Vision and Purpose Statement
Television News Viewing Area

The objective is to create a reading and listening area within the University Libraries which provides access to domestic and international news sources in a wide range of formats, for current browsing and use; for media and cultural studies research; and for general news research.
Vision for the News "Collection" of the News & Microforms Library; Proposal to the University Libraries Administration, The Pennsylvania State University Libraries, 2002

The Television News Viewing Area located in the News & Microforms Library provides news programming from Latin America, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Three 50" plasma screen televisions feature international news in many languages and domestic coverage from U.S. cable news channels.

We focus on channels which provide 24-hour news coverage, including global news coverage from an American perspective, and interview and commentary programs. We also incorporate C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2 for coverage of Congress and other varied programming. While we provide a regular schedule of programming throughout the day, we will incorporate programming for special news events.

Goals

• To allow researchers to keep informed about current events in other countries
• To present a diversity of viewpoints by including the perspectives and opinions of people in other countries through international programming
• To give researchers the opportunity to see how news is presented in other countries and compare and contrast international and domestic news coverage
• To provide international students the opportunity to keep up with current events in their part of the globe
• To offer foreign-language students exposure to their language of study as it is naturally spoken in the country of origin

For an overview of the News & Microforms Library Television Viewing Area and how it was developed:

Convergence in the Library's News Room : Enhancing News Collections and Services in Academic Libraries / Debora Cheney, Jeffrey Knapp, Robert Alan, and Pamela Czapla, College & Research Libraries, September 2006, Volume 67, Number 5

News Room Hones Critical Thinking (A Great Library, the Newsletter of the Pennsylvania State University Libraries, number 34, Summer 2004)

Television in the Library? News and Microforms Library provides students access to news as it happens, and that's not all... Kendall Mattos, Interview, volume 15, issue 1, January/February 2004

Libraries Offer International News Channels, Penn State University Libraries press release, April 27, 2004