Title: User Access to News Sources in the 21st Century
Description: Increasing digital access to news sources, both current and historical, have created
heightened opportunities and expectation the part of librarians and users, expectations that may not
always be satisfied. And how do we deal with non-traditional news sources such as blogs and
micronews sources that may be here today and gone tomorrow? This program will explore these
opportunities and challenges.
Speakers: The committee to date has been primarily focusing on possible types of speakers. We are
hoping to have three or four speakers, possibly including:
1. Speaker from an news aggregator (e.g., ProQuest, Newsbank, LexisNexis) offering perspectives on the
challenges of providing access to news information in a rapidly changing environment in which
traditional news channels are being transformed.
2. Speaker from an individual newspaper, addressing similar issues.
3. Speaker from an open-access newspaper digitization project.
4. Speaker from a micronews source, such as Patch.
5. Researcher (or two) who make particular use of news sources, particularly hard-to-find material, or
needs to search the news sources in ways not supported by native interfaces.
6. Possibly presentation by a journalism librarian on issues and trends.
Format: Three or four presentations, with speakers at a head table, and (we hope) time for discussion.
Relevance: The rapid digitization of many newspaper sources, and the increasing trend away for delivery
of news in the form of newspapers, has greatly altered the information landscape. Though many
newspapers have been digitized, many haven't, and many of those digitized are only available through
costly subscriptions, and are not always searchable in ways that researchers demand. In addition, the
rise of blogs and micronews sources, and their appearance and disappearance, creates additional issues
for users and librarians.
Learning Objectives: a) At the conclusion of the program, attendees will have a better understanding of
the changing information landscape for news resources in our current environment.
b) Attendees will gain an understanding on how different form of news may be used and efforts within
and outside of traditional library community to make these sources more accessible in the long run.
Audience: Reference librarians and information specialists in public and academic libraries.
Co-Sponsorship: Possible co-sponsorship might include the ALCTS Newspaper Interest Group, the ACRL
EBSS Communications Studies Committee, and the RUSA History Section.
Funding: We would like to ask for $1,000 for travel expenses for a possible non-librarian speaker, given
the nature of our program. We want to include a speaker in the area of micronews, probably from one
of the micronews providers; we may or may not be able to find such a speaker in the Bay area. Another
possibility we are considering is to have researcher who has made innovative use of newspaper
resources, and, again, we may or may not be able to find such a person in the Bay area. We also are
aware of the speakers at the recent CRL conference “On the Record: A Forum on Electronic Media and
the Preservation of News,” some of whom were outside the library profession and could be excellent.