A Handbook for Media Librarians

Citation

Vardan, V. (2008), "A Handbook for Media Librarians", Library Management, Vol. 29 No. 8/9, pp. 814-819. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120810917576

A special category of librarians are the media librarians who are not so well‐known as other types of librarians. The need for media librarians is being increasingly felt in today's world. And their importance is ever growing. It is not like the days of yore, when media librarians were wading through piles of newspaper cuttings, the advent of online databases changed all that. This is an informative and interesting book about the role of media librarians in the twenty‐first century.

The first chapter talks about the changing role of media librarians in today's context. It talks about how anybody could look after the library of a media organization without having the basic qualifications needed in a librarian. But with the increasing usage of online databases, a trained library professional is needed in a media library.

As one veteran media librarian noted “Journalists are prepared to wade through pages of drivel rather than ask for help”. One media librarian has also noted about an increase in the number of enquiries, after the journalists were made aware of the services of the library and training sessions were conducted specifically for them.

It also talks about the effect of globalization (in the 1990s and 2000s), deregulation, declining income from advertising on the media industry. Newspaper circulation were in decline and this led the management to retrench workers, who were mostly the librarians as it was felt that their services were no longer needed.

Media libraries work round‐the‐clock or have odd working hours depending upon the needs of the media organization.

There are two kinds of media libraries – Newspaper and magazine libraries and television libraries.

As a profession media librarianship is largely unconnected to the wider gamut of librarianship as such. This is because, media librarians themselves like to become part of the mainstream (journalists) of a media organization rather than remaining as librarians.

Less salaries are paid to media librarians as compared to their counterparts in fields like law, finance or corporate libraries.

Though it is felt that media librarians do not need specialized skills, it is imperative that they be trained in research techniques, online and field searching and different information sources.

The second chapter deals with intranets. Intranets, as we all know, is a “local or restricted computer network; specifically a private or corporate network that uses internet protocols”. It is a web site intended for internal use only. Among intranets in the UK commercial and public sector organisation, is The Guardian's research intranet called the ResearchNet.

Before designing an intranet, a lot of factors have to be kept in mind. They include as to who will use the intranet, who will design and maintain it, who are the users? Next step would be to focus on a target group of users and find out what they want from the intranet. This can be done by circulating questionnaires. Another way of doing it would be to watch the queries which are coming to the library and and finding out the users' need from it. Designing an intranet within your budget is also an important point to be kept in mind. An intranet has to be tailored as per the needs of your company.

An intranet should be designed in a clean and well‐structured way so as to attract maximum users.

One should test the intranet's design.

Marketing of the intranet is also an important aspect. This can be done through newsletter, email lists, brochures and handouts, branded merchandise, through induction sessions and training and through word‐of‐mouth.

Intranets in future will become the library for many users.

The third chapter deals with picture libraries.

Getty and Corbis are the two players in the commercial picture industry.

Commercial picture libraries have to know the clients' needs. The photographs should always fit the story.

Photographers retain the rights over the images they create, but they license picture archives or agencies to represent their work, normally exclusively over an agreed period of time. A picture librarians' role is to protect copyright.

The law is still very unclear about digital copyright.

Picture libraries vary in their pricing strategies. A picture which is used for editorial purpose will be priced less than that for commercial purpose.

A digital asset management (DAM) system allows picture librarians to identify, store, manage and retrieve “media assets”, normally still or moving images.

This chapter also talks about digital preservation.

Picture librarians need skills such as handling digital photographs, handling and conserving hard copy, publishing and controlling the quality of digital images, meeting the needs of the publishing industry, and others. Picture librarians also need to work methodically, resilience, to pay attention to detail and to be able to communicate.

Sometimes in order to cut expenses, a photographer is asked to archive picture instead of a picture librarian. Many libraries outsource archiving pictures. An archive is thus digitized, stores, catalogued, captioned and transmitted by an outside contractor.

