1. George Jean Nathan (1910) excerpt from article
Where do newspaper libraries enter the media picture? Why do they exist? An article by American literary critic George Jean Nathan published in the August 1910 Bookman offers some valuable insight, if not the definitive answer:
"While inspecting the plant and offices of one of the great metropolitan
daily newspapers two years ago, a Japanese banker asked his cicerone, the
city editor, what, in the latter's belief, constituted the biggest element
in the oft-repeated "power of the press." "Wait a moment," replied the
editor, "and I shall show you." The two men wound their way through the
narrow correspondents' halls, through the offices of the various
officials, through the noisy city room with its score of busy reporters,
and, finally, brought up at the threshold of a light-bathed room, stacked
to the ceilings with books, catalogues, files, albums and records. "Here,
sir," said the editor to the foreign financier, "is your answer."
"The room in question was the "morgue" a word that, in newspapermen's
phraseology, stands for that department of the paper wherein are kept the
keys to the news that has passed, the "dead" news, in other words. In
"dead" news, however, rest such vast resuscitative possibilities, such
important clues for the future as well as of the past, and such an
infallible, indelible record and guide that the statement of the trained
editor was well chosen. A newspaper's morgue is one of the chief sources
of power, a fact that is borne testimony to by the knowledge that the
greatest of the New York dailies are those that possess the most
exhaustive morgues."

2. Joseph F. Kwapil (1923) excerpt from article
A bit later Joseph Kwapil, the founder of the Newspaper Library Group (forerunner of the Newspaper Division), reflected upon the old morgue from his personal experience. We get an entirely different picture.

"The typical old-time morgue of the [18]90s was a reference department
that was a monument to lost motion and inefficiency. It was dark and
forbidding and an ever-present fire menace. Its unhealthy, dust-laden
envelopes contained much valuable material--if it could be found when
wanted.
"As a rule it was generally run on a cafeteria basis with no check on
material to be taken out, trusting to luck that it would be returned in
due time.
"There was a constant change in personnel--the job being considered
undesirable and temporary until he or she could find a better job. When an
editor wished to get rid of a member of the staff, he transferred him to
the morgue. This was a humiliation and in most cases a resignation
followed in preference to being sent down the river.
"The method of filing and preserving material was crude and cumbersome,
being based on the numeric rather than the alphabetical system.
"Often cuts [metal engravings of photographic material], photographs,
pamphlets and clippings would all be found in one large envelope; material
on several persons or subjects foreign to each other also would be found
there to save space in an entirely overcrowded place.
"The managing editor of the paper was usually a czar; the morgue keeper
was a mere figurehead who worked 14 or 15 hours a day and the library was
a great hangout for crapshooters on payday."
This is a notably sad, but likely accurate, picture of more than a few
morgues of the period. It is an image that may be a reality in some
newspapers today at least as far as some journalists view new libraries
and librarians.

But what happened between then and now? Has the image and reality of the news library changed? If so, how and in what way? And do we have any idea about where our profession is headed in the future? We have some clues. 

To meet the potential for online research, computer-assisted reporting, intranet construction, digital archiving, quality control, copyright and licensing operations, not to mention information marketing, I believe librarians and archivists must determine what their roles will be in the newsrooms of the future. Defining our professional roles should not be left to others; we need to take control of our destiny. We live and breathe with all kinds of data, facts, misrepresentations, and errors that
may be indistinguishable from what is true, accurate, and honest. Consequently, our mission is much more than simply gathering, storing and retrieving information. We are more than guardians of this turbulent tsunami. We believe that we are responsible for the accuracy, quality and provenance of information. We do this because we know can; we are trained
to do it, even though it is difficult and sometimes, perhaps, impossible. We do this because we are building more than a warehouse of factoids, we are creating a reliable, credible knowledge base.  Thus, in my view, we are the true
"connoisseurs of information."

