Feb. 6, 1998 Contact John R. Crosiar (541) 346-3135 NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information about the U.S. Newspaper Project: Oregon, including when UO Library staff expect to survey each region of the state, call (541) 346-1838. See also the related SIDEBAR, "Microfilming project preserves Oregon newspapers." EUGENE--Karen Darling, Ben Farrell and Jon Hoyt are looking all over Oregon for old newspapers. Their search is not driven by an overdeveloped devotion to recycling. Rather, the University of Oregon Library System staff members are trying to track down missing pieces of the state's history before the fragile newsprint fades into oblivion. The trio is fanning out across Oregon with a call for individual people as well as local libraries, historical societies and museums, courthouses and publisher's offices to help them find caches of Oregon and other U.S. newspapers. They'll be asking local residents to look in their basements, attics, trunks, crawl spaces, barns and garages. "We're hunting for pieces of the jigsaw puzzle documenting Oregon's long and colorful history that may have `fallen from the table,' so to speak," says Mark Watson, associate university librarian for technical services and administrator of the U.S. Newspaper Project: Oregon. "We're surveying the state to locate all stashes of newspapers, whether old or new, published here or in other states, known or unknown." The UO team has started the survey in nearby Lane, Linn and Benton counties but likely will head over the Cascades into central and eastern Oregon next as the search eventually reaches into all corners of the state. Their investigation is expected to take the rest of this year, if not a bit longer, depending on what they find and how quickly they can microfilm and catalog any previously unknown newspapers or issues missing from the university's existing, nearly complete holdings. When the U.S. Newspaper Project (USNP) that began in 1982--and its the Oregon component--is completed, historians and other scholars as well as genealogists and other interested citizens will be able to sit down at a computer terminal, search a national database and learn exactly what Oregon and other U.S. newspapers still exist and how they can see copies of them. "The Oregon segment of the U.S. Newspaper Project will ensure that students and researchers everywhere and in all disciplines can have ready access through on-line computer catalogs and data bases to the rich resource of this state's newspapers," says George Shipman, university librarian. The USNP: Oregon project is funded by a $258,220 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is overseeing the national project. With support provided by the Library of Congress, the USNP aims to locate, catalog and preserve on microfilm all newspapers published in the United States and its territories from the 18th century to the present. Project leaders say the United States is the first country to build a comprehensive archive of the nation's history through its newspapers. During the Oregon project's first phase, library staff are cataloging and inventorying the UO's comprehensive microfilmed newspaper holdings. In the second phase, Darling, the catalog/projects librarian; Farrell, a newspaper copy cataloger; and Hoyt, a newspaper inventory technician, are conducting a systematic, comprehensive survey of newspaper holdings in Oregon. "We hope to enlist the help of the public to identify additional newspaper titles and missing issues," says Watson, the USNP: Oregon administrator. "We're looking for newspapers of general interest--including foreign language, ethnic and alternative publications but not organizational newsletters--that have been published within Oregon or in any other part of the United States." Lists of current UO Library newspaper holdings can be searched on the Internet at the project's World Wide Web site, http://libweb.uoregon.edu/preservn/usnp/usnp.html. "We encourage any person or institution who may have newspapers to bring to the attention of the survey team to check the Web site first to see if we already have copies of your papers," Watson says. "Your local library may be able to assist you in this search. As the survey team begins work in your area, we'll also ask local newspapers to carry announcements telling you how to contact us about your newspapers." The final phase of the USNP: Oregon project will require an additional year or two, to complete cataloging and microfilming of titles located during the survey phase. An advisory board of historians, journalists and librarians oversees the multi-year project. Members are Chet Orloff, Oregon Historical Society executive director; LeRoy Yorgason, Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association director; James Scheppke, state librarian of Oregon; Gary Jensen, Oregon Library Association president; and Stephen Ponder, UO associate professor of journalism. For information about the U.S. Newspaper Project: Oregon, contact Watson at (541) 346-1896, send e-mail to newspapr@oregon.uoregon.edu or browse http://libweb.uoregon.edu/preservn/usnp/usnp.html on the Internet. -30- #O-2115/Local,OrDailies,OrWeeklies,PDX,Library,Special