossible, but with lots of clipping it would be a miserable task.
But I’m reluctant to just get rid of the files, even though I know that these copies can easily be replaced via an online search. But the clipping files represent an already curated version of the news. I wouldn’t have simply clipped every story on a topic. I would read and judge whether it was worth the time to clip and save. And looking back, it seems to me that knowing what I though was valuable at that time is important. It tells me about the nature of my interest in the topic independent of any notes the file might contain.
So…just throw out the clipping files? Put them back into the boxes and into storage again? I’ve considered making notes of the stories–headline, publication, date–and then throwing them out. But, again, a time consuming task.
Any suggestions on how to approach such a project?
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Scan, scan, scan. Make searchable.
Never destroy ?
My late dad’s version of this was doc-nerd items clipped from the innumerable medical magazines (or NOT YET CLIPPED) that come to doctors free of charge, whether they want them or not. He clipped & filed as you did, in a limited attempt, but never got even close to scanning or even organizing this scattered record before being overtaken by dementia. In his case, I’m not sure this would have been the ‘benefit to mankind’ that I think he inwardly thought it might become, but it sure clogged up parts of their last three or so dwellings. And it’s hard to believe, though I have no formal medical training, that all of this would amount to more than a snapshot of a long, stepwise process in medical research and treatment, even had he tied everything up in a bow.
The clippings you describe might have more value in posterity. If it’s worth your time to preserve them, I’d recommend trying a camera-scanner app for a no-budget approach. If you have a subscription to Google Drive, the smartphone app has a camera-scanning feature that is pretty good at cropping the image and flattening it to account for imperfect positioning (handling “keystoning,” I think it would best be called) but not sure what it would do with a collection of snips that look like a highrise skyline. It might just square off the outermost edges – but you wouldn’t LOSE anything, and I think that’d be sufficient. Then you invent a filename and browse to your preferred storage location in Google Drive.
The satisfying part, for me, is then getting to HEAVE THE PAPER versions…I’m far from my dream of a paperless life. Just need a low-level long-term illness to find the time to scan, scan, scan…
Instagram keeps showing me ads for a “book scanner” which looks a lot like the overhead projectors of yore. Much easier than the scanners that use a bed or feeder.
The Hawaii State Archives are always looking for volunteers – they might be interested in your materials, or might have the equipment/process that you’re looking for. The UH Manoa library has an active digitization program as well.
There are some local companies that purport to do the scan-to-searchable thing: Aloha Data, SIMS, Honolulu Copy, Pictures Plus.
Ian — You could try modifying mylar sheet savers by cutting off the top and 3-hole punched sides to yield an 8-1/2″ x 11″ sleeve. Leave the opposite side and bottom seams intact. Sandwich the clipping, then scan. You could also add additional identifying info to the sleeve. Feed into the scanner by a seam side, to try to avoid jamming. If it jams anyway, you would have to manually scan one sleeve at a time. Still much easier to handle than a fragile clipping. You want the thinnest sheet savers you can find. I recall buying them in boxes of 50 or 100 from either Costco or Office Depot.
As a historical note, at a big local company it was the job of one of the staff to go through the newspapers every day and clip and save stuff about the company. Since the company had branches in all counties, staffer had to go through multiple papers, clip, identify, paste, and index. Could be very time-consuming depending upon the company’s daily presence in the news cycle.
from my time with grantmaking, i know that scanning archives is a common pursuit for organizations that have been around a while. it is important! if you put the boxes back, who will care what’s in them enough after you’re gone? maybe you can work with a journalism student. credit and perhaps a thesis paper for them, help with scanning (and fresh eyes) for you. perhaps with a stipend attached.
~nancy
Oh yes! I remember this well. You had to be sure you made it to the library before it closed, to find the reference you needed before deadline, or you were screwed. I have two Penda flex folders bulging with old newspaper clippings. Time has turned the paper brown. I’m not going to digitize them and I’m not going to throw them away either. There have been occasions when I actually used them for reference, to refresh my memory. Ian, I would suggest that you keep the old clippings.
I’m trying to get away from paper, and I did buy a new scanner that makes it easier to duplex scan papers of different sizes and thicknesses into the same document. Also different sized photos, and it handles paper receipts like a boss so newspaper clippings should be similar. It’s a Canon ImageFormula R40 Receipt Edition. How to organize the files is a different story and I’m not getting a lot done because I can’t decide the best way.
Eventually I have to get through boxes of old printed photos and negatives as well. I think of the huge collection of photo albums my husband brought into the marriage 30 years ago. They mean something to him but my son and I don’t even know these people, so I have to agree with Nancy that a big consideration is will anyone have use for them when we are gone? I probably won’t bother scanning those albums and my son can just toss the whole box when we pass away.
What you have has some educational and historical value. Someone might want the collection of paper files when you are gone, and I’m sure there a lot of people who would appreciate free access to the digitized version all in one place.
For 5+ years, I have used a Fujitsu Scansnap ix500 document scanner that comes with a mylar carrier sheet (you can buy additional ones at B & H, Amazon, etc). The carrier sheet lets you scan odd-shaped & fragile items more easily. There are more recent scanner models available but that ix500 is an absolute workhorse. I have scanned tens of thousands of documents with it. It does a decent job with photos though of course you?d want to use better equipment for quality results.
Hamilton Library also has KIC scanners available on the first floor. They are overhead scanners designed for books, magazines, etc. although you can also scan oversized documents; I have scanned 11″ X 17″ maps on them. Here is a link to a description of the KIC system: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/library/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Guide-for-KIC.pdf
I used a Scansnap ix500 for a decade before it finally died, and this is my first scanning project with its replacement, a current model of the same scanner, which has been rebranded as Ricoh Scansnap. It’s fast and, with Vuescan software, relatively easy and pleasant to use.
Aloha, I’ve never commented but have enjoyed your writing for many years. My suggestion is based on how I currently clip and curate my own items. I simply use my smart phone and scan then aka take a photo and upload them into my Evernote “second brain” which allows me to search at some point later and I add notes and correlate information. It also allows me to spend only as much time as I desire on the information or item being curated, sometimes its simply archived in case i need it in the future. I use Evernote due to the ability to search and organize there are other options its just my choice based on wanting convenience and many types on input devices. I do recommends not just scanning the information but adding into a platform like Evernote where you can add context and find it later. My original reason for choosing Evernote was base don its ability to search the images and ocr ability automating. In theory you can do this within an iphone album now but its more restrictive. Evernote and an iphone both can transcribe the text as well. Much Aloha She Writes for Food