I. News Librarians' Evolving Roles: Definitions

A. "Morgue" Clerks
Originally, there were indeed "Morgue Clerks" with minimal education and training where the job was primarily clipping and filing news articles. There was some pre-publication "fact checking." Most activities and energies and meager budget focused on post-production archival maintenance. Thesaurus construction and classification systems were inadequate or ideosyncratic or non existent. This era of the "morgue" lasted well into the first half of the 20th century.

B. Archivists & News Librarians
Later, Archivists and News Librarians who were better trained and more professionally experienced in managing media archives, appeared. Although still focusing primarily on maintaining text archives in paper format, greater reference service was being offered to news staffs. Binding back issues of newspapers gave way to microfilming them. Microfilming of clipping files soon emerged. Computers were just appearing in news libraries, but were dedicated terminals for online full-text searching from commercial vendors. Personal computers were soon to come. The Internet was more than two decades away. Still later would come digital microfilm with sophisticated search capabilities.

C. Reference Managers
Time marched on to Reference Managers who increasingly came from library science backgrounds; formed the basis of highly skilled editorial reference relying upon both print and online reference tools. The time frame is mid 1970s through the late 1980s. These managers were beginning to be recognized as information specialists with a "nose for news." Archival maintenance evolved to microfilming of clipping files. Increasing numbers (but not the majority) of newspapers and newsmagazines were making their text archives available via commercial online databases. These online text archives endured several "conversions" to different formats and vendors over time challenging searchers to keep current with varying
search protocols. Search protocols were so archaic and complicated that journalists readily ceded jurisdiction over this research to news librarians. Much later, after the introduction of the Internet, more journalists were becoming active searchers themselves. [However, it must be noted that in many if not most media organizations, it was the library staff who became the early adopters of Internet and Web technologies. Almost simultaneously they began teaming with interested journalists to explore the full range of Internet research capabilities.] On the digital horizon were graphical web-based browsers. Photo and graphic files were digitized. The challenge again was to create and implement sound search
protocols. Because of their increasing expertise in technology as well as their growing research sophistication, Reference Managers were beginning to appear in daily news staff "budget" meetings and special projects sessions. They were also beginning to play a significant role in maintaining the quality control of media archives and online news databases. These librarians are working with news editors, in-house IT staff and their commercial vendors to monitor the accuracy and quality of their products. Consult this URL for details on this topic http://www.ibiblio.org/journalism/databasequality.html

D. Investigative "Super Searchers"
Book: Super Searchers in the News: The Online Secrets of Journalists and
News Researchers, by Paula J. Hane. Published by CyberAge Books, 2000.
Price is $24.95 U.S.
Progressing to greater, more sophisticated research levels, beyond "ready reference" and quick "fact checking," toward becoming Investigative "Super Searchers". These media researchers came to media research with computer skills, database management capability, polling experience, statistical knowledge, and spreadsheet expertise. They are also skilled at uncovering and utilizing public documents. They frequently became part of journalistic "special investigative teams" along with veteran journalists and editors. Typically continued their training alongside journalists at such workshops and seminars sponsored by Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) and National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting (NICAR).
Sometimes known as "Information Specialists" or "Public Documents Researchers." These talented folks are comfortable with generating reports using a variety of software: MSWord documents, Excel Spreadsheets, structured query language software, database management programs, and PowerPoint presentations. They prepared bibliographies, biographies, timelines, reviews, analyses, charts, lists and much more. They are now just beginning to explore Wireless Application Protocols even if they don't really know what to do with them right now. [Click here for examples that include such extraordinary investigative researchers as Linda Amster from The New York Times, Brooke Caine from The News & Observer, Liz Donovan from The Miami Herald, Randy Herscraft from The Associated Press. ] Not to be forgotten is Nora Paul's and Margot Williams' book, Great Scouts!:CyberGuides for Subject Searching on the Web. Published also by CyberAge Books. You can find this work featuring updated links to all the sites covered in the book on the web at http://www.greatscouts.com

E. Database Editors and Intranet Content Developers
Currently emerging are Database Editors. These news researchers are experienced with all types of databases as a user and have demonstrated their skills and knowledge by developing sophisticated in-house Intranets and database storage/retrieval systems. They are at the core of the organization's "Knowledge Base" becoming its "research button" for the
corporate Internet content. Intranets have been called the "informational backbone of the media organization." KM build working relationships with other departments such as IT in order to create, maintain, and improve access to critical, diverse electronic information sources. Highly involved with quality control of data resources and the stability of archival storage.

