Feb. 6, 1998 Contact John R. Crosiar (541) 346-3135 NOTE TO EDITORS: This is a SIDEBAR to the story, "UO librarians searching for Oregon, U.S. newspapers" which discusses the survey phase, just getting underway, of the U.S. Newspaper Project: Oregon. EUGENE--As University of Oregon Library System staff members begin to scour the state for old newspapers, their search will be made a little easier, thanks to an ongoing microfilming project that preserves these fragile and deteriorating pieces of Oregon's history. "Oregon is fortunate that its newspapers have been systematically collected and filmed for nearly 50 years," says Normandy Helmer, head of the library's preservation and binding department. Preservation of the state's newspaper publishing history began in 1953 when the UO Library and the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association established the Oregon Newspaper Microfilming Project. Microfilming project staff film more than 100 current Oregon newspapers. Over the years, the microfilming project has filmed as many of the older papers as it could find, many dating back to the 19th century, says Helmer, the project's current administrator. "This remarkably forward-thinking program has played a significant role in establishing the large archive of microfilmed Oregon newspapers now preserved for students and researchers regionally and nationally," she says. UO Library holdings represent a complete record of nearly all general-interest newspapers published in the state, including all known issues back to 1840. The collection currently includes film for 1,350 titles, ranging from single issues to runs of many decades. It also holds microfilm of another 350 Oregon newspapers filmed by the Oregon Historical Society and the University of California Bancroft Library. Many of the newspapers in the UO Library's collection no longer exist in paper form. Microfilm negatives are stored in a library vault, but a copy of each reel of film is added to the library's Microforms Collection which is available to the public. To recover costs, additional copies are sold to publishers, libraries and researchers. Many of the microform holdings can be located through the UO Library's on-line catalog, Janus. For research assistance, send e-mail to govdocs@oregon.uoregon.edu or call (541) 346-3080. For questions about the Oregon Newspaper Microfilming Project, call Helmer at (541) 346-1864, send e-mail to onp@darkwing.uoregon.edu or browse http://libweb.uoregon.edu/preservn/onmp.html on the Web. -30- #O-2151/Local,OrDailies,OrWeeklies,PDX,Library,Special