Introduction

The impetus for this volume arose from the frustration experienced by the editor during a search for basic information about newspapers in libraries and information centers. Although there are articles and even entire volumes about special libraries that serve newspaper staffs and about the problems of deteriorating newspaper collections (along with companion efforts to preserve them) as well as a scattering of entries in collection development texts alluding to the difficulty of procuring and maintaining newspapers in libraries, no single up-to-date discussion exists of the basic activities associated with newspapers in libraries and information centers. While newspapers are becoming increasingly recognized as an important, indeed unequaled, source of information about current history and local events, they have been largely ignored by information specialists, probably as a result of the very problems discussed in collection development volumes.