“Preserving News in the Digital Environment” was recently released by the Center for Research Libraries and the LC Office of Strategic Initiatives
For the past half-century, CRL and the Library of Congress together have played an important role in preserving newspapers for scholarly research. Their combined holdings of U.S. and foreign newspapers represent the world’s largest archive of news reporting. With the current ascent of digital media as the locus of news reporting and distribution, however, preserving newspapers will no longer ensure future access to a comprehensive journalistic record.
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[The report] outlines the “lifecycle” of news content. It examines information that is published in newspapers and online, providing an overview of news workflow and production systems. This analysis offers the basis for a rational and effective strategy for libraries to preserve news in electronic formats, whether the contents of newspaper websites or news distributed on the growing number of mobile and personal device platforms and services.
CRL will continue to expand the report and to support its constituent libraries’ development of appropriate preservation and collection strategies, to ensure that researchers continue to have access to what has been called “the first rough draft of history.” CRL’s July 13 webinar on news preservation will also suggest some viable library strategies for ensuring future access to news in electronic form.
Direct to Full Text: Preserving News in the Digital Environment: Mapping the Newspaper Industry in Transition (74 pages; PDF)
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