Vanderbilt Television News Archive Current Status And Recent Accomplishments

History Conceived 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 networks A large amount of unique material Material available at costs affordable by scholars and researchers Only resource where researchers can search across all the major national news networks.

An extensive collection Over 750,000 abstracts in our news database 30,000 hours of regular nightly news programs 10,000 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 1996 Fox News recorded since January 15, 2004 News specials: ABC Nightline (since 1989), etc Special Collections: Watergate hearings, Persian Gulf War, Election 2000, Events of September 11, 2001, War in Iraq, Election 2004

Accessing the Collection On-site visitors may view material on videotape or digital files The TV-NewsSearch database allows users to find material in the collection by keyword searches or to browse the collection by date Remote 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 – 1994 Transferred to News and Public Affairs in 1994 Transition back to the library began in 2002.

Subscription Model Launched in January 2004 Offered to other educational institutions Pricing scaled by size of institution Access to TV-NewsSearch database and streaming video of the CNN portion of the collection

Recent Grants Source DateAmountPurpose NSF2002 –2004$92,992Investigation of Digital Technologies NEH2004 – 2006$281,442Digitize videotape collection ARL Sponsors $165,000Digital infrastructure Local Foundation4/2003$63,923Digital off-air studio Local Foundation11/2003$50,732Video server software Local Foundation $181,177Fox News recording and abstracts Total$835,156

Library of Congress Long a strong partner of the Archive Most videotapes created by the Archive were sent to LC All MPEG-2 currently produced are shipped to LC Transfer process involves physically shipping large-capacity hard drives (500GB) File transfer across Internet impractical

Recent Milestones Completion of NSF Grant to investigate digital technologies Implementation of new digital studio Digital recording began August 5, 2003 Agreement with CNN to provide streaming video Launch of Subscription service in January 2004 Digitizing of retrospective CNN collection complete Digitizing of ABC, CBS, and NBC retrospective collections underway (1968 – 1980 complete) Expansion to include Fox News Jan 15, 2004

Keeping up with Changing Technology Original format was 1-inch Type A Ampex reel-to-reel videotape ( ) ¾-inch U-Matic videotape cassettes ( ) 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 video To date, only CNN has signed such an agreement

Streaming Video Delivery Streaming video linked to corresponding abstracts providing search-click-and- view capability.

Pending Issues Additional financial support needed Current budget situation still tenuous Need additional networks to agree to allow streaming video Pursue other legal options to allow wider access to digital content Currently developing all-digital backup recording system (Videotape still used for 24-hour monitoring and backup)

Outlook All digital operation in sight Financial stability possible with additional subscription income Continue to work through digital preservation issues with LC Prepare for changes in technologies: digital TV Copyright / Legal issues remain key concerns

Contact Marshall Breeding Library Technology Officer