The Museum of Television & Radio:

A unique resource for American Culture

By

Jill Borin and Catherine Pontoriero

The Museum of Television & Radio, in New York City, collects and preserves programs covering the history of American broadcasting. Presenting these programs through their library and special seminars it educates the public on media’s impact on American culture as well as providing premier research services. Jill Borin and Catherine Pontoriero, the Metropolitan Media Researchers, twice visited the museum. We interviewed Jane Klain and Michael Buening, of the research services department, and observed the reference services in the main library. Through our interviews and observations, we found that this unique information agency serves a vital need. By preserving and offering access to important historical material, the museum captures and preserves American culture.

"To be the premier trust of radio and television’s heritage. Our responsibility to the public is to make available the finest collection of programs and promote a greater appreciation of its artistic value, social impact and historic importance." The Museum of Television & Radio offers a grand mission which it accomplishes through its research services, programs, lectures, seminars and festivals. Clearly an unusual information agency, through the preservation and presentation of television and radio programs, the museum demonstrates the impact that this media has had on American Culture. As the first institution dedicated to these goals, it provides an important service. Leaders in the television and radio industries still regard the museum as the authority on broadcasting history. They consistently use the museum’s resources for their own research, appear in seminars and festivals and provide generous funding. In its twenty-five year history, the museum has educated the public about the impact of television and radio since its inception and offered access to important historical materials.

In 1967, William S. Paley, chairman and founder of CBS, directed his foundation to study what materials from early television and radio had been preserved and where these collections were located. The Paley Foundation discovered that the major networks, universities and private collectors each had parts of broadcastings’ history, but this valuable materials was largely unorganized, uncataloged and scattered. As a result, Paley signed agreements with CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS in order to gain access to programs and start a unified collection. With a two million dollar backing, for the first five years of operation from Paley himself, the Museum of Broadcasting opened on November 9, 1976. Operating out of the first three floors of the Paley Foundation building in New York City, it offered a unique and new service to the public. They could access old television and radio programs as well as learn about the impact that these mediums had on the cultural development of the United States. At the opening, Paley spoke about his goals for the museum, "This cultural and educational institution will collect, preserve and present the programs and the historical materials of radio and television. Its purpose will be to give scholars and students an insight into broadcasting and to serve as a public resource for all interested people to visit for enjoyment and for information about broadcasting."

The collection began with the first five years of broadcasting programs. Initially, the curators concentrated on acquiring programs according to their popularity, prizes and artistic merit. In order to accomplish this they cataloged three episodes of each of the 15 most popular shows, major broadcasts and specials for each year. Additionally, for every eighth month they would record all the programs broadcast on a station in a single day. This formed the foundation of the collection. The original curators also set a five-year collection goal, aspiring to acquire 20,000 broadcasts that represented American commercial broadcasting. In order to make the collection accessible, they planned to catalog these items by period, genre and network. The television programs included the first televised congressional hearings, Joe McCarthy’s self-defense and Lucille Ball’s first televised comic routines. The radio collection includes Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats, the first version of the Amos n’ Andy program and Orson Wells’ War of the Worlds. By providing radio broadcasts, the museum preserved a lost era and offered people, in the 1970s, the opportunity to listen to the programs that shaped their youth.

In the 1980s, as a result of the museum’s popularity and the tremendous growth of the collection, the museum was outgrowing its space. William Paley donated the land for a new building, located only a block away form the old location, and in 1991, the Museum of Television & Radio moved into its current 17-story building. While the name changed and better technology enabled the museum to preserve and present materials in a more efficient fashion, the goals of the museum remain the same twenty-five years later. With its added space, it now provides more services. The museum has updated the library, television console and listing a radio studio, using the latest technology. In addition, this new facility features a 200-seat theatre and two smaller screening rooms for seminars and programs, a radio studio for original broadcasts and a scholar’s room. The seven floors are each spacious and feature many rotating exhibits. The beauty of the museum helps it maintain its esteemed position as the leading resource for television and radio history.

