The Diane Rehm Show

In his new book, novelist Nicholson Baker details what he calls the "assault on paper" being carried out by libraries all around the country. Over the past 50 years, tons of old newspapers and books have been discarded, on the assumption that old paper is past preservation and is useless. Baker argues that, due to this misguided approach, a large part of America's journalistic and literary legacy is irretrievably lost. Nicholson Baker is president of the American Newspaper Repository.