F. Permissions & Licensing Editors
In larger media organizations, able librarians were tapped to become the corporate "Permissions and Licensing Editors. Barbara Maxwell is an example for USA Today. Justin Scroggs plays an important role with Time, Inc.'s News Research Department in database contract and royalty negotiations with commercial vendors.

G. Newsroom Internet "Trainers"
Also part of the emerging in-house computer training and research programs for journalists and editors. Database editors are becoming integrated with the entire news staff. Debbie Wolfe, is the newsroom trainer at the St. Peters burg (Florida) Times. Many of today's news librarians are involved in this activity as part of their regular information services for the editorial staff. Bruce Rosenstein, USA Today's top researcher, teaches a graduate-level course at Washington, DC's Catholic University. His syllabus is at this URL: http://slis.cua.edu/courses/818/

H. Knowledge Base Architects
Just beginning to appear as Knowledge Architects (or Managers) for the media organization.  At this level, KM is an essential part of the total corporate information strategy. Media are in the information business and as such they require skilled knowledge visionaries able to market to the public and specialized sectors the wealth of data that is their core
business. Media archives are becoming strategic assets for corporations. KM works with microfilm companies, email providers, digital outsource companies, commercial data vendors, arranging licensing of proprietary information that is increasingly becoming fee based. They cooperate with network administrators and top management in developing policies affecting public access to media archives. KM is becoming part of the company's revenue stream. Ginny Everett, head of news research at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is one example. Lany McDonald, Time, Inc.'s head of news research is another. More will emerge.

I. Other job titles? (Suggestions are welcome!) -- e.g., "press informatics" or "information connoisseurs"?
In the last decade of the 20th century another development appears in the evolution of news librarians. A few are venturing into academic positions, becoming mass communication bibliographers, media institute instructors, and directors of new media (Nora Paul at the University of Minnesota's Center for New Media is the prime example). In some instances, former news librarians have become publishers of directories, information management consultants, online vendors' sales representatives and independent competitive intelligence agents. Interestingly, there are several examples of journalists and editors shifting from their work to directing news libraries. [John Jansson was a former Business journalist with the Chicago Tribune before he became its library director; and Teresa Leonard was a former press photographer before she became The News & Observer's director of news research.]

Do these changes signal the end of employment trail for traditional news researchers and media archivists? I don't think so, but the 21st century has just begun and the only thing that most of us can count on is change. Still some things may never change.

J. "Librarians as Librarians"
In recent years, there has been an ongoing verbal battle among news librarians in the United States, the UK and other countries. Some insist that the only way to get status and credibility in the newsroom is to change the name of the library (archives?) to Information Center or News Research Department. They believe the term "librarian" is old fashioned, out of touch with what the modern news researcher does. At the very least, it may be inadequate. However, since in some countries, news librarians and media archivists are identified as "sub-editors," perhaps changing the name of the place from "library" or the "archives," to, say, to a "department" or a "division," is essential in order to achieve editorial rank.  Then again, perhaps not. Perhaps it is not the place, but the people who affect change.

Others are of the opinion that they are librarians; they work in a library and that's that. Most of us agree that some of the most important responsibilities of the library/news research center will continue to be the traditional roles: we know how to collect information, evaluate it, preserve it, retrieve it, and present it. 

A news librarian (Sharon Clairmont) at the Orange County, Calif., Register summed it up very nicely:
"Our responsibilities are to discover, nurture, cultivate information; harvest it, keep it clean, store it, protect it, and share it."