It has been predicted that in future, picture libraries will see an increasing conglomeration and digitization. Most picture libraries will be completely online.

The fourth chapter talks about cataloguing television programmes.

The need to catalogue television and radio programmes arises out of two reasons. One is that the authorities will wish to keep record of the title, date and time of the programme transmitted. Second, those who wish to reuse the transmitted programme need to be able to find it.

This chapter examines how the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) catalogues its holding of television output.

From the 1960s the BBC Film Library catalogues using a subject card index. They only indexed those films which, they felt, had a high reuse value. In 1984, an online catalogue was introduced. INFAX is the name of online system used by BBC.

Under this system, cataloguers carry out viwed cataloguing work from a VHS cassette and shortlist the content from start to finish, noting timecodes. Cataloguers then return to their desks and identify which categories the different shots belong to. They then assign the different shots to the appropriate categories and transcribe the rearranged shortlist onto INFAX indexing entries are then added.

Under the annotation level cataloguing, cataloguers do not view the programme, but use other sources of information as their basis, mainly production paperwork. The main source used is the so‐called PasC of Programme as completed form. This is the form in which the production staff fills in all details such as production details and sources of all footage used in the programme.

In addition to the above two, the cataloguers use two levels of subject classification – Programme Idea – which captures the subject of the entire programme, second level covers individual elements within the programme that might be useful in future. The classification system used by BBC Television Archive cataloguers is called LONCLASS. It is an adaptation of the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) scheme. LONCLASS stands for London classification. This was developed for use by the main BBC Film and videotape libraries, which are based in London.

LONCLASS's strength it that it enables subjects which have come to be described in very different ways and have changed their names to be filed together.

Researchers looking for references about the ongoing ethnic strife in Kosovo, will find them filed under the heading KOSOVO SITUATION rather then the string VIOLENCE/RACISM/ALBANIANS/SERBS/KOSOVO. They will find the same references under the terms RACIAL CONFLICT BETWEEN SERBS AND ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO OR KOSOVO RACIAL CONFLICT BETWEEN SERBS AND ALBANIANS.

INFAX's users were, till recently only the BBC staff. This was either by terminal‐based access to INFAX or via its web‐based version found on BBC's intranet site.

INFAX has been in use for the last 15 years and LONCLASS for more than 40 years.

Chapter 5 of the book deals with the management of online subscriptions.

Media organizations mainly subsribe to NEWS DATABASES. One of the most common database being the LexisNexis News and Business. Since the authors of this chapter are from the InfoCentre at the IPC Media, this paper covers the databases which they subscribe to.

LexisNexis gives them access to newspaper articles, company reports, industry and company information and biographies. Most database vendors have designed their products keeping in mind the users' needs. They do not think that the user is an expert in the field and design their products accordingly. Vendors develop a customized user interface (CUI). Here in, content, searching options and design are specially tailored. At IPC, the CUI was developed in 2003 as a joint project between the InfoCentre team and the Lexis engineers.

There is also another database known as the Fleet Street Data Exchange which was set up by the UK Newspaper libraries in the 1990s. This allowed participating libraries to exchange their own paper's news feeds for access to those of other people. Today, this system includes the main daily newspapers.

InfoCentre selects publications which have the maximum circulation around the country.

The Search Screen in IPC has been customized in order to facilitate easier search for the staff.

LexisNexis in the early 2000s, trained the employees of BBC under a contract.

Vendors offer various different charging models. When users usee a the native online product, one supplier charged users for the time they were connected plus a charge per line of text downloaded. Other models gave users a set amount (say 20 hours) of connect time per month for a flat rate. Most commonly used model, nowadays, is the users agree to a monthly rate, which is monitored by the vendors (based on document downloads). Sometimes, models are combined.

Online subscriptions, which controlled centrally, serve the end‐users better than having them scattered across the company under limited‐user licences.

Testing of online databases can be done thru free trial periods.

