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When it comes to the layoffs and buyouts that have hit newspapers over the last couple of years, copy editors seem to be the most at risk of losing their jobs. So it wasnât too much of a shock when Leslie Normanâs husband was laid off from his copy editing position at The Wall Street Journal.
But then last year she was let go from her job as a news librarian at the Journal, and suddenly it seemed as though they were both working in at-risk, or perhaps even endangered, roles. (Her husband has since been brought back to work on contract for the paper.)
âWe didnât [think that way] until we were laid off,â she said. âI never saw my layoff comingâit was a total surprise.â
The loss of copy editors has been the subject of much lament and debate in this corner, as in other places. But the plight of librarians seems to attract less fanfare and hand wringing, as if weâve all been shushed from saying something.
Norman doesnât think things will ever be the same for news librarians.
âI see the news library as it once existed as probably dying,â she said. âBut in many newspapers, itâs evolved into something else.â
According to data collected by Michelle Quigley, a researcher at the Palm Beach Post, over 250 news librarians (sometimes called news researchers) lost their jobs in the U.S. since 2007. Membership in the Special Libraries Association News Division, an organization for news librarians, has fallen to below 400 from over 1,000 in the 1990s. Entire news libraries have been shuttered and replaced by consultants or outside vendors.
Last year, the Detroit Free Press got rid of its last three librarians, eliminating the department entirely. Also in 2009, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution let go of fifteen librarians, which also resulted in the closure of its research department.
Itâs not hard to see why newsroom budgeters cast an eye towards the library when cuts have to be made. Most news librarians are never given a byline, though some receive research credit at the bottom of articles. The perception is that they mostly help archive a paper, a task that can, to a certain degree, be automated. Just as copy editors get the hook because they donât generate content and therefore canât fill space or generate pageviews, news librarians are shown the door because theyâre seen as a holdover from a time when newspapers kept detailed clipping files on major topics and personalities, and when the âmorgueâ was a critical part of a paperâs operations.
Now that every reporter and editor has access to Google and a wide range of search technologies and online databases, the thinking is that they donât need to call upon the Boolean expertise of librarians. You can see how it makes senseâexcept then the facts start to get in the way. In fact, the modern news librarian seems in many ways more important than ever. Even those old clipping files still come in handy.
When I spoke with Amy Disch, chair of the Special Libraries Association News Division and library director of the Columbus Dispatch, she said her team had accessed clipping files and hard copy photo archives more than ten times that day alone. But thatâs the least of what they do at the paper. In addition to providing research services to support reporters, the library runs a newsroom intranet and wiki, provides data analysis for investigations, and offers a range of other useful services.
Then thereâs the reality that just because reporters can access Google or search Nexis and other databases, it doesnât mean they know how to use them properly.
âReporters are on deadline and they want to do things as quickly as possible,â Norman said. âOver years, theyâve come to feel, âI can do my own research, I donât need an intermediary anymore.â Some of the problem with that is they donât have time to get the best research if they do it themselves. Also, because of the amount of information out there, they may not have the understanding or wherewithal to go through and filter out whatâs good and what isnât.â
True, reporters and editors often make mistakes because they couldnât find the best information, or because they went with whatever came back on the first page of a Google query. At a time of information abundance, itâs essential that newsrooms have information experts on staff. Thatâs what news librarians are.
âWe can find the information in a lot less time because we know how to drill down in a database,â Disch said. âWe know good sources to go to where you can quickly find information, so we can cut a lot of time for [reporters] and leave them to do what they do best, which is interviewing and writing. I have my specialty, and they have theirs.â
Members of Dischâs four-person team are embedded within the newsroom. They sit with reporters and editors and take part in meetings and discussions. If someone needs to find a particular kind of information, they can do it right away. They also fill another increasingly important role: training.
âThe paper holds a yearly editorial clinic, and this year our department is getting a featured spot,â she said. âWe decided to call our presentation âKeeping Current and Paying it Forwardâ.â
The session will focus on âusing RSS feeds and Web monitoring tools, and sharing content via Facebook and Twitter.â The librarians have also given seminars about using Excel, Facebook, and Twitter, and on how to create alerts in Nexis.
Thatâs not what they were trained to doâand all four Dispatch librarians have masters degrees in library sciencesâbut Disch said itâs essential they evolve their skills and knowledge to meet the needs of a modern newsroom. Thatâs true for every position in journalism: evolve or prepare to move on.
Disch makes an effort to keep her team front and center within the organization, rather than hiding away in a musty library. Recently, for the first time, librarian Julie Albert received a full byline in a major front page story about domestic violence. (Albert performed data analysis of court cases.)
The most famous story about a news librarian didnât involve a full byline. Liz Donovan was working as a librarian at The Washington Post when two young reporters were hunting down a story about a burglary. Yes, Iâm talking about that burglary.
At one point, later dramatized in All The Presidentâs Men, Woodward and Bernstein were trying to track down information about a specific person. Off they went to the paperâs library to ask for the clipping file on one Kenneth Dahlberg. Hereâs how the scene unfolded, according to a post on NPRâs As A Matter of Fact blog:
The long-haired librarian tells him they don’t have a clip file for Dahlberg. OK. But I checked the photo file, she said, and we do have a picture of him. The photo identified Dahlberg as a Republican fundraiser, and was an important early clue in the unraveling of the Watergate plot. Woodward didn’t ask her to check the photo file; but librarians don’t wait to be asked!
Donovan died in December, at the end of one of the worst years ever for news librarians. The tributes to her, relatively few though they were, reminded me of the obituaries for one of the last great newspaper proofreaders, Audrey Stubbart of the Examiner in Missouri. (Unlike todayâs copy editors who often have to perform with pagination and other tasks, her role was to check grammar, spelling, and facts in every part of the paper.) She retired in 2000, and died not long after at the age of 105. Hereâs an anecdote from a story about her retirement:
âWhen we first got computers in the newsroom, it was suggested that we wouldnât need a copy editor,â said [former sports editor Tom] Dickson, now a professor of journalism at Southwest Missouri State University.
âWell, the first issue came out after that and we found out we needed one. It was a mess,â Dickson said with a chuckle. âAudrey was again asked to read stories.â
Desktop publishing and computers vanquished the newspaper proofreader. Letâs hope news librarians can evolve so they arenât felled by the Internet and digital archives.
Correction of the Week
âHowie Morenz: At the bottom of the second column on page 14 of the Hockey Day in Stratford supplement thereâs an allusion to Dean Robinson doing an interview with hockey great Howie Morenz. Morenz, however, died in 1937, nine years before Mr. Robinson was born. We regret the error. Mr. Robinson did a 32-minute video documentary in the late 1970s on the life and death of Howie Morenz that includes interviews with those who knew him and saw him play. It also includes film footage of Morenz in action and an interview with Howie Morenz Jr.â âThe Beacon Herald
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