II. Redefining Our Roles:
A. Ourselves: We've evolved over the decades. Increasingly, technology has cast news librarians in ever more prominent supporting roles in pre-publication projects. We still are responsible for archiving the post-production product, but we are expanding our influence before the news is published or aired. Notably, news librarians are being recognized as worthy partners in investigative journalism; a few have been identified as star researchers accompanying Pulitzer-prize winning teams. After decades of waiting to be asked for information, we've started anticipate potential research needs and started delivering it before hand. Not mind readers, just smart researchers with a highly developed "nose for news."

Along the way we've earned credit line, tag lines, and even occasionally bylines. Our research work is respected and, by association, so have we. We think of ourselves as professionals and we act the role. We make it our business to understand not only our jobs, but the broad mission of our media organization and our current and future roles in it. We are active
rather than passive in outlook and action. We have become an integral part of our corporations while remaining active members of our profession. Far from our former isolated selves, we are, quite simply, better connected than we ever were. We and our profession and the media organizations we serve are the better for it.

B. Our Collections: Our research tools must be timely, accurate, and comprehensive regardless of format, at least most of the time. Over time, we've become genuine connoisseurs of information discovering of what's credible and what is not. Of course, we accomplish this with the support and expertise of others in our profession, who, like ourselves, are exuberant in chasing the newest, the best and the most reliable sources, and then sharing them. We've become adept at knowing whom to ask and we've become generous in sharing the information. We've come from the era of no money and no support for library collections to the point where our justification for such expenses is not only listened to, but solicited, and often, followed. A few of us have become expert negotiators for contracts involving sophisticated databases, royalties, and investment in
digitization projects. Finally, we've come through hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fires, and, yes, even bombings to learn the
fundamentals of collection preservation. [Some very bad things can happen to archives and an important part of our job as archivists is to protect and preserve these historic materials.There is guidance available.] After decades of coping with marginal collections, we are acquiring better education, resources and the systems to utilize them to the fullest. Have we reached some plateau of excellence? Not yet, but I believe that we are headed in the right direction.

C. Our Services: Throughout the last century, news libraries have been for the most part one & two person operations with little or no professional training or education. A few of the large metropolitan news organizations fared better and were able to attract and keep well educated and experienced library staff. After decades of few or no library staff, we are now discovering that we have to manage more than ourselves. We've discovered how to allocate staff time and talents to the best possible advantage. We've learned how to hire well, promote promptly, and train thoroughly and often. It is not a surprise that Attitude is as important as aptitude in offering quality news researcher services. We encourage staff specialization ("CPI" guy or polling expert, or public records guru) but also support cross training. In the last few years with the media shift toward convergence of print, broadcast and internet communication  [Note: Tampa Tribune & Jody Hayabeb], more and more news libraries are deploying their staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without hiring additional staff. Then, of course, there are the growing mergers of newspapers resulting in downsizing and restructuring all news staffs including libraries. [Note: how is this done: largely with technology such as Intranets, mobile phones, faxes, personal digital assistants]

D. Our Expertise: News librarians are smart people who love to learn, but we are also smart enough to know that we don't know everything. So we keep learning. Develop special, unique skills and perfect them. Some of us have also tried to imagine the kind of talent our boss might be looking for when we leave our jobs. Think about it. It is an unsettling, but enlightening exercise. Whatever is new in your corporation, know about it, and, learn how to do it. We understand the importance of becoming gifted communicators. We've discovered how to communicate in the language of top corporate managers: spreadsheets, charts, and executive summaries. Many of us have become skilled with PowerPoint presentations or related software for we realize that today's media CEOs are not journalists; they are businessmen and women. We know that it is our job to deliver the clearest message possible about the performance of our library/archive/research center and anticipate how they fit into the overall strategic plans of the organization. The power of information begins by controlling the
information pipeline about our departments. 

