Vanderbilt Television News Archive

Current Status And Recent Accomplishments

                                                                                

HistoryConceived by Nashville insurance executive Paul Simpson Established by Vanderbilt University in August 1968, initially as a 3-month experiment that grew into a permanent institution.

A Unique Archive

The largest, most comprehensive collection of national broadcast news available to the general public.Vanderbilt began archiving news programs before the networksA large amount of unique materialMaterial available at costs affordable by scholars and researchersOnly resource where researchers can search across all the major national news networks.

An extensive collection

Almost 750,000 abstracts in our news database30,000 hours of regular nightly news programs10,000 hours of special news broadcasts

The Collections of the Archive

ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news taped continuously since 1968 (22,000 hours)CNN taped since 1985, indexed since 1996Fox News recorded since January 15, 2004News specials: ABC Nightline (since 1989), etcSpecial Collections: Watergate hearings, Persian Gulf War, Election 2000, Events of September 11, 2001, War in Iraq

Accessing the Collection

On-site visitors may view material on videotape or digital filesThe TV-NewsSearch database allows users to find material in the collection by keyword searches or to browse the collection by dateRemote researchers can request material on videotape Compilations of selected segments Duplications of complete programs A fee-based service

Organizational History

Administered by the library from 1968 – 1994Transferred to News and Public Affairs in 1994Transition back to the library began in 2002.

Subscription Model

Launched in January 2004Offered to other educational institutionsPricing scaled by size of institutionAccess to TV-NewsSearch database and streaming video of the CNN portion of the collection

Library of Congress

Long a strong partner of the ArchiveLongstanding arrangement to receive videotape copies of most material recorded by the ArchiveNew arrangement to receive copies of all programs digitized by the Archive

Recent Milestones

Completion of NSF Grant to investigate digital technologiesImplementation of new digital studioDigital recording began August 5, 2003Agreement with CNN to provide streaming videoLaunch of Subscription service in January 2004Digitizing of retrospective CNN collection completeDigitizing of ABC, CBS, and NBC retrospective collections underwayExpansion to include Fox News Jan 15, 2004

Abstracting will begin in about June 2004

Keeping up with Changing Technology

Original format was 1-inch Type A Ampex reel-to-reel videotape (1968-1978)¾-inch U-Matic videotape cassettes (1978-2003)MPEG-2 digital files (August 2003 – present)

Digital recording Studio

Access to the video collections

U.S. copyright law gives archives such as ours protection to record and lend copies of broadcast news.Protection does not extend to providing streaming access via the Internet.We have approached all the networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox) seeking permission to distribute content that we recorded from their network to educational users via streaming videoTo date, only CNN has signed such an agreement

Streaming Video Delivery

Streaming video linked to corresponding abstracts providing “search-click-and-view” capability.

Reference Use of Database

When was Osama Bin Laden first mentioned on the newsMarijuana use during the Viet Nam WarNumber of severe weather reportsChanging nature of language with regard to the feminist movementPresidential speaking styles

Demo of TV-NewsSearch

Result listing

Abstract

Streaming Video