Deadline

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• AUKML NEWS:
  To mark the publication of 'A Handbook for Media Libraries', the editor Katharine Schopflin will be giving a talk entitled 'Good News/ Bad News' about the current state of media librarianship, and its possible future. The launch event will take place from 6.30 on 15th April at the Red Lion, Crown Passage, King Street, St James, SW1. It's free for AUKML members, who will also receive a 25% discount on the cost of the book. A review of the book is included in this edition of Deadline.
  

  The AUKML conference approaches, and this year it will focus on how information professionals can add value to their employers' businesses. Held at the Palace Hotel, Manchester, from the 18th - 20th April speakers will include Karen Blakeman (on search tools), Torsten de Riese (on the Guardian's digitisation project) and Brian Hanrahan (on the modern newsroom). For more go to our website page: AUKML Conference 2008
  The conference's key note speaker, Tim Buckley Owen, gives a taster of what we can expect from his talk on here: 'exposing the secret state'

  AUKML member Katy Heslop has written an in-depth account of her involvement in the Guardian and Observer's digitisation project for the April edition of CILIP's Update magazine.

  Linda MacDonald recently left the world of media librarianship to become Global Practices Knowledge Coordinator for the Hay Group. She has therefore decided to step down from her position as Meetings Secretary, and has been replaced by Caroline White of the Guardian. This has, in turn, left the position of Deadline Editor vacant. If anyone is interested please email Chair@aukml.org.uk

  . . . AND THE REST

  The Financial Times has introduced a new content licence. Any organisation wanting to access FT content through third party channels has to subscribe to a direct licence. The FT website says this is to "foster closer relationships with their corporate customers".

  April 1st saw the launch of the UK Statistics Authority, an independent body aimed at rebuilding public trust in Government statistics. Its responsibilities include the awarding or removal of the National Statistics kite mark (given to figures reaching the "highest statistical standards") and the maintenance of the new UK Statistics Authority Publication Hub (separating statistical analysis from political comment). It should prove to be a reliable resource for statistical information.

  Google lost one of its key competitors last month. The search engine Ask.com has cut 40 jobs and narrowed its focus to become a niche search tool for women.

  The Newseum in Washington opened its doors to the public this month. "Dedicated to free speech, free press and free spirit", the museum's exhibits include the remains of the broadcast tower from the top of the World Trade Centre and a large section of the Berlin wall.

  "Famously quirky" librarian of the The Miami Herald, Rose Klayman, has died at the age of 71. You can read the full obituary of the former Playboy bunny and "hard-drinking, two-pack-a-day smoker who swore like a sailor" here:

  Coming soon, to a library near you, 'The Hollywood Librarian'. The first full-length documentary to focus on the work and lives of librarians was recently premiered at the American Library Association's annual conference, and is being screened exclusively in libraries.

  The opinions expressed in Deadline are not necessarily those of the AUKML.

  
  

  FEATURE: Flat Earth News by Nick Davies Reviewed by Katharine Schopflin
  

  Guardian journalist Nick Davies has cast his eye over the current print news media and identified a crisis. The central point of "Flat Earth News" is that under-resourcing has left the news, both in the UK and abroad: impoverished, poorly-researched, and produced largely from agency wires. For Davies, the blame lies with the takeover of the press by what he calls "The Grocers", media owners whose only motivation is the making of money. He is quick to point out that, as he says, "This isn't a conspiracy, it's just a mess", brought about by under-staffed newsrooms and less original news-gathering.

  Davies points to the increasing size (and weight) of newspapers and their websites, and a dwindling number of journalists. Ever more stories are needed to fill the extra space, leaving little time to check facts, let alone identify original stories. As those of us with a few years experience know, there has always been an element of this. Journalists deal with the here-and-now and often don't have the time or the memory to do more than record the facts as they happen. However, Davies' point is that current newsroom structures have led to a situation where, "Most of the time, most journalists do not know what they are talking about".

  Davies decided to back up what was clearly a growing sense of unease with some hard evidence-based research. He commissioned researchers at Cardiff University to monitor a robust sample of quality, hard news output over a set period of time and found that only 12 percent of news stories showed sign of original research or investigation.

  Under-resourced newsrooms and foreign bureaux rely increasingly on agency material, a process Davies describes as "Churnalism". Although he has some respect for the work of PA, he points out that their mission is, "to report the facts"; they will report that somebody has made a statement but do not ascertain whether there is any truth in it.

  This makes them an easy target for PR plants. Moreover, agencies are themselves working with limited resources and fewer news-gathering bureaux. Despite all these problems, journalists still use wire services as a source of truth, rarely doing much more than changing the story for house style, and few have time to follow up on their stories.

