Wikipedia

NewsBank

NewsBank Inc.is a US-based commercial company founded in 1972 that operates a global news database resource providing online archives of media publications as reference materials to libraries. As of 2024it includes current and archived information from thousands of newspapers, videos, broadcast transcripts, journals, and other publications.

NewsBank Inc.
Formation1972
FounderJohn Naisbitt
Merger ofReadex
TypeCorporation
Legal statusActive
HeadquartersNaples, Florida,United States
Region
United States
Canada
ServicesNews database and educational archive resource
Official language
English
President and CEO
Dan Jones
Websitenewsbank

History

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John Naisbitt,the author of the bookMegatrends,founded NewsBank.[1]The company was launched in 1972.[2]NewsBank was bought from Naisbitt by Daniel S. Jones, who subsequently became its president.[1][2]Naisbitt left NewsBank in 1973.[3]In 1983, NewsBank acquiredReadex.[4][5]With the completion of the merger, NewsBank had acquired one of the earliest organizations in America to archivemicroform.[4][5]

The company's headquarters in 1986 was inNew Canaan, Connecticut.[6]In that year, NewsBank had 100 in-house employees, while another 100 employees worked from home and traveled to the company's headquarters, bringing back newspapers to their residence from there, and then coming back to the company with indexed information on these publications.[1]

Chris Andrews was brought on in 1986 as product manager forCD-ROM.[1]His job was to help the company transition from a paper format of delivery to libraries, so that its indexes and full-text articles were available in CD-ROM format.[7]The subscription price for this service initially wasUS$5,000 per library.[7]Visitors to libraries found that their search time was cut from 30 minutes using paper indexes to five minutes using CD-ROM.[7]NewsBank used an arbitrary selection process for determining which news articles the company considered worthy for archiving; it based their selection on articles that were more likely to be widely appealing to a larger potential audience of future researchers, not simply stories of regional interest.[3]

In 1992, NewsBank had difficulty providing its users with a method to search for information based upon a specific location. Newspaper results were listed by subject matter first and then subsequently by location. At the time, it indexed articles viamicrofichefrom more than 400 media publications in the US.[8]The company announced in 1993 a CD-ROM product inde xing full text of 35 publications includingThe Christian Science Monitor,The Washington Post,Los Angeles Times,The Dallas Morning News,Chicago Tribune,The Boston Globe,andThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution.[9]

In 1994, NewsBank was the only company providing researchers access to an index to periodical literature in the subject oftheater,with itsNewsBank's Review of the Arts: Performing Artson CD-ROM.[10]

It started compiling the full text of articles related to the local economy of geographic areas and providing this information via CD-ROM to its clients in 1994.[11]Theprivately held companywas cited byThe Information Advisoras bringing in annual revenue of approximately $19 million, and employing a staff of 350 people.[11]By 1998, NewsBank provided indexes via CD-ROM to newspaper articles from over 450 cities in the United States.[12]

In 2001, NewsBank compiled theForeign Broadcast Information Serviceindex and made it available via CD-ROM.[13]NewsBank joined forces with Micromedia, Ltd., a division of IHS Canada, to help distribute its products in 2001.[14]In 2004 NewsBank maintained archival access to hundreds of media references since 1996.[15]In 2005, NewsBank was structured in a pay-for-use format, with access differentiated for different types of users includingpublic libraries,public schools,as well ashigher educationsettings.[16]

In 2011 NewsBank reached an agreement withThe Daily Northwesternnewspaper ofNorthwestern Universityto archive all of its historical publications.[17]The task archived more than 90,000 pages of material from the school.[17]It included a plan to archive not justThe Daily Northwesternbut also prior related publications from 1871 to 2000, and index the material so it could be keyword searchable on the Internet.[17]Dan Jones, President and CEO of NewsBank, had a prior relationship with the university, serving as a university trustee and president-elect of the Northwestern Alumni Association.[17]

Coverage

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In 2013, NewsBank provided users with its service Access World News, which according toReference Skills for the School Librarianwas then the "world's largest full-text news database".[18]In 2014 NewsBank contained over 990 news sources, covering U.S. state as well as national publications, along with television and radio programs.[19]