Our Image: Images are frequently stereotypes, particularly of librarians and archivists. Avoid them. Ignore them. In the U.S. we used to be a lot more concerned about our "image" than we are lately. I suspect that it is related to the growing respect and admiration our profession has acquired in recent years. Obviously, technology has been a significant factor. News researchers know how to apply these new tools to the advantage of the entire editorial services.  And we are not shy about demonstrating our expertise to journalists, editors, publishers, graphically. We give multimedia presentations, write annual reports, and provide "executive briefings" on "state-of-the-archives" and the "cutting edge of news research." We communicate thoughtfully, appropriately, frequently. We realize the importance of money in our work: we know how to earn it, spend it, save it. In short, we are thinking and acting like information managers. And we take time to share the "good news."

Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 18:12:39 -0400
From: Jessica Baumgart
Subject: [newslib] Lots of praise for librarians at Seybold in Boston!

I just wanted to pass along some of the good things I heard about librarians at the Seybold Seminars in Boston last week. During sessions on digital rights management, content management systems, and digital asset management, the panelists talked about the benefits of having a librarian or someone with a background in information management working on these projects.

After one of the digital asset management presentations, I asked what kind of advice the panelists could give me--a librarian whose position was created partially out of the office's need to have image files organized--and heard lots of good things.  The moderator, Michael Moon, mentioned SLA and David Tenenbaum of MerlinOne recommended that I join the News Division since there are lots of helpful people in it working on similar projects.  I thanked both of them afterwards for their advice, let them know that I've been participating in SLA and the News Division, and
told them it was great to hear people in their position trumpeting the values of having a librarian on staff.  I made sure that my management heard they were on the right track there!

One gentleman asked about whether he absolutely had to hire a librarian, since he worked for a smaller publisher with a limited budget.  3 of the 4 answers were something like, "Well, you really should, but if you can't, there's ways around it.  The quality of the product (the archive, research, system, etc.) won't be as good though."     
  
I think the audience, mostly editors, publishers, and others on the business side of things, needed to hear those comments from the panelists, the "experts," instead of from other audience members. It's too bad no one got up to say that they had added a librarian and had a better system because of that.

Oh yes, David Tenenbaum of MerlinOne is absolutely right: we do have a wonderful [News] division!

The proceedings should be posted on the Seybold Reports Web site soon: http://www.seminars.seyboldreports.com/

Jessica Baumgart Information Resources Specialist, Office
of News and Public Affairs, Harvard University

K. Developing a New Model of News Research? It will probably have to involve some mix of automation & human advice -- more like "information managers" and "research consultants" than "data miners."   Some interesting comments come from another field:   "The Human Touch"
Sometimes the best way to connect with our clients is via the human touch. Consider Insight Enterprises, Inc. a large U.S. direct marketer of computers. "Timothy Crown, Insight's president states: The web is only a tool. It is not a business model.  The use of the Web is to complement rather than replace customer service. So far it has worked. Insight has created a web site for it clients where they can peruse products, note technical specifications, special promotions, check availability, track orders or place new ones. [Note: sounds like some news library Intranets.] Orders average $1,300. Here is the difference: While 20% of Insight Inc.'s customers place orders themselves, others prefer the sales staff to handle personally the entire transaction. Even some of the most technologically savvy clients often treat him as a consultant." That's important. Perhaps
we should adapt the "consultant" model for our news research services. Then again, while intriguing this model is very labor intensive and thus costly. Perhaps another model should be considered. We are open to ideas here.

III. Examples of News Library Redefinition
A. Lany McDonald, Time, Inc.'s "strategic asset" Lany undertook the challenging task of restructuring, retraining, retooling, and mission redefinition of Time, Inc.'s library. Further, she set out to make the news research center the "research button" on the corporate Intranet. Not only that, but she and her staff created the content for the research center's intranet AND the Intranets for Time, Inc.'s finance department, human resources department, eventually taking on the added responsibilities (for a profit)  creating specialized Intranets for advertisers'! Amid all these initiatives, the Research Center staff continued to work as researchers, trainers, group managers, clerks, and database developers [Note: Celebrity Contacts database] as well as contributors to their own home page. Lany knows very well how to calculate "return on corporate investment" for news research. 

