Newspapers are hard to catalog because they can have genealogies just like people. Twenty-five of them may be related, but each time the title changes, it's a different record. The UTK libraries have the second-largest collection, he said. Lloyd said the cataloging alone will take seven or eight years to complete, not counting the time needed to preserve the collection on microfilm. The United States Newspaper Program, of which the program is a part, was created in 1982 as a cooperative national effort to archive and preserve newspapers published in the United States from the 18th century to the present.
Historic newspapers are probably the single best source for some kinds of historic information.
The Library of Congress provides technical support to all states for the project.