In the Spotlight

Vanderbilt Television News Archive now online

Northwestern University Library, in company with major academic institutions such as Yale, Stanford, and Harvard, is a charter subscriber to the Television News Archive at Vanderbilt University. The Vanderbilt archive is the most complete collection of television news anywhere in the world and provides a unique opportunity to research contemporary historical and political events.

Until recently, researchers who wanted to access news footage from the archive had to submit a fee-based videotape loan request and then wait for the tapes to be shipped. The videotapes were loaned to the researcher and eventually had to be returned to Vanderbilt.

Today a significant portion of the Television News Archive has been digitized and can be freely accessed online by Northwestern faculty, staff, and students at http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/. News broadcasts and special news-related programming such as political campaigns, news conferences, and presidential speeches have been digitized from CNN for the period 1999 to date. By this summer CNN content will be digitized back to 1995.

A screen catch from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

The archive can be accessed through a powerful and easy-to-use searchable database called TV-NewsSearch. The database extends back to 1968 and includes not only CNN programming but the non-digitized evening news broadcasts from the three major networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC. Searches can be limited by date, broadcast type, reporter, network, or keyword. On the results page, online content is indicated by a small video camera icon.

For more information on the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, contact the Marjorie I. Mitchell Multimedia Center at 1-7678 or nulmedia@northwestern.edu.