NEWS LIBRARIANS ADD VALUE
as Writers, Editors, Compilers, and Bloggers
November 2004
[Note: link to earlier articles by and about new libraries]
[Note: link to Jessica Baumgart's 2004 annotated bibliography about news libraries.]

Over recent decades, news librarians have contributed impressively to their parent organizations as well as their profession by undertaking the additional demanding task of becoming published writers. These news librarians and researchers somehow find the time to not only fulfill their designated research and library management responsibilities, but astonishingly, find the time to write for publication. What follows here is a list recently compiled by Laura Soto-Barra, Assistant Managing Editor/Library (for The Post-Standard) in Syracuse, N.Y. Laura conducted a survey to identify news librarians and researchers who write columns and reviews, books and articles, and do compilations. 

[Note: for a listing of selected early-to-mid twentieth century articles by and about news librarians, click here.]

As if writing for publication were not enough of a challenge, some news librarians have recently started creating and maintaining a special type of "cyber publishing" referred to as web logs or "blogs." See below for a list of current news research bloggers. 

COLUMNS (including reviews):

• Christine V. Baird , The Star-Ledger
  Researcher and features writer. Baird has been an author since 1996.
  
  

• Kathleen Blythe, news  researcher, The Oregonian
  Monthly column "Family Computer Smarts" of internet sites for parents. Blythe has been writing since 1998. Current and back issues of Bylthe's columns can be found at this URL: http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/kathleen_blythe/index.ssf  
  
  

• Carol Bursack, news researcher and author, The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. Column "Minding Our Elders", also runs a webchat on the elder care topic, under special projects. She writes year-end obituaries and timelines,
  as well.
  
  

• John Cronin , Library Director and Free Lancer at The Boston Herald
  Regular columnist on religion and music. Cronin has been writing for 29 years. For three years he wrote a regular column, “Keep the Faith.”
  
  

• Jan Dempsey, Researcher, The Post-Standard
  Weekly column on searching the internet, "In Search Of..." in Technology section. Dempsey has been writing for the paper since 1999. Selected columns can be found at this URL: http://www.syracuse.com/technology/poststandard/dempsey/index.ssf
  
  

• Richard Dickey, Research Librarian, The Dallas Morning News 
  Occasional column on personal experiences titled “Personal Matters.” Dickey’s first column ran in 2001.   
  
  

• Julie Domel, News Researcher, San Antonio Express-News 
  Weekly column in website on things that annoy her, "Don't Get Me Started." Domel has been writing since 2003. Selected columns can be found here, but registration will probably be required: http://www.mysanantonio.com/salife/columnists/dgms/storyindex.html
  
  

• Derek Donovan, Director of Research and Information, Kansas City Star
  Writes a Readers Representative's column every other Sunday. Donovan has
  contributed theater, music and arts reviews and features since 1996. He's been
  the Readers' Representative for the Kansas City Star since August 2004.
  
  

• Elisabeth Donovan , research editor, retired , The Miami Herald
  Writes an irregular column in the paper, “Weblinks,” that evolved into a weblog. Now she also has a web column at the Herald.com. Donovan has been a writer since 2002. Selected columns can be found at this URL http://heraldresearch.blogspot.com.
  
  

• Matthew Fernandez , news researcher, free lancer, and editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . Most of his work has been in features. He has also covered community events, politics and sports.  Fernandez has been writing for 8 years.
  
  

• Belinda Harris , Librarian,  Researcher, and Free lancer at The Roanoke Times
  Writes a regular history column “Looking Back.”
  
  

• Lee Hemphill , Reference Librarian , The State newspaper
  Monthly sports card column, “On the Spot - Sport Cards.”  Hemphill has been writing since 1992.
  
  

• Joan Sweeney Marsh, Library supervisor, with research specialists Astrid Lange, Deborah Wingate, Andy Murdoch, Peggy McKenzie, Marian Traynor, Virginia Doig at the Toronto Star. Daily column during the Toronto Film Festival, “Waiting in Line.” They have been writing since 1997.
  