  Davies makes many valid points, although his detailed account of journalists' vulnerability to a massively increased PR industry became somewhat repetitive. His chapter on the rise of the so-called "dark arts" of semi-legal practices in investigative journalism made fascinating reading but felt like a side-issue. His final three chapters are case studies of three newspapers, illustrating the demise of investigative journalism and the rise in misleading reporting. Again this was interesting, but it was hard to draw much from the evidence other than "the media's all gone bad".

  Davies offers a depressing conclusion. Where we would normally expect the last chapter of a book like this to lay out, "and here's what we can do about it", his epilogue is more-or-less a statement of despair. Davies paints a picture of a news media no longer interested in original reporting and happy to rely on lightweight PR stories. For me, the most shocking part of the book was the week-in-the-life diary of a local newspaper journalist prevented not only from finding good stories, because of time constraints, but also from using any he did find if they were deemed non-commercial or too depressing. As Davies asserts, many organisations run like this make huge profits. Proper news is not unviable, just not lucrative enough for greedy owners. Most of us will be familiar with the youthful types who populate our newsrooms, most working long shifts for very little money. It's hard to see many of them rebelling against this consensus having grown up seeing news as a branch of the entertainment industry, let alone becoming the grizzled reporters who still exist on the fringes of newsrooms. Perhaps, as Davies indicates is now a common occurrence, they will end up in the PR industry and produce the news from that side, knowing their press releases will end up published more or less verbatim.

  This is depressing for us both as consumers of news and as people involved in its production. If journalists are happy to reproduce the contents of wires and VNRs (Video News Releases, pre-packaged reports put out for PR purposes) they have little need of trained information or archive researchers. And since understaffed newsrooms now rarely have specialist library and information staff to turn to for fact-checking and background research, there is no safety net between the journalists and the sources they use. One of the main battles we have been, or should have been, fighting over the last 20 years is to tell journalists that having access to research resources is not the same as having the skills to use them. In Davies' world, this becomes even more of a challenge as their attitude is likely to be "Who cares?".

  However, unlike Davies, I refuse to despair of the media, or think that content is on an inevitable downward spiral. We have not all become celebrity obsessed consumers happy to accept the latest PR survey as hard news. And if there is one thing that is certain in the media, it's that predictions about the future never come true.
  

  

  REVIEWS:
  
  

  Is a culture of "churnalism" destroying real journalism?
  London College of Communications, March 5 2008
  By Richard Nelsson

  With the media industry so obsessed with talking about itself, it was hardly surprising that the publication of 'Flat Earth News' generated scores of column inches. Opinions ranged from former Guardian editor,Peter Preston's critical review to the broadly supportive from media commentator,Roy Greenslade. Much of the discussion took place on the pages of the Press Gazette which in turn led to the magazine organising a debate about the issues raised by Nick Davies, at the London College of Communications. What the panel of eight, including Davies, had to say can be read here.

  While it was interesting to hear such diverse views, there were just too many people on the panel to generate any kind of serious debate. Davies' position seemed to be that he'd set out what was wrong with the current state of journalism and now it was time to look for answers. However, some of the panel, as well as members of the audience, took issue with a number of his assertions which resulted in the debate became something of a polite slanging match. Many were obsessed with talking at length about their own situations, rather than looking at the bigger picture.

  A more in-depth discussion between Nick Davies and investigative journalist, David Leigh, was held at the Frontline Club. Churnalism at the Frontline club.
  ++++++++++++++++++++

  AUKML Christmas Party - Tuesday 11th December 2007 'Don't mention the T word'
  
  By Linda MacDonald

  A year on from the wildly successful 20th anniversary soiree it was decided that the 2007 festive season would be marked by a more low key, intimate affair. The upstairs function room at The Three Kings pub in Clerkenwell not only provided a jukebox full of long forgotten classics but the perfect setting for the evening's talk courtesy of AUKML's website editor and BBC trainer Lindsey Sellors. Lindsey's first piece of advice on training journalists in the use of information resources is not to use the word training at all. Journalists tend not to respond well to such terminology but when referred to as 'troubleshooting' or 'masterclass' or anything 'advanced' they can't get enough. Of course journalists know it all already, don't they? Lindsey remarked on the ability of a journalist to proclaim to be an expert in Boolean logic yet manage to search for articles on Cherie Blair with the terms Cherie Blair NOT Tony and marvel at the lack of results. Good journalism is clearly based on factual accuracy but try telling a reporter that Wikipedia might not be the answer to all their research needs. Lindsey told us that when advertising recently for a researcher/broadcast journalist, BBC Essex received over 1000 applications. After rejecting those citing Wikipedia as their main or sole source of information about parliament, 1000 became just 40. As a word of warning just mention Ronnie Hazlehurst and S Club 7. To assist journalists in identifying the best resources available on the BBC's research gateway intranet the library started putting all paid-for sites at the top of each page so that users have to scroll past them to get to other sites, boosting their use. Also when demonstrating a site don't just do a search that brings back the correct item as it gives false expectations. It is important to encourage journalists to come to information professionals when they can't find what they need and remind them that employing 30 minutes of a researcher/librarian's time can save them hours. Lindsey concluded with some simple advice: sell your training to the managers by emphasizing how much money can be saved and sell your training to the journalist by emphasising how much time can be saved. But always remember what Alexander Pope said, "A little learning is a dangerous thing". ++++++++++++++++++++

