By Kee Malesky

Barbara Semonche, my friend and mentor who is director of the library at UNC's School of Journalism, sent this link to the news librarians' listserv today. It's a 1981 report by KRON-TV in San Francisco about early attempts to bring newspapers to your home computer! Imagine that!

Check out the video (but don't make any smart remarks about the hair styles!)

By Barbara Van Woerkom

Before coming to work on inauguration day in my role as research librarian, I had the unique opportunity to see close-up the key players in the day's events -- at the private church service for the new administration. As a member of the professional choir at St. John's Episcopal Church, I got to sing for the President-elect and his family, friends, and administration officials.

Continue reading "Not Just Another Day at the Office" >

by Mary Glendinning

New (to me) word of the day: snarge. Our colleagues at All Things Considered were so intrigued by what happens to birds when they, ahem, encounter aircraft that they went down to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to get the whole story. Check out what they learned.

Still not sated in the snarge department? Check out a Wall Street Journal article and this tidbit from the museum itself.

By Mary Glendinning

We never know where the day will take us. This past Thursday afternoon, your correspondent found herself learning all about Michigan state tax liens in the hopes of answering a question related to them. (No offense to the Great Lakes State or any other jurisdiction fond of tax liens, but they are a bit on the dull side.) Suddenly, the story of what turned out to be the crash/splash landing of US Airways Flight 1549 began to spread throughout our network and our building. It was less than 20 minutes before the start of All Things Considered (ATC), which meant parts of that show would change and continue to evolve and update while the show was in progress. Whoosh!

Continue reading "Switching Gears" >

By Maureen Clements

Several months ago, public radio maven Ira Glass graciously boarded the NPR mothership to present a lecture on producing great radio. While nattering about Ira's visit, JoElla reminded me of the This American Life episode called Cringe. In it, Ira opines about his very first radio interview, which just happened to be with the outgoing cast of M*A*S*H. According to Ira, listening to the tapes induced serious cringing.

That got me to thinking, was the piece he produced cringe-worthy too? After some archival digging, we've managed to unearth the first radio piece Ira ever produced for NPR so you can judge for yourself. Be sure to catch Ira's voice at minute mark 3:37.

M*A*S*H Staff on Show - June 25, 1980 Morning Edition by Ira Glass

By Barbara Van Woerkom

The current residents of the White House have to move soon - and they chose a lovely little dead-end street in Dallas called Daria Place.

DallasDirt dishes on the discovery and our Texas correspondent was in search of neighbors earlier this week to see how they feel about the proposed security for the area. Stay tuned...

By Kee Malesky

There's a scene in the movie "All the Presidents Men" where Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) is in the Washington Post Library, asking for a clip file on Kenneth Dahlberg. 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!

That long-haired librarian was Liz Donovan. She passed away last month. A pioneer among news librarians, blogging before most of us knew what it was, Liz had wonderful careers at the WP, running a health food store, and then at the Miami Herald where she "helped lead the transition to computer-based research. A pioneering Internet user -- yet eternal flower child -- she enabled Herald writers to produce work that won Pulitzer Prizes." From her obituary in the MH on 12/10/08:

Said humorist Dave Barry: 'I went to her with many strange requests, and they never fazed her. I'd ask her something like, `Are there any politicians whose last name is Doody?' And she'd say, `Do you want federal, state or both?'''

Retired Herald investigations editor Jim Savage called Donovan ``one of the folks who built The Herald's reputation for great investigative journalism... We knew when we asked Liz for help she would find the answers to the I-Team's toughest research questions. In her quiet, competent way she created a zone of sanity in the city room while juggling countless deadline requests for information.''

Reliable, thorough and unflappable -- Instantly recognizable under a sun hat in her convertible -- Donovan was most of all dogged.

''She would never give up'' seeking the information a journalist needed,said Joan Fleischman who, as a Herald reporter and columnist, sought Donovan's support daily. ``But the thing about Liz was she made you self-reliant. She'd do the work for you on deadline, then in a kind way teach you to do it yourself. And she was patient.''

From Columnist Carl Hiaasen: ``There was almost no piece of information you could ask her to find that she wouldn't have in a couple of hours at most.''

Writing his novels, Hiaasen said: 'I'd shoot her an e-mail that always began with, `I know this sounds weird, but...' In a day, she'd have gotten the best and only information there was out there.''

See why news librarians love their jobs?