Library of Congress Catalogs: Newspapers in Microform, United States, 1948-1983, Volume 1 A-O Page: VII

Introduction
Contents. This volume is a cumulation of all reports contained in the United
States section of Newspapers in Microform 1948-82, together with reports
received through 1983.
It is assumed that in the near future microforms of newspapers published
in the United States will be brought under more or less definitive control, so
far as historical data and the ownership of master negatives are concerned.
Microreproduction of foreign newspapers, on the other hand, is in an early
stage of development. Reports on foreign newspapers, including those issued
in Canada, are therefore being published in a companion volume, Newspapers
in Microform: Foreign Countries.
History. In June 1941, the Journal of Documentary Reproduction published
an 11-page "Preliminary Checklist of Newspapers on Microfilm" by
George A. Schwegmann, Jr., chief of the Union Catalog Division in the
Library of Congress. Mr. Schwegmann informed his readers that "during the
past few years thousands of volumes of newspapers have been reproduced on
microfilm by various agencies in the United States" and that consequently the
Library of Congress had "undertaken to maintain a separate union catalog of
newspaper microfilm entries." This catalog was now being published so that
the "existence or locations [of these newspapers on microfilm] might be made
known to potential users," and "that librarians everywhere [might] be stimulated
to report their holdings to the Union Catalog."
The growth of the catalog warranted the publication in 1948 of a separate
bibliography entitled Newspapers on Microfilm: A Union Check List. This
contained reports on both domestic and foreign newspapers and was published
in Philadelphia under the imprint of the Association of Research
Libraries, which had begun to play a significant role in coordinating and
reporting microfilming projects. At the request of the association, the Library
of Congress established a Microfilming Clearing House on July 5, 1949, to
serve as a central source of information about "extensive microfilming
projects involving newspapers, serials, and manuscript collections either contemplated,
under way, or completed at various institutions." In March 1951,
the Clearing House began issuing the Microfilming Clearing House Bulletin
as an appendix to the Library of Congress Information Bulletin, to report on
new projects and on the availability of newly filmed materials.
The second edition of Newspapers on Microfilm was published by the
Library of Congress in 1953. It was hoped at the time that the Microfilming
Clearing House Bulletin might serve as a continuing supplement to this
second edition, but that hope failed to materialize. A third edition (1957) was
followed in 1959 by Supplement I, which stated that the best way to obtain
up-to-date information about the availability of microfilms of newspapers was
to write to the Union Catalog Division. Mr. Schwegmann went on to produce
a fourth edition of Newspapers on Microfilm in 1961, a fifth in 1963, and a
sixth in 1967. The problem of currency of information gradually became less
acute as more newspapers were filmed and reports on them were published in
these successive editions. When Mr. Schwegmann retired in 1970, the publica