An end‐user can access different products by using different passwords. But this might be confusing in the longer run (to remember different passwords). One way of avoiding this problem is to arrange with your supplier to access their products via INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP) recognition. All the computers in the organization will have an IP address within a range of numbers and the products to which you subscribe can be set up to recognize them.

Chapter 6 deals with the legal issues for news database and archives.

Legal issues cropped up when newspapers went digital, Therefore, a text was created in digital format, opening up the exciting prospect of creating full text, searchable electronic archives. Most newspapers, thus, started creating in‐house digital text archives. The full text of the story were thus searchable. This led to finding out names or places. Stories could be accessed and read simultaneously. Online stories could not be mislaid in the way cuttings could be.

Major online vendors saw a business opportunity in this. They signed agreements with newspaper publishers to take their data and create online aggregated news archives. The vendor would pay the publisher a percentage of the revenue earned (a royalty payment).

Librarians had a role to play in sifting contents in order to decide which text could go into the online version.

In 1993, freelance writer Jonathan Tasini and others began a legal action against the NEW YORK TIMES, NEWSDAY, TIME, LexisNexis and University Microfilms, charging that the publishers did not have the right to put material that had been written for print into electronic media without explicit permission from the freelance writer. In June 2001, the US Supreme Court (2001) finally ruled in favour of the freelancers.

Librarians play a big role in the sense that they can ensure that online offering is as complete and free from inaccuracies as possible.

In the case of live court proceedings, newspapers should not publish anything that might prejudice the trial.

The NLA, the collecting agency for UK national and regional newspapers, is a recent entrant to the online aggregator market. March 2006, saw the launch of eClips, a central digital database of newspaper articles aimed at the press cuttings and media monitoring market.

Digital editions of newspaper archives have attracted controversies.

A media librarian has an important role to play in the copyright and contractual matters. They can take a more clear view of repurposing content. According to the author of this article, a librarian will impose structure, quality control and long‐term continuity to the newspaper's digital archive.

Chapter 7 deals with the regional news librarian.

The author mainly talks about the library in LIVERPOOL DAILY POST AND ECHO.

During the 1980s many parts of the regional press focused too much on the problems that lay ahead rather than the opportunities brought by change. Regional newspapers were not aware of the potential of earning new revenues by supplying text for online databases. Future for news librarians looked bleak as journalists had direct access to information. Liverpool Daily Post and Echo's librarian was asked to halve the number of staff. But in comparison, others regional news libraries did not suffer the same fate. Their libraries were well‐staffed.

In 2007, LDPE had new arrangements. In October 2007, the company appointed a salesman specifically to promote library and syndication products. Their principal areas of commercial activity were now photosales and book production. Photographs were now online. LDPE library now produces 30 books a year, ranging from sports books to local biographies and nostalgia publications. The Heritage series started life in 2004 as newsprint partworks in the LDPE, published to coincide with a cover price rise. They also produce calendars for the last three years.

In conclusion, the author talks about the journey of LDPE library from collecting cuttings and photographs to publishing books and calendars and generating revenue for the company.

Chapter 8 deals with how media librarians are viewed by their colleagues, the journalists and programme‐makers in the newsroom and editorial offices of the world's media companies. The author talks about how news librarians are not locked up in basements morgues, but attending editorial meetings, train people at their desks and provide expert advice on the spot.

Media librarians no longer feel inferior to the editorial staff, since they are armed with superior knowledge and can give guidance to the editors also at times.

The author reminiscences about her journey from The Military Library; Patch Barracks, Vaihingen, Germany to The University library in North Dakota State University. Then finally as a library assistant in a media library.

She has talked about proving her worth to the editors in order that they may not dismiss her knowledge. When a new temporary editor (young editor) takes over, the importance given to a news library increases. She has elaborated on how she could do two jobs simultaneously that of elder care supervisor and a librarian. How she achieved credibility as a librarian.

All in all a very good book, dwelling in detail about the obvious and not so obvious aspects of a media library and the role of a media librarian. A very good read indeed.