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Are the newspapers you proudly kept to remember Barack Obama's
historic election as president starting to look a little yellowed or
ragged around the edges? Stop the march of time, and also be ready to
take care of newspaper memorabilia from Obama's inauguration Jan. 20.

Here are some tips from Alison Moore, a librarian at the California
Historical Society, and Susan Goldstein, a San Francisco city
archivist:

-- Store papers in a cool, dry place. Forget putting them in attics
and basements where temperatures and humidity can be extreme.

-- Keep papers away from light. A metal file cabinet or a dark, dry
closet will do.

-- Store newspapers flat and unfolded in archival or acid-free
storage boxes.

-- Place the newspapers in big folders made of acid-free material.
Don't store them loose inside drawers or other containers. Don't pile
anything on top of the folders.

-- Keep newspapers separate from other paper items you're saving.
Newsprint is acidic and can damage other paper.

-- Make copies of the newspaper for everyday use. That way you can
avoid over handling the original.

For more information, see Moore's brochure on how to preserve
newspapers and an assortment of family papers on the Society of
California Archivists' Web site.

If you aren't sure which books to give that avid reader on your gift list this holiday season, how about considering every title she could name?

BookSwim, an online book rental and delivery service, offers gift subscriptions that can help expand the amount of reading you can give, without running up a big tab or cluttering up someone's home with another stack of books.

The Web site, www.BookSwim.com, lets readers order books and have them delivered right to their door for a set fee each month. Modeled on the online movie rental company Netflix, the subscription service sends between three and 11 books at a time to its customers, who can keep them for as long as they like with no late fees. When finished with at least two books, the reader sends them back in a pre-paid return bag that's included with every shipment.

BookSwim offers four different membership levels, with prices ranging from $19.98 per month for their "light reader" three-at-a-time plan to $39.94 per month for the "voracious reader" 11-at-a-time plan. Their most popular plan, which allows users to have up to 7 books at a time, costs $29.96 per month, with a $1.50 per month discount for a full year paid in advance.

The Newark, N.J.-based company, was launched in May 2007 and shipped its 100,000th book in early October, said marketing director Eric Ginsberg.

BooksSwim has customers from New York City to Alaska, and Ginsberg said it appeals to city dwellers who like the convenience of having the books delivered and to rural residents with little access to public libraries or major bookstores. "We thought when we started the service we would get a lot more rural than urban, but what we got was a good mix," Ginsberg said. "People want conveniences; they want things to come to them."

Readers who decide they can't part with a book also have the opportunity to buy it from BookSwim, with the price calculated based on the age of the book and the number of times it has been lent out, Ginsberg said.

The company doesn't offer a one-book rental plan, because it's more cost-effective to ship multiple books.

One budget line Wendy Li isn't watching even in this tight economy is spending on books. She uses PaperbackSwap.com, one of the book-trading sites that are growing in popularity.

"All I have to pay for is the postage," said Li, a 44-year-old banker in New York City. A diet of three books a month costs her only about $6, clearly a bargain for an avid reader.

Start Swapping: If you've got books to barter, check out sites such as PaperbackSwap.com, Bookins.com and BookMooch.com.

The rules are simple; generally you list the books you're willing to trade. Every time you mail a title out, you get a credit or point, which you can redeem for a book. At PaperbackSwap.com, which lists 2.4 million books, you can purchase credits for $3.45.

Membership is free on all three sites, so your only cost is shipping. Mailing a paperback at the lowest rate typically takes around seven days and generally costs less than $3. After you get a book, it's yours to keep if you wish.

Because you're trading with strangers, you won't get the same guarantees as with a retailer. But the sites may be able to help mediate a dispute, or award credits for losses. Check their rules.

You know how people - maybe you, even - get stuck taking a hundred photos of their cats and dogs? There's nothing wrong with that, but what you need is inspiration. If you haven't already surfed through Flickr's Interestingness page, you're missing out on the most creative of photos on the 'net. Even if you're no camera wiz, Interestingness is still, well, interesting to click through. Think of it as the Wikipedia of photography. There's tags for the South Bay and just about every city within it. Look at our part of the world from different points of view.

Shuttertalk and Photojojo are great resources for propelling you deeper into the craft of photography. Both Web sites are dedicated to serving camera fiends with the best in tips and tricks, do-it-yourself gear and projects and Photoshop guides. The two sites cover everything from road trip and vacation photography to pointers on how to shoot for your eBay auctions.