B. Jennifer Belton, Washington Post Reprinted from an April 5, 2001 NewsLib posting with permission from the correspondent, Jennifer Belton, former director of the Washington Post's News Research Center:

"It may make some sense to put it [my "retirement"] in context since ours is a major newspaper research center that was developed and has transitioned well over the years.

"The Washington Post News Research Center created a highly valued nexus of researchers and online editors who responded to an average of 200 requests a day.  Kathy Foley helped direct the creation of our internal archive of Post stories and later of photos. We brought in the first PCs to the newsroom and developed a solid research staff and began assigning them to desks in the newsroom more than 10 years ago. Initially, the researchers were posted to foreign and financial and later to investigative [projects] and more recently to national. (Separate from News Research, Margot Williams assumed a job in Metro and made great strides by working closely on Metro projects and developing databases. She now has the title of Research Editor and is well assisted by Bob Lyford.) The News Research Center worked closely with reporters and editors, convincing the Managing and Executive Editors that Internet was a resource for the entire newsroom, not just News Research and a handful of reporters.  We moved from that point to developing the first newsroom intranet, and it was Sheryl Rosenthal (now at US News &World Report) who so ably organized the breadth of resources for each desk consisting of both our in-house collection and the resources on the net.  We then negotiated contracts with  Nexis and Dow Jones and Gale for broad newsroom access, (and were able to effect  discounts with some providers by broadening the negotiations to cover the entire company.) Two years ago a newsroom Technology Editor was named and the News Systems and News Research Center functions were combined in one department.  Slots were slowly moved from research to technology and reporters assumed many of their own research tasks. Researchers now dedicate themselves to the more complex research tasks and guide reporters. Many of the functions of creating and transmitting the text and photo archives have been automated and many of the staff work on projects. We built the News Research Center up, distributed much of the staff into the newsroom, and have built it down, so to speak. The entire transition has been a positive one and has served the newsroom well. Everything we created was built as a team and I'm very proud of all we accomplished.

"Personally, I've moved on to work on projects compatible with my desire to work part time. I encourage anyone interested in converting their historic archive from microfilm to digital images, searchable and fully displayable online, to contact me.  I've learned a lot over the past several months and would be happy to share my knowledge.  We will soon announce plans for the development of our digital archive and I'll post the press release here." -Jen Belton



C. Kathy Foley, San Antonio Express-News. Kathy is being honored this year at the News Divisions Awards & Honors banquet with the Joseph F. Kwapil Award. She has earned it. In her earlier professional life with the Washington Post she developed path-breaking photo archiving projects. Together with M.J. Crowley they joined the NPPA (National News
Photographers Association) in producing annual workshops for digital photographers and news researchers. An outstanding example of journalism partnerships. Currently, she is information editor at the San Antonio Express-News. When asked about arranging a tour of her newspaper library for those of us attending the SLA conference in her city, she replied that
there is really no longer much to see. For the library staff is dispersed throughout the newsroom. The Express-News now has a "virtual library."


D. Teresa Leonard, Raleigh, NC The News & Observer. Moving from an earlier profession as a news photographer to her current job as director of The N & O's News Research Department, Teresa is a prime example of "job redefinition." She has coordinated research for several computer-assisted reporting projects at her paper, including one that earned a Pulitzer Prize, and was recently appointed by her publisher to a corporate-wide project directed toward the analysis of the paper's readers and community. Along the way she has written articles, organized regional seminars on news research, taught university-level library science courses, and held leadership roles in professional associations.


E. Jim Hunter, Columbus Dispatch Jim's specialty is polling research. He works with a senior editor developing and analyzing political polling questions. Polling data and census data are increasingly a part of investigative reporting as evidenced by a series Jim and a journalist collaborated on involving aging U.S. World War II veterans. Jim is also one of several U.S. news librarians directing internship programs.  