  A Handbook for Media Librarians by Katharine Schopflin, editor.
  Contributors: Graeme Boyd, Carol Bradley Bursack, Katy Heslop, Colin Hunt, Linda MacDonald, Joanne Playfoot, Hazel Simpson and Ian Watson.

  Media companies, producing vast quantities of content in an increasing variety of formats, need people not only to help them fill up column inches, pages or hours, but also to organize this content afterwards so that it can be found again. Although unlikely to be called librarian - researcher, media manager or information manager are more likely titles - information professionals carry out this task for media organisations throughout the world.

  This practical handbook, the only one of its kind, explores the issues of central importance to media librarians, archivists, cataloguers and researchers in their working lives. With chapters contributed by frontline practitioners who have experienced the problems for themselves, it covers:
  * media libraries in the 21st century
  * managing intranets
  * picture libraries and librarianship
  * cataloguing television programmes
  * managing online subscriptions
  * legal issues for news databases and archives
  * the regional news librarian: a survivor’s guide, and
  * swimming upstream in a media library.

  Media librarians often have little time for professional development activities. Questions like "What resource should I buy?", "Shall I let this user borrow this item?", "Is it ethical for me to answer that question?" and "How can I describe this footage?" set policy and precedent every day. This book condenses and synthesizes this invaluable knowledge to equip media librarians to face the challenges of today's information world.

  March 2008; 160pp; hardback; 978-1-85604-630-5; £44.95
  (£33.75 to AUKML Members when ordering before 30 May 2008)
  Visit Facet Publishing to download your special AUKML discount order form today. Alternatively, call +44 (0)1235 827702 quoting reference 1007.
  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  Hansard digitisation project,Tuesday 11th March
  Portcullis House, House of Commons By Lauren Goodchild

  AUKML members were invited to Portcullis House to learn about an exciting new project being undertaken by a small team of developers to make Hansard more accessible online.

  The evening began with a presentation from Edward Wood, The House of Commons' Director of Information, who gave us a brief history of Hansard and told us about the project to digitise the text. A complete run of Hansard currently takes up about 150 metres of shelf space, and early copies are beginning to deteriorate. The digitisation was undertaken both as a way of conserving the information and of making it more widely accessible. The digitisation project was outsourced to a company in India, and a 99.5% level of accuracy has been achieved. Once the text had been digitised, new opportunities for its use were opened up.

  After Edward had given us some background to Hansard and told us about the digitisation, he handed over to Robert Brook, one of the development team, who showed us what has since been done with the digitised Hansard. A site has been set up, which currently hosts 80-90 years worth of Hansard data. Unfortunately, the developers have now run out of space for content and need more funding before they will be able to make more content available on the site. It is not yet an official parliamentary site, and has had no launch or publicity.

  However, it is currently seeing about 1000 visits a day, and usage is slowly growing. Changes are made to the site at least once a month, and often more frequently. As well as making the text available, the developers have been exploring Web 2.0 ideas, such as mapping places that appear in debates on Google maps. Users are also encouraged to give feedback on the site, and the Hansard Prototype Google Group has been set up to enable discussion between users and developers. At the time of the meeting, the group had 44 members.

  To explore the site for yourself, visit: Hansard
  ++++++++++++++++

  SLA Europe's Winter Warmer Quiz, January 17 2008

  After triumphing in the City Information Group's Summer Quiz last July, AUKML's Team Gav were quietly confident of thrashing the capital's top information professionals in the winter re-match. A team of six media librarians gathered at the City Tavern, an olde worlde pub on the edge of London's square mile, for the SLA Winter Warmer Quiz.

