A Handbook for Media Librarians

There has been considerable change in media libraries, and, indeed, in the role of the media librarian, since the days of newspaper “morgues” – the cuttings collections which were handled by clerical staff. Trainee journalists would spend the first few months of their career in the morgue before being allowed to write their first story. In the 1980s the newspapers were among the first adopters of online databases (via dial‐up) and, in the late 1990s, such databases began to be accessible through the World Wide Web, with databases becoming available to the journalists and programme‐makers directly. New roles came along and many traditional librarians began to find it a struggle to keep these roles within the library.

The results of all of these changes varied from organisation to organisation. In some cases, managing and controlling subscriptions, catalogues and research internets raised the library's profile and made them seem relevant to younger journalists, even resulting in an increase in enquiry numbers. However, in other cases, the fact that journalists and programme‐makers could access research tools without using the library began to convince many managers that specialist staff were no longer required.

According to the editor, Katharine Schopflin, the purpose of A Handbook for Media Librarians is to explore the main issues facing information workers employed by media organisations, i.e. broadcasters and publishers of newspapers, magazines and websites, and the aim of the book is to “spread knowledge acquired through practical experience to help solve and prevent problems as they arise”.

Schopflin points out that the term “media librarian” in the book does not refer to those looking after multimedia collections in public or academic libraries, even though some of the issues discussed may be of use to them. She says that, although controversial among practitioners, the term “media librarians” refers to all who carry out information work for media organisations even though their actual job title may be, for example, “researcher” “media manager” or “information manager”.

It seems that many, whilst not quite considering media librarians to be the lowest of the low, nonetheless consider them to have a low profile in the information profession and among their employers!

The book comprises eight chapters by different authors, all of who are information professionals of varying backgrounds including a librarian at Greenpeace, newspaper and former newspaper librarians, professionals from the television and broadcasting companies and others.

Katharine Schopflin introduces the book in Chapter 1 and provides a short history of the changing role of the media librarian, discusses types of media library, and then looks at media librarianship as a profession; including career prospects, salaries, training and professional associations. This chapter was reminiscent of the information one might find in a careers leaflet in a secondary school or college.

Chapter 2, “The Virtual Media Library – Part 1 Managing Intranets” (slightly confusingly, Part 2 of this chapter appears three chapters further on!) examines what a research intranet is, using as its model the Guardian's research intranet. A section sets out the objectives for the creation of an intranet which includes the all‐important questions of why you want to set up an intranet in the first place; whether a real need has been identified; and, most importantly, whether it is simply something that you think you should be doing but are not really sure why! Although the chapter is useful in providing some thought‐provoking preliminary questions, anyone who does wish to set up and manage an intranet will soon need to look at other sources to gain a deeper understanding.

Chapter 3: “Picture Libraries and Librarianship”, provides an overview of picture collections, how they can be used by researchers, and the issues that emerge for those that manage picture collections. The chapter looks at picture libraries and their customers; copyrights and licensing i.e. how much picture libraries should charge – but in just two pages there is little to give anyone any idea on how to arrive at a fee for licensing other than the statement that “pricing is a delicate operation and the average photographer would not know how to cost an image fee”. Digital photographs is a quite lengthy section in which a contrast is made between the modern digital picture library and the days when agencies all worked with transparencies and had to send out piles of transparencies to clients with all the problems of loss and delays in the post! The chapter also looks at digitising collections, digital asset management systems, metadata, standards and formats and preservation. The issue of disintermediation is covered in this chapter. Disintermediation isn't exactly a word which rolls off my tongue – and I had to check its meaning. Possibly I reveal my ignorance, in case there is a reader of this review to whom the word is not entirely familiar – it seems it is a modern buzz word to do with removing the middle man and refers to internet‐based businesses that sell products directly to customers rather than going through the normal retail channels. The final section in this chapter is a list of useful sources and contact details of picture libraries, professional associations and others. This would have been far better placed as an appendix to the book.

Chapter 4 “Cataloguing Television Programmes” proved very interesting insofar as it forms a history of television programme cataloguing in the BBC. The chapter's author, Hazel Simpson, has worked in the information and archives department of the BBC since 1988. From the 1960s, the BBC film library carried out its cataloguing using a subject card index but did not catalogue the entire output of BBC television, simply describing in detail any film content with high reuse value. At this time, cataloguers were unable to view output stored on videotape because of “a lack of facilities”. A separate department, Programme Index, kept a record of programme titles, presenters and contributors, but did not produce any subject cataloguing. In 1984 an online cataloguing system, INFAX, was introduced, beginning life as a videotape stock control system and is still in use 20 years later but runs on a terminal emulator within a Windows environment.