F. John Jannson, Chicago Tribune A veteran journalist and long-time library director, John has actively supported the development of key word thesaurus construction for photo archives. Currently he is director of a corporate initiative for his paper to digitize (and make searchable) the front pages of the Chicago Tribune going back to the original publication date.

G. M. J. Crowley, Star-Ledger. M.J. is our News Division archivist as well as a long-time investigative researcher. She has worked with Pulitzer-Prize winning journalists at the Philadelphia Inquirer and currently is Research editor at the Star-Ledger. She attends the senior editors daily news budget meeting and submits research budgets. Her work with press photographers is path breaking. She initiated the development of her paper's Intranet, with her staff supplying the content.

H. Ginny Everett, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Ginny is recognized for her innovative leadership efforts at enhancing news library services, especially with sales of newspaper photos. Check the 1999 issue of Online for an interview with her. Her library's internships are eagerly sought. Further, she is a frequent speaker at professional conferences [Note: Ginny will be speaking to the Swedish Media Librarians Association May 10.] and has served as a consultant to emerging media libraries.


I. Annabel Colley, BBC's (investigative researcher) Annabel is currently on an internal bBC assignment to a pilot Knowledge Management initiative called the BBC Programme Makers Workbench Project. She is Chair of the Association of UK Media Librarians and is a published author and speaker on computer assisted research and reporting in the U.K. and
Europe. This year she will be honored as International Special Librarian by the European Chapter of the Special Libraries Association. She will receive a honorarium to defray expenses to SLA's annual conference this June in San Antonio, Texas.


J. Otto Spronk, de Volkskrant Microforms specialist,
photo archivist, historical researcher, and published author. Here is an example of Otto's research talent I discovered when we first met in 1982: "Reference service is Mr. Spronk's forte. Both he and his staff make a point of being able to find answers to any question sought by reporters and editors, and some not even thought of! Earlier this year (1982) Mr. Spronk read a published notice that minutes from a meeting of a high Dutch government council would be made public for the first time, 30 years after the fact. Mr. Spronk recognized the significance of this notice. A reporter was dispatch to request access to the Council's minutes. The result? Due to a news archivist's careful, knowledgeable observation, de Volkskrant broke a story of national significance."  There have been other examples since then.

K Janet Lundblad, Los Angeles Times researcher who was acknowledged for her research with a Pulitzer Prize winning LATimes journalist.

Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 11:15:25 -0700
From: Julia.Franco@latimes.com
Subject: [newslib] Pulitzer at the Los Angeles Times

We're a little late, but we want to do some Pulitzer breast-beating, too. One of our National reporters, David Willman, won the prize this Monday for Investigative Reporting. We're extremely proud of  David. The stories he did exposed the dangers of the drug Rezulin, which had been approved by the FDA [Federal Drug Administration] , but was causing deaths among its users. What we especially want to share, though, is the role that our projects librarian, Janet Lundblad, played in the investigation and in getting the stories and the graphics into the paper. Quoting from our Library Director, Dorothy Ingebretsen: " Janet Lundblad (who was with David for the announcement at the National Desk) was singled out twice by John Carroll [Editor of the Los Angeles Times] for her research contributions which extended over a period of several years.  It was gratifying and fitting to see her hard work and efforts acknowledged in this way. Congratulations, Janet, for your excellent work and for so visibly and capably demonstrating the value library research can bring to a project.

P.S. You can read the stories at www.latimes.com (type pulitzer in the search box).

Julia Franco
Los Angeles Times
Editorial Library

IV. Technology's Impact on News Librarian Roles

A. Move from "hot" type to "cold" type (mid-to-late 1970s)
Most often overlooked. Newspapers amortized multimillion dollar renovation projects by eliminating the typesetters. With money to spend, publishers earmarked increasing budgets for their news libraries. 

B. Commercial Full-text news databases (late 1970s)

C. Personal computers enter news libraries (mid 1980s)

D. News library use of the Internet & the WWW (early 1990s)
For the most part news librarians introduced PCs into the newsroom after they had them in the library. Then we led the way into the cyberage with email, Internet, WWW, and Intranets. Coming soon are WAPs, portals, & vortals. We need to also keep in mind that not only do journalists and researchers use the Internet, they report on it.

