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Sept. 11 Roundtable
A presentation at the 2002 SLA News Division conference

Speakers: Candace Stuart, Jim Oberman, Linda Henderson, and Cary Schneider
Moderator: Melinda Carlson

Reported by: Jessica Baumgart

    During the September 11th Roundtable, four librarians from different news organizations discussed how their libraries responded to the increased need for quick, up-to-date information during the events on and following Sept. 11th, 2001.

    Several stressed how different this breaking news situation was because of all of the information and misinformation flowing around and the magnitude of what was happening. The events on that day have changed how some news libraries operate, use technology, and interact with journalists.

    Candace Stuart, Director, ABC News Research Center in New York, talked about how she and other researchers became more proactive in the aftermath of September 11th. She discovered that e-mail is a better communication tool to reach the journalists at ABC. She discussed the difficulty of evaluating information, especially when it came from a foreign source. Many times, they would leave it to the journalist to decide how reliable the information was after talking to them about it. They re-evaluated the library and what projects the staff were working on and changed their focus in many areas. For example, they offer intranet training that is more tailored to news stories, like instruction on weapons and military affairs, instead of just a general overview .

    Jim Oberman, Director, Time Magazine Research Center, had an additional challenge on Sept. 11. Time, Inc., had just shifted from having one large library to having smaller libraries specialized towards specific publications. His first day as Director in this restructured environment was Sept. 1. Not only did Jim have to deal with the confusion that comes from the tenth day of a new job, but he had to deal with it while handling the biggest news story of the year. He turned a tricky situation into success as he began to meet the needs of the writers and editors he was now working with. Because of the disaster, journalists learned what the library and its resources are all about. People who would not usually use the information services were getting what they needed there -- and they're still coming back. Now, he is looking at fine-tuning what the library does and retooling it to better serve the journalists.

    Linda Henderson Library Director at The Providence Journal, talked about the more practical aspects of distributing information on Sept. 11. She said that the newspaper decided to shift from trying to cover the breaking news to reacting to it. They decided to focus on local ties to the attacks, like passengers from Rhode Island who were on the planes. She reported that journalists used the intranet more to get information .

    Cary Schneider, Research Manager at the Los Angeles Times, described the development of a database in the library. He thought at first that since the events were happening on the East Coast, the West Coast would have three more hours to deal with them. He realized, instead, that the extra three hours made for a very long day. In their previous work with their intranet they had learned how to design specific databases for whatever data collection they intended to use. By the time Sept. 11 hit, these skills were already well established so the Library staff could quickly create a massive new database with an entry for every California-connected victim and every terrorist suspect reporters were writing about. They inserted into this database every new bit of information they found-including possible relatives, variant spellings, Nexis articles and their own comments noting that a lead had already proven to be a blind alley or that a name spelling was definitely incorrect .

    Several librarians mentioned that the use of their services and products increased during the September 11th events and has remained at an increased level. This trend shows that we can turn breaking news into marketing opportunities for our organizations-sometimes just by being there and doing what we do best without offering any special services during the crisis .

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