Chapter 5 “The Virtual Media Library (II): Managing Online Subscriptions” examines some of the main issues that emerge when managing online subscriptions and “why it is important this is done by information staff”. (I am starting to become aware of the not‐so‐subtle message in this book, which seems to be that of preventing the manual workers jobs going over to new technology.) The chapter begins with a history and then examines news databases and managing other subscriptions.

Chapter 6 continues on the subject of news databases but looks at the legal issues, including a number of recent court cases which illustrate the pitfalls into which the unwary media librarians may fall (and many are still unwary!).

If only Chapter 6 had been the final chapter of this quite slim (154 pp.) volume … . Instead we go into two more chapters of which I am really not sure what to make!

Chapter 7 “The Regional News Librarian: A Survivor's Guide” is written by Colin Hunt who describes the reinvention of the library at the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo, a local newspaper “read by and reflecting a famously characterful and active local population”. The chapter covers “more than three decades of struggle, change and innovation”. I could accept this chapter (just about) but for its blow‐by‐blow account of trivia. “‘Colin I'd like you to work for me’, he said with a smile. I mumbled my acceptance. He leaned across the desk and we shook hands. He stood and went across to a grey metal filing cabinet. ‘You'll take a drink of course’ he said as he produced a bottle of Johnnie Walker and two glasses. That was the moment I realised I would never work in an industrial library again”. The chapter crawls through the 1960s and wades into the 1970s and 1980s, blowing through the wind of change with the launch in 1986 of Eddy Shah's Today newspaper in Warrington. After some name‐dropping and a few more pages we move into “the library today”. “The News library in Liverpool has travelled a long way since the first cuttings and photographs were brought together in 1918, but the fact that we survive at all is testament to the generations of staff who had diligently collected and arranged the material over the last 90 years”. Lengthy and tedious!

The final chapter is entitled “Swimming Upstream in a Media Library”. Carol Bradley Bursack “looks at how media librarians are viewed by their colleagues, the journalists and programme‐makers in the news room and editorial offices of the world's media companies” and the chapter is described as “her highly personal account”.

“I was a quiet child, small for my age, fragile, contemplative, with little to say. My life truly began when I discovered books. I grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, USA. Back in the early 1950s, Fargo was still a fairly small town … ” And so we plod through her life history “to this day I remember those years and that library with deep fondness. Sue and I still keep in touch. Little was I to know how that experience spoilt me”. However “… after 20 years, two children and seven elders who needed care … ” our heroine finds herself at age 56, looking for “real work”. In case you are interested “the years between the college library and this point had been taken up with care‐giving and a marriage that ended in divorce”. There follows a description of the tough time that 56 year olds (divorced) have with job search. “I filled out the application form and turned it in, then went back to the kiosks to sell papers. The phone rang. It was a woman with a husky cigarette voice asking me to stop by her home so she could interview me for the library job”. I wouldn't wish to be a “spoiler”, those who are just dying for more can read the book for themselves. However, I cannot resist “… the search was on for a new executive editor. A woman was hired. She disliked me instantly”; and later: “she stopped her snorty treatment of me … ”. Finally we learn that “young reporters are used to everything being electronic and, in general feel they can search, as well, if not better than I can. After all, they are journalists, educated in the era of computers … . What do they need me and my dusty old files for?”.

Fancy having this negative chapter instead of something upbeat with which to end the book; and I'm sorry, but this just doesn't belong in this type of book. Try Mills and Boon!

The book is entitled A Handbook for Media Librarians. Various dictionary definitions agree that a “handbook” is a manual or “a book capable of being conveniently carried as a ready reference”. Possibly the title was inflicted at the last moment by the publisher. A handbook for media librarians would be an extremely useful book but unfortunately this is just not it! It is a well‐known fact that we learn from the past, but this book spends too much time wallowing in the past and bemoaning the jobs that have been lost for media librarians, and presenting a confused, and, in my opinion, negative message.

There is a certain unevenness of editing and style in this book and some chapters end with the further information and references, and others do not. One chapter (Chapter 2 the “Virtual Media Library) 1: Managing intranets”) is illustrated with relevant screen shots but no other chapter has any illustrations at all.

This is a book which is most suited for those who are seeking to enter the profession – and will be a worthy addition to school, college and university careers' libraries. However, I cannot see established media librarians finding this book to be of enormous assistance, and certainly not for its intended purpose as a “Handbook for Media Librarians”. Of course they may wish to find out what Carol (Bradley Bursack) did next, but, I'll settle for the Johnnie Walker!