Bundled stacks of newspapers fill shelves and overflow onto the floor in the archives of the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines. Traditionally, the papers would have been sent off to for preservation, but a 2009 budget cut ended that 50-year practice. Some historians and activists are anxious to have the papers preserved to ensure the so-called first draft of Iowa history is available to future generations. A bill proposed last year would have provided funds for the backlog, but the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, which oversees the historical society, put on the breaks. It rejected the proposed funding citing pending completion of a master planning process and assessment study to evaluate what it has in the archives and how to preserve those materials in the future. The moves come as newspapers increasingly are adopting digital means of producing and publishing their work, and while historians and preservationists debate whether future preservation should move abandon microfilm for that digital world. Microfilm long has been considered a preservation gold standard but it lacks the accessibility of digital archives. The backlog, which includes 1,600 to 1,700 bundles of newspapers, would cost roughly $255,000 to preserve on microfilm. And papers continue to pile up. Officials with the historical society said the collection assessment will provide the cultural affairs department with a complete picture of what exactly is in the state archive. It also will help officials plan for future preservation efforts for newspapers and other items in the collection such as photographs and manuscripts. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that we have never done an assessment this detailed and this extensive across a hundred plus years of holdings,” Anthony Jahn, the state historical society’s archivist, said. Iowa Watch credit: This story was produced by Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch.org, a non-profit, online news Website that collaborates with Iowa news organizations to produce explanatory and investigative reporting.