The News Media Section is a dynamic forum for sharing information on all issues relating to news media, in any form and on any platform, from print, microfilm, TV, radio, streaming, and news on the Web.

History

Starting in the 1980s as the Working Group on Newspapers, the group became the Newspapers Section in 2003. Its name was changed to News Media Section in 2014 to reflect the importance of digital news. Originally its work concentrated on projects to improve and preserve access to local, national, and international newspaper collections mainly in print and on microfilm. Today’s scope is far broader.

Scope of Interest

  • Best practices for capture of, access to, and preservation of news media in all forms;
  • Metadata standards, capture and enrichment, and consistency and harmony for digitized historical newspapers, born digital news, and online news;
  • Web harvesting, cataloguing, and archiving of born digital news;
  • Automated workflows for identification, collection, and preservation of digital news;
  • Long-term preservation of digitized and born digital news;
  • Legal deposit and copyright issues;
  • Development of user-oriented services for news media;
  • Presentation of digital resources: collaboration of libraries, archives, and museums;
  • News in multiple scripts and languages;
  • Marketing and promotion of news library services;
  • Preservation and conservation of brittle newspaper originals;
  • Worldwide cooperation, sharing experiences, and learning from each other;
  • Collaboration between news producers/aggregators and libraries.

Participate!

The Section organizes mid-term conferences and sessions at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress. Standing Committee members communicate by email, meet regularly during conferences, and network within IFLA and with other global strategic organizations.

Contact us if you’re interested in contributing to our activities! To join the Section formally, become a new IFLA Member, or if you’re already an IFLA Member, add the News Media Section for a small additional fee.

This unit is part of the Professional Division G.