  

• Joel Minion, News Research Librarian, The Vancouver Sun / The Province 
  Weekly Q&A series on Olympic Games in Sports Section, "Road to 2010." Minion has been writing since February 2004.
  
  

• Beth Murphy, Susan Butler, Julia McCue (Library Researchers)  
  Bethlen Maine Newspapers, Portland Press Herald\Maine Sunday Telegram
  Weekly  column "Where, Oh Where?" features a historical photo and “This week in history”, from the archives. Murphy and her colleagues have been writing for ten years. 
  
  

• Rosemary Nelms, Library Director, with Shirley Harris and Jan Smith, researchers at the  The Commercial Appeal 
  Weekly book review column,  "Page Turners." Researchers rotate writing columns. Nelms and her colleagues have been writing since December 2003. Selected columns can be found at these URLs:
  http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/book_reviews/article/0,1426,MCA_485_3138936,00.html
  http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/book_reviews/article/0,1426,MCA_485_3122746,00.html
  http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/book_reviews/article/0,1426,MCA_485_3104606,00.html
  
  

• Laura Perkins, Library Researcher, San Francisco Chronicle 
  Weekly history column for zone sections titled, “Our Past.” Perkins has been writing since January 2001. Selected columns can be found at these URLs: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/13/WBGQL85CL41.DTL
  http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/20/WBGMU896U31.DTL
  
  

• Betty Slowe , news librarian, Tuscaloosa News
  Weekly column, “Betty Slowe On Cooking" (formerly "Slowe Cooking.”) Slowe has been writing since 2000.
  
  

• Gert-Jan Wondergem, business researcher, editor, and writer NRC Handelsblad, Economie Redactie. Writes regular stories on business and sports.
  
  

COMPILERS

• Linda S. Chapman, Manager of Electronic Library & Information Systems, with researchers Barbara Fish, Karen Otis, Anne Leahy at The Patriot Ledger.
  They write a column “From The Ledger Archives.”
  
  

• Peggy Mackenzie and Rick Sznajder , researchers, Toronto Star
  Write a weekly column,  "By The Numbers," runs in the Sunday paper alongside a related story written by a reporter.  
  
  

• Daisy D. Maxwell, Library Manager, The Fayetteville Observer 
  Weekly column on major local stories from 10, 20, 30, and 50 years ago, "From the Archives."   
  
  

• Bonnie Ross, Researcher, The Post-Standard 
  Weekly column on apologies, "I'm Sorry: Opinions Gone Awry and the Apologies They Inspire," compiled from wire stories. Ross has been contributing information for this column since August 2003.
  
  

• Carol Taylor, Librarian, Daily Camera 
  Writes and compiles a weekly column, "From the Archives, Local History from the
  Files of the Daily Camera". Taylor is the winner of the News Division's 2003
  Hayden Fellowship. She used the money to take a course on the "History of
  Colorado" which made her even more dedicated to her 12-inch column. 
  
  

 BOOKS and ARTICLES: (Note: this is not a complete listing. Additions will be added periodically.)

• Shirley Mooney Aabjerg (formerly library director for the Pacific Press in Vancouver) co-authored 1n 1986 with Chuck Davis Vancouver: An Illustrated Chronology.
  
  

• Linda Amster (currently the library director for The New York Times) was the editor in 2001, with Dylan Loeb McClain, Kill Duck before Serving: Red Faces at The New York Times: A collection of the Newspaper's most interesting, Embarrassing and Off-Beat Corrections. Amster was also the editor of The New York Times Jewish Cookbook (2003) and The New York Times Passover Cookbook (1999). 
  
   

• Carol Bursack (News Researcher/Elder Care Columnist with The Forum in Fargo, NC) Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories. Publisher is McCleery and Sons Publishing, 2005.
  
