Hobbies And Interests
Preserve The Clippings
No matter what kind of articles you're collecting, or for what reason, one thing is constant in all newspaper collections: Newsprint ages quickly. It turns yellow within a few days, and over the months and years it dries out and flakes off. Before you sort your newspaper articles, consider ways to preserve them. Lamination is a popular method, as is using a photo album with pages that have protective plastic sheets. You also can make photocopies of your articles or have them committed to microfilm or CD.
If you read newspapers online, highlight the text of any article you wish to save, (along with photos and headline) then copy and paste it into a word-processor document.
Personal Scrapbook
If you've collected lots of articles having to do with yourself, sort them by topic, and organize them chronologically. For example, keep stories and pictures of your public recognition (awards, commendations) separate from coverage of your business, involvement in local sports or letters to the editor. Once you have them separated by category, put them in chronological order. This will be easiest if you still have the folio lines--the part of the page that lists the name of the publication and the date.
Family Album
Some families have standout school athletes or community leaders who appear in the newspaper often. They can preserve these stories, pictures and box scores for posterity by dedicating a few pages of the family album to each member's successes and exploits.
Mini-Morgue
Emulate the professionals. Although many newspaper libraries have gone completely digital, some still maintain morgues, or collections of stories in hard-copy form and on microfilm. Newspaper librarians go through each edition and sort articles by topic, then by sub-topic. For example, a newspaper librarian will sort articles about a particular town, then organize them into narrower topics--local government, local schools, police, fire, neighborhood, organizations and so on.
Use this approach for your own collection, and to suit your own interests. If you're a follower of public policy or a particular official, for example, clip articles about that subject, and organize them into smaller categories. These might include legislation topics, political promotions and appointments, in-depth interviews, public appearances and campaigns.
The same goes for sports teams: Clip all the stories having to do with that team, and sort them however you like--by season, by player or even by position (especially if your team has had particular strengths or weaknesses in one area.) Over time, your newspaper collection could prove a valuable resource for someone wishing to research a particular team or player.
If your collection has lots of stories about major world events (the moon landing, the Kennedy assassinations, the Challenger explosion, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, etc.) you can devote a special part of your collection accordingly. Newspapers do this commonly; they frame their front pages from these days and post them in the newsroom.
By Author Or Simple Category
Some newspapers have columnists with signature styles and large followings. Organizing your collection by favored writers is another way to sort your clips.
If you collect articles simply because you find them interesting, amusing or useful, sort them into broad categories: health, finance, science, crime, parenting, gardening, cooking and so on. With cooking articles, consider moving recipes and other helpful cooking tips into your cookbook.