NewsBank's offerings include a "Black Life in America" archive.[20]

As of 2024,NewsBank holds current and archived information from thousands of newspapers, along withnewswires,blogs, videos, broadcast transcripts, journals, government documents, and other publications.[21]It is a global resource, providing online resources to many regions.[22]

TheNational Library of Australia,[23]along with many state and university libraries in Australia, provide online access to NewsBank.[24][25][26][27][28]As of 2024the resource holds over 760 Australian sources, both national and regional, with coverage for most titles starting in the 1980s, 1990s or 2000s.[29]

Location and people

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NewsBank headquarters are inNaples, Florida,U.S., and it also has an office inMitcham North,Melbourne,Australia.[28]

The founding president and CEO is Dan Jones.[30][31]His son, Danny (1972–2024), was the consumer division's first president, and largely responsible for growing GenealogyBank, while his daughters have also worked for the organization.[32]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcdAndrews 1998, p. 17.
  2. ^ab"Company Overview of NewsBank, Inc".BloombergBusiness.October 3, 2015. Archived fromthe originalon October 3, 2015.RetrievedOctober 3,2015.
  3. ^abMcClellan 1987, p. 87.
  4. ^abFritze 2004, pp. 107–108; 291.
  5. ^ab"Newsbank".Newspapers.October 22, 2000.RetrievedJuly 22,2021.
  6. ^Andrews 1998, p. 18.
  7. ^abcAndrews 1998, p. 19.
  8. ^Anderson 1992, pp. 135–137.
  9. ^"Full-text newspaper collections".Information Today.May 1, 1993.
  10. ^Sheehy 1994, pp. 158–160.
  11. ^ab"Searching business news on CD-ROM: Business NewsBank Plus vs. Business Dateline".The Information Advisor.January 1, 1994.
  12. ^"Research papers can be breeze".Post-Tribune.September 18, 1998.
  13. ^Sears 2001, p. 40.
  14. ^"Micromedia, Ltd. Partners with NewsBank, Books24x7.Com".Information Today.March 1, 2001.
  15. ^Martirosyan 2004, p. 160.
  16. ^Martin 2005, pp. 36–37.
  17. ^abcdLeopold, Wendy (June 14, 2011). "130 years of Daily Northwestern".State News Service.
  18. ^Riedling 2013, p. 93.
  19. ^Hart 2014, p. 41.
  20. ^"Black Life in America".November 30, 2020.
  21. ^"About NewsBank".NewsBank Inc.October 4, 1972.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  22. ^"Regional Libraries".NewsBank Inc.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  23. ^"NewsBank: access global NewsBank"(Catalogue entry).National Library of Australia.November 30, 2021.Archivedfrom the original on June 1, 2024.RetrievedJune 1,2024.The most comprehensive collection of full-text newspapers globally, Access Global NewsBank:... more than 7,000 global news sources covering over 200 countries and territories. These include over 600 from Australia, from community, regional and rural titles through to major national titles. (2021)
  24. ^"A new eResource".State Library of South Australia.December 13, 2018.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  25. ^"Newsbank including Access Australia".State Library of New South Wales:Eresources.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  26. ^Grant, Caitlyn (July 8, 2023)."State Library Victoria Online Collection Spotlight: Access Australia by NewsBank".State Library Victoria:Blog.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  27. ^"Newsbank Access Australia"(Catalogue entry).Deakin UniversityLibrary.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  28. ^ab"Newsbank"(Catalogue entry).University of Western AustraliaLibrary.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  29. ^"Access Australia".NewsBank Inc.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  30. ^Gruss, Jean (September 6, 2013)."Keep the news alive".Business Observer.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  31. ^Scott, Drew (November 16, 2021)."Digitized historic newspapers fill unique research niche".Northwestern University.RetrievedJune 1,2024.
  32. ^"Daniel Jones Obituary (1972".Legacy.February 2, 2024.RetrievedJune 1,2024.

Sources

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Further reading

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