  

• William D. Chase (formerly library director for The Flint Journal, later the founder publisher of Apple Tree Press, Inc.) First  published in 1957, Chases' Calendar of Events: The Day-to-Day Directory to Special Days, Weeks and Months has continued publication to the present. 
  
  

• Sandy Hall (formerly director, Special Services with The Arizona Daily Star and now a freelance writer.) Latest book: Duke, A Great Hawaiian.
  
  

• Kathleen A. Hansen (currently the director of the Minnesota Journalism Center). Author of Behind the Message: Information Strategies for Communicators, 2004 (with Nora Paul) and Newspapers of Record in a Digital Age, 1998 (with Shannon Martin). Hansen is also author of numerous scholarly articles.
  
  

• Dorothy Ingebretsen and Thomas M. Lutgen (formerly with the Los Angeles Times Editorial Library) collaborated on a two-part series, "The Los Angeles Times: A Special Kind of Database, published in the May 1991 and April 1992 issues of Database Searcher.
  
  

• Anne Mintz (currently director of Knowledge Management at Forbes, Inc.) is the author of numerous articles for scholarly and trade publications. Mintz is also the editor of 2002 book, Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet.
  
  

• Nora Paul (formerly the editor, information services at the Miami Herald, she moved in 1991 to the Poynter Institute where she led programming efforts in news library management, computer-assisted research. In 2000, she became the inaugural director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota.) Nora is the author of Computer Assisted Research: A guide to tapping online information (1996); co-author with Margot Williams of Great Scouts!: Cyberguides for Subject Searching on the Web (1999); and co-author with Kathleen Hansen on Behind the Message: Information Strategies for Communicators (2004).
  
  

• Gary Price (currently a librarian, information research consultant, and writer based in suburban Washington, D.C.) With co-author, Chris Sherman, wrote in 2001 The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See. Price is also a frequent contributor to professional and trade publications.
  
  

• Barbara Semonche (formerly library director for The Durham Morning Herald and The Durham Sun, and currently The Park Library director for UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication.) Semonche's list of publications include editing the 1993 book, News Media Libraries: A Management Handbook.
  
  

• Grace Avellana Villamora (currently Information Strategist, Principal, brightresearch llc.) Super Searchers On Madison Avenue. 2003.
  
  

• Margot Williams (until recently a researcher and a columnist --1994 to 1999 -- for The Washington Post about the Internet in The Washington Post's Monday WashTech section, Margot is currently on on the Computer Assisted Research team for The New York Times.) Margot was co-author with Nora Paul on Great Scouts!: Cyberguides for Subject Searching on the Web (1999).
  

NEWS LIBRARY RESEARCH BLOGS

• Jessica Baumgart            http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/ 

• ·Angelica Cortez              http://www.wannabenewslibrarian.blogspot.com  

•  Liz Donovan                   http://newsresearch.blogspot.com/

•  Liz Donovan (at Miami Herald)            http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/5471055.htm?1c  

•  Eli Edwards                    http://edwards.orcas.net/~misseli/blog/ 

• Gail Hulden                    http://oregonianorb.blogspot.com/  

•  Diane Lamb                   http://nrnewsresearch.blogspot.com/  

•  Michelle Laycock            http://www.michellelaycock.blogspot.com/ 

•  George Labonte             http://tglib.blog-city.com/  

•  Bill Lucey                         http://williamlucey.blogspot.com/        

•  Leigh Montgomery (at CS Monitor)            http://csmonitor.typepad.com/liblog/  

•  Sabrina Pacific               http://www.bespacific.com/  

• Gary Price                       http://resourceshelf.freepint.com/  

• Barbara Semonche       http://parklibrary.jomc.unc.edu/news.html

• Alphonse Vinh                http://www.npr.org/programs/musings/ 

• Derek Willis                   http://www.thescoop.org/ 

  ·         

· 

· 

·  

·