Once you've got a memory card full of personal art, maybe you'll want to alter your photos a little bit - lay on some text, resize them, add a sepia tone. Nothing too crazy. But say you don't have Photoshop, or iPhoto, or even Microsoft Paint at your fingertips. Picnick is a free online-based photo application that offers most of the basics without clogging up your hard drive space. You can also save and share your photos directly to Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket or MySpace.

If you collect postcards, and even if you don't, you might like The Tacky Postcard Archive, a bizarre collection of well-meaning but incredibly outrageous cards from around the world guaranteed to leave you scratching your head. There's nothing like a postcard with a photo of a gigantic roll of toilet paper (seriously, it's huge). You can't order these quirky cards by mail, but you can send electronic versions via e-mail.

But if snail mail is more your style and you'd like to send and receive postcards from around the world, log on to Postcrossing. Sign up for a user account, request an address and you'll be e-mailed information from another user. Send your postcards and you're on your way. Your own address will end up in the database for another person to retrieve. Before you know it, your mailbox will be full of cards from Finland, Malaysia, Australia or any of the other 184 participating countries. It's an addicting and cheap way to make some use of your downtime. Even your little ones can get some mail; several users have signed up accounts for their children.

You don¹t have to be a word geek to appreciate Take Our Word For It (TOWFI). TOWFI has an amazing archive of word histories and usage and is an interesting place to find out the why of word meanings. The site has also won several awards as an outstanding educational resource. Click here for fun reading.

Looking for something to read on your summer vacation? These lists may help:

USA Today has a cool, interactive list of books being released this summer, including Andre Dubus III's latest, "The Garden of Last Days," which has gotten a lot of buzz. Here's the New York TImes review.

NPR's summer book recommendations

The New York Daily News compiled anti chick-lit list of beach reading for guys:

But not to worry - all you guys out there aren't expected to sit around listening to your iPods and twiddling your thumbs. Here's a dude-oriented list of beach reading broken down by category, with something for the sportsman, the mystery addict and the guy who's just thrilled not to be at the office.

Real Simple magazine asked 10 authors for their favorite summer reading picks in its June issue. The list is broken down into categories such as "books to savor all summer" and "one-day reads."
For example, Philippa Gregory recommends:

Dragonwyck, by Anya Seton (Chicago Review Press, $15, www.amazon.com).
"A gothic novel set in 1844 America. At times it's utterly ridiculous, but it is truly haunting. Think an American Jane Eyre at high speed. A great book to gulp down in a day."

If you're looking for a local recommendation, the Redondo Beach Library posts a list of light reading for beach days, but sadly, it was last updated in 2006. Still, it has some intriguing entries that may be of local interest, including Joy Nicholson's "The Tribes of Palos Verdes," which is described as a dark book about local surf culture.

Coming tomorrow: links to summer reading lists for kids.

We first crystallized this list in November, when plans to transform Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach into an ice skating rink were put on hold, and we now must report another revision.

The Skating Edge in Harbor City -- the most traditional rink in the South Bay and the one where Michelle Kwan got her start -- is temporarily closed. But there are still a couple of South Bay sites where you can practice your Salcows, Lutzes and triple toe loops:

• The Promenade on the Peninsula shopping center houses the Palos Verdes Ice Chalet on its first floor, making it a premier location to show off your moves to the assembled shoppers.

• If you time it right, you can also skate on the ice that the Los Angeles Kings practice on with a trip to El Segundo's Toyota Sports Center complex

French adventurer Michel Fournier, 64, who wished to set the world skydiving record, saw his hopes float away at North Battleford, Saskatchewan on Tuesday when the helium balloon that was supposed to take him to death-defying heights for his feat, er, got away from him without him attached. The $200,000 balloon was supposed to take Fournier to a world-record height of 130,000 feet.

Fournier had hoped to break the record for the fastest and longest free fall, the highest parachute jump and the highest balloon flight. He also hoped to bring back data that will help astronauts and others survive in the highest of altitudes.

A former army paratrooper with more than 8,000 jumps under his belt, Fournier planned to be freefalling at a height three times higher than a commercial jetliner flies. A mountain climber would have to ascend the equivalent of four Mount Everests stacked one on top of the other.

To read up on Fournier, go to his site, Le Grand Saut (The Big Jump).

Well, it is.

Photography social networking site Flickr has the LA South Bay group. More than 200 amateur and professional photographers share the people and places they captured in Torrance, the Beach Cities and the Peninsula.

Anyone can join this group and share their own photos. The photos can even be "geotagged" by placing their location on an interactive map. The group also maintains a discussion board.

A free basic membership allows uploads of up to 100 megabytes. A paid pro account allows for unlimited uploads.

There are more than 4,000 photos in the group. A few hundred or thousand more wouldn't hurt.