Abstract

The biography of news researcher Liz Donovan, who died in 2008, serves as a thread of a journey through the profession of news librarian and describes the evolution of newspaper newsrooms throughout 40 years. Information systems and resources have changed -from paper clippings to the Internet and Web 2.0-, but the economic situation of the press has also changed, leading to cutbacks. Unfortunately, with the mistaken idea that “everything is on the Internet”, news companies are devaluing the contributions made by information professionals to newspaper content, and often close or decimate the news libraries, thus losing an important amount of know-how and quality.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the situation of the archive departments in 14 of the Andalusian local newspapers. The aim is to update a similar study entitled “Situation of archive services in the daily press of Andalusia” (Aquesolo-Vegas, 1996) in which an analysis of these departments was performed for seven newspapers. This work studies, adapts, and extends the methodology of the above cited study to know how the situation has evolved since 1996. To that end, this field study is based on questionnaires sent to 16 Andalusian newspapers, two per province; 14 of which were completed. Aspects such as tasks, staff, facilities, and equipment are analyzed. The results show a technological restructuring, and also a reduction, or even the disappearance, of these services, due to the economic downturn. Therefore, journalists must now search for documents by themselves.