E. WWW access to public records (mid 1990s)
Great Scouts such as Gary Price, Bill Lucey, Margot Williams, Kitty Bennett, Liz Donovan, and Randy Herscraft led the way.

F. Integrated text and graphics archives (late 1990s)
A few innovative news librarians began partnerships with cutting edge software vendors to develop this next level of digitization.

G. Copyright challenges to digital data (late 1990s)
            DOI (digital object identifiers) standards    http://www.doi.org/

            Tasini vs. New York Times

            Napster


H.  Accuracy, credibility, and quality of information in the media (from
the beginning!)
Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Norvell, 11 June 1807 quoted in David N. Meyer, ed, Jefferson's Constitutional Thought 182, 1994 "It is a melancholy truth that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.... [t]he man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."

AJR's April 2001 article, "The Real Computer Virus" The Internet is an invaluable information-gathering tool for journalists. It also has an unmatched capacity for distributing misinformation that all too often winds up in the mainstream media.Copious examples! Particular problems with plagerism, quotes, statistics, hoaxes, myths.

I. Standardized codes for WWW archiving (mid- to- late 1990s)
        SGML

        XML


J. Media archive conversion issues and trends (from 1980s to the present)
Microfilm, digitization, text, images. Story about the Maryland Gazette (1720-1740). Nicholson Baker's diatribe against microfilming newspapers. A new product from the Laurin company indexes/digitizes microfilm. Read the full report at this URL: http://laurin.uibk.ac.at/reports/finalrep01.pdf

K. Media "convergence" (print, broadcast, Internet) (late 1990s)
Tampa Tribune, media "portals", "WAP" wireless application protocols, "street" or alternative papers e.g., free "Metro" papers. What are the archiving challenges? How do we integrate such diverse formats? Where are the standard thesauri?

L.  Where has technology had little impact?
From Carnegie Mellon University librarian, Lynn Tinsley Berard, we get this thoughtful observation about "the information gap": "We luckily occupy the space between what's there in the archives on the one hand and a user's needs on the other. We face people daily who are convinced that there is something out there, some knowledge, some information, that is crucial to their needs, but... for some reason it remains distant, just out of their reach. If they're lucky, or smart, they turn to us to decrease that distance. So you might think of librarians as people who try to master distances to make the gaps as small as possible."

V. Forging New Relationships
A. In the newsroom -- "team" journalism and "stellar" librarians B. In the boardroom -- strategic assets

C. With other corporate divisions

D. With software/hardware vendors

E. With the public -- information marketing

F. With emerging information professionals -- students (mentoring
programs, internships)

G. With our colleagues in academia [e.g., media law librarians]

H. Others?

VI. Charting Our Own Professional Future

A. Keep learning

B. Expand professional relationships

C. Communicate broadly (beyond our own group of colleagues)

D. Become an expert on something

E. Contribute to the value of information

F. Monitor media issues and trends and its impact on our jobs

G. Keep abreast of research in this field (journalists' use of Internet -- Steve Ross' survey, the U.K. survey) The UCLA Internet Report "Surveying the Digital Future" http://www.ccp.ucla.edu Also, the SIQSS Internet Study at this URL:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/siqss/Press_Release/internetStudy.html

H. Teach the next generation [Mentoring & Internships]

I. Summary: We've come a long way from the descriptions of the "morgues" by both Mr. Nathan and Mr. Kwapil at the start of the 20th century. But where will we be in the 21st? Start video.

VII. Video: "Tomorrow's News" [Developed and distributed by IFRA]

Discussion Questions:

1. Was the video realistic? How so?
2. What was missing in "Tomorrow's News"?
3. What is the "knowledge base" mentioned in the video? How does it differ from "database"?
4. What do you see as the role of media librarians in this digital future?
5. Compare it with the video "Unsung Heroes"
6. Other comments? Questions?