[Cowperson]

I have been to the library downtown and found the picture on Microfiche, however it is black and white and the film is scatched so bad that I can't even get a decent copy.

From that comment we can determine you have a specific date/issue that you are looking for, which should help your cause considerably.

The SUN probably sees someone like you most days of the week, asking if they can look up something "in 1986" without offering specifics and, of course, they aren't going to devote any time to it.

However, they are giving you a load of baloney about not having microfiche/archive material for that specific issue. If there is one thing a newspaper will guard, it will be its own history. It would be fairly incomprehensible if they didn't have that on site. . . . . but, as I said, I can understand perfectly why they wouldn't want to bother helping you with a general inquiry.

Now that you have a specific date and even a page number, however, you might try them again. You've essentially done pretty much all the dirty work in advance and you might be luckier a second time around. Tell them you have a specific day and page number and would like to pay for a copy of it.

Another suggestion, if its that important, is to perhaps advertize or post something like that on e-bay . . . you might get lucky.

Cowperson