Somewhere in your house is a pile of folded and stapled bits of newsprint, perhaps hiding in a cardboard shoebox or stuffed into a plastic binder in the hidden recesses of a desk drawer. There's no time like the present to save the clippings from certain deterioration with this helpful advice from Kathryn Wilmot, the curatorial specialist for print news at Washington, DC's Newseum <www.newseum.org>.

Surprisingly, old newspaper clippings are often in better shape than newer ones. By the 1870s, newspapers were printed on paper made of wood pulp rather than rag paper. Wood pulp paper is acidic and deteriorates quickly if exposed to harmful conditions. But whether you're preserving wood pulp or rag paper clippings, the methodology remains the same, Wilmot says.