  Perhaps the other information groups were fielding stronger teams, or maybe some of Team Gav didn't really have their hearts in it, but the competition was close all the way through. Around half-way through the night, it became clear the media librarians weren't going to win but there was a good chance of coming third and winning a bottle of one of those lesser-known brands of Champagne. In the end it came down to the final question: what was the average amount people paid to download Radiohead's In Rainbows? Someone in the team was sure he knew the answer and, for once, the rest of the team went with him rather than quiz supremo, Gavin Fuller's answer. Of course Gavin's answer was correct and the AUKML team had to settle for fourth place. Never has 'you win some, you lose some', sounded so unconvincing. Still, a good night was had by all - well, nearly all.

  ---

  

  THE QUESTIONNAIRE:
  

  Nigel Smith is senior content producer at bbc.co.uk/music and writes a blog at carnivalsaloon.blogspot.com. He was interviewed by Holly Bentley

  HOW MANY HOURS A DAY WOULD YOU SAY YOU'RE ONLINE, AVERAGE?
  At least eight hours a day for work, plus maybe 20 minutes at home.

  ARE YOU A MEMBER OF ANY SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES? ~ WHICH?
  Yes:
  Myspace, mainly for the new music and regular updates about bands. I'd say I've got about 400 friends, of which eight I know personally.
  Facebook, though I'm using it less and less. Its good for keeping in touch with people, but I ignore all requests to add vampire applications etc.
  Flickr which, along with Myspace, I use in my work as well as at home.
  I have a Bebo account, which I created for research purposes, but which I never use.
  I have a last.fm account which I use a little bit and a Twitter, which I think has huge potential for the BBC. Live updates mean you can keep up with what people are doing, the Today programme have one on their site. But does anyone really care enough to check what I'm up to every second of the day?
  

  WHAT DO YOU HAVE SET AS YOUR INTERNET HOME PAGE, AND WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CURRENT TOP 3 WEBSITES, FOR WORK OR PLAY?
  At work we have our own site: bbc.co.uk/music, and at home I think its just the Firefox home page.
  My top three websites are:
  1) The Onion: My favourite. Its not just satirical news; it also has a great a/v club, which people often forget about.
  2)Hypemachine:A music blog aggregator.
  3)Amazon:I still spend a lot of time on it.

  DO YOU HAVE A BLOG? ABOUT...?
  Yes, I write about things I've seen, mainly music, it doesn't get many comments though. I've had it since last September, and update it roughly every ten days. Its a lot of work to maintain a blog, but I've been teaching people how to blog at work and felt I should practice what I preach.

  DO YOU READ BLOGS? EXAMPLES? WORK/LEISURE?
  Yes. Mainly for pleasure, but there's a lot of crossover with work. There are about ten music blogs I skim daily. There are also a couple of great beer blogs, especially Pete Brown's , and of course I read my friends'.
  
  Blogging is an increasing culture in the BBC, a lot of senior people now have their own blogs. Richard Sambrook (Director of Global News), James Cridland (Head of Future Media and Technology, audio and music), and most of the senior staff involved with the technical side of new media blog. Mostly they're just people who really love what they do, and love talking about it.

  DO YOU HAVE A SECOND LIFE - OR IS ONE ENOUGH?!
  One is enough, I'd be surprised if you get anyone answering this questionnaire otherwise.

  ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT PRIVACY CONCERNS AROUND SOCIAL SITES/BLOGGING CURRENTLY GAINING EXPOSURE IN THE MEDIA?
  No, not worried, I try not to let it worry me. I think I probably should be, especially as I tend to use the same password for everything..

  DO YOU USE AN INTRANET IN YOUR COMPANY AND WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES OF IT?
  The intranet is great, there's some very good research, and all the normal admin. stuff. We also have department wikis. I use ours a lot for collaborative work. For example, I recently put our website's style guide on. It's easier to update than on Word, and everyone can open it at once.

  WHICH SEARCH ENGINES DO YOU USE/DISLIKE?
  I use Google, exclusively. I don't like the search engine on the BBC website.

  DO YOU SEE THE INTERNET AS A COMPLIMENT/THREAT TO MORE TRADITIONAL SOURCES OF MUSIC AND MUSIC RELATED INFO?
  If you work for a record company you definitely see the internet as a threat. I'd disagree though, people who are illegally downloading music wouldn't have paid for an equivalent quantity. Downloading encourages people to go and see bands, to listen to the radio, and even to buy music by the new artists they discover.
  The BBC Music website is a means to find all BBC content relating to a certain artist. It complements the work of music magazines rather than challenges it. I'd happily have the newsfeeds of, say, the NME on my site. I see us as a trusted resource for those not web savvy enough to navigate the likes of last.fm and Myspace, rather than a threat to more traditional media.
  

  WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
  

  Helen Martin is the former Guardian Librarian and founding member of AUKML.

