Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1903 — Made for the Day. [ARTICLE]

Made for the Day.

If the fears of librarians are realized, the Congressional Library has thousand of volumes of newspapers which are destined to comparatively short lives. These are publications for which paper made of wood pulp is used. The old paper, made of linen rags, is practically indestructible. But with paper made of wood pulp the case is different. The files of newspapers at the library that are but fifteen or twenty years old show the effect of time in the condition of the paper. Readers who consult those newspapers are painfully aware how careful they have to be In order not to tear the pages as they turn them. Light and air are the destructive elements (hat are playing havoc with the wood pulp sheets. It is believed by men who have made this matter a specialty that within fifty years the newspaper files of the present day cannot be accessible to the public without great restrictions on account of their fragile condition.