What does the man plan to write his paper on? Why did the librarian mention the age of the books?

Listen to part of a conversation at a university library. (M = Man, W = Woman)
M: Hi. May I speak to the… uh, the archives librarian?
W: I’m the archives librarian. What can I help you with?
M: Well, actually, I’m not a student here. I’m studying history at State University across town, but there’s a collection of…
W: Oh, wait. Are you the… sorry, I don’t remember your name, but the librarian over there asked me about giving someone access to the Jacobson collection. Is that you?
M: Yes, that’s right. See, my paper is on the development of the coal-mining industry here in the city, and the Jacobson collection has a lot of information about John Jacobson… like, when he founded the company and things, right?
W: Yes, it does. More than you’ll be able to fit into a paper, I’d bet. Did your librarian explain what our system is here?
M: A little. She told me to make sure I brought my college ID so I could get in the door.
W: Yes, well, I’ll need to take a copy of it too. Even our own students who look at items from our archive collections have to leave a copy of their college ID with us. You’ll also have to sign into the archives room whenever you enter and sign out whenever you leave. There’s a desk. You know, for security.
M: Wow. So a lot of this stuff is valuable?
W: Hmm. Well, I don’t know whether you’d get much money for it, but a lot of it is one-of-a-kind, so if it were taken… that’s it. It’d be gone.
M: I’ll be careful.
W: Thank you. The other thing is, the things in the Jacobson collection are more than 100 years old, so I’ll have to ask you to wear special gloves while handling the books. Also, I’m afraid you won’t be able to photocopy anything.
M: I figured that. I ought to… I mean, I can probably get everything I need on note cards, but suppose there’s a page or two I really want a copy of. Can I… don’t know, take a picture, or something?
W: Well, I can’t let you take a picture. But we have scans… images… of all the pages in the collection. You can buy a print of any page you want, but they’re expensive—five dollars a piece. So be sure you know which pages you want before you ask for them.
M: Five dollars! Well, 1 guess given how rare these things are… Okay, so you want a copy of my college ID, and then you can tell me how to get to the archives room so I can get started.