  The note from Caroline White suggested a where-are-they-now spot in Deadline from those who had moved on from the media info world. It was clear though that what she really meant was what are you doing now and the pressure was on to make one's life sound interesting. As it happened I had just that moment emptied a commode, swilled it around with bleach and shoved a whole batch of clothes into the washer. It didn't look terribly promising.

  Thinking about it, I wondered if you ever move on from the media info world. Rushing to meet a deadline on a book (Lot: travels in a limestone landscape in southwest France. Moho books, available in all good bookshops, since you ask!) I spend hours of my day on the internet. No change there then.

  I am still almost as obsessional about news as I was when working. Forcing myself awake to listen to Today, certainly watching Newsnight and now, with the added luxury of being able to watch daytime television, glued to The Daily Politics on weekdays.

  Years spent working late shifts means that, left to my own devices, I still get up late and go to bed well after midnight. The only difference is that these days, in the Nonconformist North, I spend hours defending myself against accusations from all and sundry that such behaviour is somehow lazy and immoral.

  But it's also alarming how much you forget. Put me in front of Nexis today and I doubt I'd know where to begin. The Guardian's intranet has grown sophisticated and somehow beyond me. I look at the digitised archive with some degree of awe, and marvel at the skills of my former colleagues. Well, truth to tell, maybe I always did. Richard and Luc have been marvelous at keeping me in touch with Guardian gossip and the almost weekly emails from AUKML give me a taste of what the rest of you are doing. The Guardian "oldies" club meets bi-monthly and is now becoming old enough to include retirees of my own generation. It's clear to me that Fleet Street ties bind hard and I often reflect on how lucky I was to find a job in a milieu I so thoroughly enjoyed.

  I think what I missed most on first leaving was that, possibly illusory, feeling of being on the inside, of knowing what the real story was. Papers give hints to stories that lie behind the printed words and I was adept at picking them up; scanning frantically across the web to try and fill in the gaps which, had I been at work still, would have been common knowledge water cooler gossip.

  And I miss the papers. I have discovered that newspapers are quite expensive when you actually have to pay for them yourself and I can only afford one daily, though I treat myself to two Sundays. For a while, when the newsagent refused to deliver, I tried the online versions. They were slow and tedious and I couldn't take them to bed, or read them in the car, so it was something of a relief when I could return to one that plopped through the door every day. Still and all it had to be the Guardian, so now I no longer know any of the lifestyle/celebrity gossip unless I actively seek it out - and where's the fun in that?

  It took me two years to say in response to the usual "what do you do?", "I am retired". What they don't tell retirees is how much your job defines you to yourself. But most of all, and apart from the people, I miss the cynicism. A friend and colleague who left at the same time summed it up perfectly by saying, "it's great living here, but everyone is so bloody nice all the time". Exactly. Still and all there are worse complaints.

  So, what do I do? I look after my elderly, near-blind mother. I test out the possibility of living for ever in the South Lakes. Will I do that? Highly unlikely. The scenery is stunning, the shops abysmal, the hospitals a nightmare of ineptitude and abuse, and the only job vacancies are for social workers. I walk on the beach and across the Yorkshire moors and the Lakeland fells. I write loads of emails. I go to a French class where two words, Londres and Guardian, define me as hopelessly exotic and possibly a snob.

  It's in many ways a nice life. The town I live nearest to is a university city with plenty going on, but somehow London spoils you for most things cultural. That said when I finally return there, as I plan to, I will miss the views of the mountains across the cockleshell sands of Morecambe Bay which today were echoed in the water and topped with a dusting of snow.

  And I write. I write as if my life depended on it as in some ways it does. I have completed a novel. Rewritten a second edition of a guide book and I have started one on the French Resistance. My skills such as they are, are still useful to me. Research holds no fears for me. I actively enjoy it, with the luxury now of not doing it against the clock. Or for someone else. I can follow any lead I like. When the publisher tentatively suggests I do the index to save money, I do not scream in horror, merely boredom - luckily my computer broke down! When we discuss titles I immediately think of how a database will search it. And at times of crisis like the recent floods, you slot readily into positions of local responsibility, based simply on your ability to find things out, which people tend to see as bewilderingly impressive.

  So, there's life after Fleet Street and even in these slightly restricted circumstances, a fun one. When I am freer I will renew my friendship with France on a more intimate level and hopefully with other parts of the globe too, as well as resume my regular Monday meetings with Sarah Adair and Gertrud at various London exhibitions. But once a media librarian always a media librarian. It turns out to have been quite a useful sort of job. The strange thing is I haven't set foot in a library since.

  

  
  Please send news, reviews and letters to: deadline.<