As the web and digital media transform the ways news is sourced, distributed and consumed, research libraries must find new ways to ensure long-term scholarly access to important journalism.  CRL's preservation program was built around news in print and microform, and providing access through interlibrary loan. The 2017 eDesiderata Forum will focus on access to news in the new electronic environment. Presentations and conversations will examine the media and publishing landscape, digital news marketplace, innovative research uses of news, and potential ways CRL and research libraries can adapt. 

Session 1. (12:00 noon-2:00 p.m. CT)  The Digital News Environment and Marketplace 

Conversation 1: Inside the Online News Machine (12:00 p.m.) Download

In the past twenty years media organizations developed robust capabilities for managing digital news content. Those capabilities will have a bearing on the future accessibility of today's news for researchers.  This conversation with industry insiders will explore how two major media organizations manage and archive born-digital news.

• Moderator: Bernard Reilly, President, CRL

• Panelists:

  • Evan Sandhaus, Executive Director of Knowledge and Metadata Management, The New York Times, will speak about how electronic content is organized and delivered at one of the world’s premiere news organizations. New capabilities built in recent years by the Times now enable delivery and presentation of news text across multiple digital distribution platforms.

  • Philip Spiegel, Senior Director for Content Management Operations, LAC Group, on Managing and Preserving Broadcast News Assets. 

Conversation 2: Digital News and its Scholarly Uses (12:35 p.m.) Download

News reporting remains among of the most widely used primary sources for historical and public policy research. Scholarly use continues to evolve, with new approaches to mining and computer-assisted analysis of large aggregations of news, digitized and born-digital.  

• Moderator: Mary E. Feeney, Librarian for the Social Sciences, Research and Learning Department, The University of Arizona Libraries

• Panelists:

  • James Danowski, Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago (retired), on Mining Electronic News for Political and Social Science Research

  • Nick Adams, Data Science Fellow, Berkeley Institute for Data Science, on Mining Online News and News Data for Insights on Political Affairs and Public Awareness

Conversation 3: The Library Supply Chain for News (1:10 p.m.) Download

Changes in the way news content is produced, maintained, and distributed challenge the strategies libraries put in place during the last century for preserving news. This conversation will shed light on recent developments in library news acquisition and retention, and their impact on discovery and use. 

• Moderator: Bernard Reilly, President, CRL

• Panelists:

  • Patrick Reakes, Associate Dean Scholarly Resources & Services at University of Florida, on Acquisition of Print and Microform: Shifts in Library Collection Strategies

  • Mark Sweeney, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress, on Digital Developments in News Preservation at LC

  • Dorothy Carner, Head of Journalism Libraries, Adjunct Professor, Missouri School of Journalism, on the State of Legal Deposit Abroad

Session 2.  (2:00-3:00 p.m. CT)  Strategies and Models for Library Investment in News Access

Conversation 1: Site licensing of major online news sources (2:00 p.m.) Download

Alternatives to print-based news collecting and preservation are now emerging. Direct engagement with news producers offer new opportunities for academic libraries to support local research and teaching, while shaping the news marketplace. This discussion will highlight developments in CRL’s efforts to negotiate academic site licenses with major news producers on the model of the New York Times academic site license. 

• Presenter: Ann Okerson, Senior Adviser on Electronic Resources, CRL

Conversation 2: Direct library investment in news access and preservation (2:20 p.m.) Download

CRL's World Newspaper Archive partnership with Newsbank leveraged the capabilities of a commercial publisher to expand digital access to non-U.S. newspaper collections. This conversation will examine other possible models for library support of news preservation efforts that are similarly initiated and driven by libraries, and the prospects for such support.

• Moderator: James Simon, Vice President, CRL
• Presenters:

  • Bryan Benilous and Robert Lee, on East View Information Service's prospective Global Press Archive

  • Clifford B. Anderson, Associate University Librarian for Research and Learning, Vanderbilt University, on Sustaining Television News for the Next Generation: A Mellon Foundation-funded project to examine and address the challenges of library-based news broadcast preservation

Summary and Wrap-Up (2:55 p.m.) "Sustaining Access to News: What We Learned from eDesiderata 2017"

CRL’s annual eDesiderata Forum brings expert knowledge and insight to bear on the challenges of acquisition, licensing and enabling access to major databases, datasets, and data services for scholarly research. The forums explore community interest in commercial and open access data sources, illuminate market practices and economics, and identify priorities for CRL and NERL licensing on behalf of member libraries.

CRL and NERL negotiate favorable terms for member libraries with publishers of hundreds of electronic databases and provide critical reviews of major databases in the eDesiderata platform.  

Participation in the eDesiderata Forum is limited to librarians, staff, and faculty at CRL and NERL member institutions. Registrants may join the sessions at any time during the Forum. To encourage real-time participation and discussion, recordings will not be available for later access. Speakers' slides and a summary report will be posted after the event.