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New Ventures in News Libraries
A presentation at the 2002 SLA News Division conference

Part One: News Library Intranets
(See also Part Two: public websites created by news libraries)

Speakers: Scott Wilson and Laura Soto-Barra

Reported by Michael Jesse

      This was the first of a two-part program on new things news libraries are doing as changes in end-user access affect our day-to-day jobs. The first speaker, Scott Wilson, of the Los Angeles Times Library, noted that reporters now have direct access to Lexis-Nexis, Factiva, the Internet and other research tools. So who needs librarians? As a friend told him, "It's 1906 and you're a blacksmith."

      Fortunately, Scott's collegue was wrong. For news librarians the job has only changed, as he described in his presentation about the LA Times Editorial Library's intranet. Scott is one of a dozen reference librarians at the Times and he credited several of his co-workers -- Paul Singleton, Julia Franco and Cary Schneider (along with Dick O'Reilly, director of computer analysis at the Times) with the work he was at conference to describe.

      For example, the Times Library created detailed databases in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack to keep track of information on victims and suspects. But the librarians were able to create quick 9-11 databases in part because they had already developed the method in other areas.

      Scott demonstrated databases on voter registration records, campaign contributions and library-created Census databases breaking down the state's complex ethnic and race information into simple tables. A current news development in Southern California is the possible seccesion of the San Fernando Valley from Los Angeles, so the Times developed special databases to isolate Census information for the disputed area, and the library put them on the intranet.

      The Times intranet also has other tools common to newsroom intranets -- voting district maps, a history of the newspaper, a style guide, etc. The intranet also has an emergency staff locator which can be searched by zip code so it would be possible for editors to round up reporters who live closest to a breaking news event should that be necessary.

      The Times Library offers training classes and brown-bag lunches on the intranet and related resources and these are generally well attended.

      But even with all of these electronic resources at their fingertips, Scott said reporters still need to call the library for help. For some it is just that they have never learned the new access methods. They call the library because that's what they've always done. For others the electronic resources are great, but they sometimes find themselves in complicated situations in which it is best to get a librarian involved in the search.

'SNAP' shows how collaboration breeds success


Laura Soto-Barra (lower right corner) with the cross-departmental team that created SNAP

      The second speaker in this session was Laura Soto-Barra, assistant managing editor in charge of library services at Syracuse Newspapers, where she was an integral part of the team that developed "SNAP," the Syracuse Newspapers Access Page.

      Like the Times intranet, the SNAP project includes a browser interface to several databases created by the Library in partnership with the newsroom and the systems department. For example, there is a database of property assessment records. One of the team's first projects was a listing of the most important employers in central New York state, with addresses, key officers, employees, etc.

      The site also includes some calculator tools for such things as percentages, wind chill factor, etc. And through the SNAP home page reporters have access to the Nexis, Factiva and Gale archives.

     Laura credited one of her primary researchers, Bonnie Ross, as the person who does most of the work compiling information for new pages on the site. Bonnie now commonly converts much of her news research into intranet files. For example, Laura said when central New York experienced an earthquake (rare for that part of the country) Bonnie was asked for background on previous earthquake activity in the state. As it turned out, she already had most of that information in her own files and was able to quickly convert the information into a quick-reference intranet file which any reporter working on earthquake coverage could easily access.

    Another project involved listing all historical murders in Syracuse. Knowing it would have continuing usefulness, Bonnie made a comprehensive list for the past 50 years and posted it to be used whenever that background might be needed.

      SNAP also includes a database of employees of the newspaper with addresses and telephone numbers, but also with additional information such as what languages they speak and other special knowledge from military service, hobbies, etc.

      Throughout her presentation Laura frequently emphasized the cross-departmental cooperation that was involved in developing the project. A news library the size of the LA Times (30 staffers, including 12 reference libraries) is able to create and maintain an intrant with its own resources and skills, but a small library like Syracuse had to take a different approach to succeed.

      Laura described how SNAP was developed as a cooperative project among the newsroom, library and system support. She brought with her a multi-part handout in which representatives from the different departments described their role in the development of the project. The full-text of Laura's handout is included here .

 

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