The Museum of Television & Radio has now amassed over 100,000 television and radio programs, including commercials. The manner of accessing the programs makes the museum unique. Technology drives this museum. A room with 46 Macintosh computers comprises the museums’ main library. From these terminals, users can access the museums programs and read a brief summary that explains each programs’ content, title, subject, network, date, genre, producer, director, and performers. Users can view over 2 hours of programming per visit. Once they select the programs, they go downstairs to the console center, which provides individual consoles with monitors, headphones and complete playback functions. Users input a code number and they view the selected program. A reference staff works in both the library and the console center and aids users in selecting programs and using the technology.

The types of users vary considerably. The general public is attracted to the museum to see shows from the past and attend the many screenings. (On a weekday, the museum features about 17 different screenings, including episodes of network shows and special programs compiled by the museum’s staff.) Additionally, scholars seek the museum’s collection for their research. While the museum staff welcomes all users, they clearly encourage the use of their materials in scholarship and have developed the Researcher’s Program for these purposes. This program gives students, educators, writers, radio and television professionals, journalists, and other researchers more extensive access to the collection and use of the Scholars’ Room. Yet, the museum takes research very seriously, limiting access to the Scholar’s Room by requiring researchers to fill out an application in advance that specifies their research purposes. Applicants must wait for approval of their request and can pay for a daily or yearly pass. Once approved, they have access to not only all of the programs but also to the microfiched clippings files that contain more specialized data. For many researchers, the Museum of Television & Radio either in New York, or Los Angeles, is the only place where they can obtain old television and radio programs and commercials. As a result, many historians, authors, and radio and television professionals have used these services. Therefore, since its opening in 1976, the museum has contributed to the extensive scholarship on the impact of television and radio on American culture.

With research as the prized goal of the museum, the research services staff plays an essential role. They help further the museum’s mission and goals, in the most direct way, by serving as liaisons to the networks. As a result, their research activities considerably expand the impact that the museum has had on television and radio itself. Additionally, they succeed at educating the individuals who contacts them. Two people staff this department. Jane Klain, the manager, has a master’s degree in film and theater. Prior to this position, she served as the chief editor for the Motion Picture and Television Almanac. Michael Buening earned a B.A. in film and television from New York University and served as an intern at the museum before taking his position.

This department conducts research for the museum’s other departments, provides all the research for the Los Angeles museum and also offers a reference hotline. From 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., weekdays, they answer questions from a variety of different people, and conduct the necessary research to ascertain the most accurate and complete answer. As a result of this involved process, the staff handles about 3-8 questions per day. These questions fall into two main categories, factual questions and questions about how to obtain old programs. The research services staff refers those asking the latter to other institutions, they do not provide footage, only answers. While they consider corporations, networks and museum members as their first priority, the staff is very accommodating and will answer the questions of anyone who contacts them. They provide a premier research service, answering telephone, fax and e-mail inquiries. This staff offers these services to the main and cable networks, producers, directors, actors and others involved in television and radios production. Yet, they have developed special relationships with certain networks and conduct a large amount of research for specific programs. The Arts and Entertainment Network constantly calls to obtain information for their biography series. They help researchers for the Headliners and Legends program on MSNBC. VH1 uses them as a reference to the 100 best rock and roll songs list and Who Wants to be a Millionaire consults them to check facts for their questions. They also assist the BBC.

Their main resource is a microfiche collection encompassing about one million pieces. This includes the NBC files, which recorded what performers were on what shows from 1939 to 1985. The collection also includes books, press releases, clippings, reviews and articles. This staff also has their own extensive library as well. Their ready reference shelf includes almanacs, directories, yearbooks and other works covering radio and television history. They also use a general reference collection of older and more specific books, a wall of biographies on television and radio personalities and every T.V. Guide from April 1953, when the magazine became national, to the present. In total, they have over 2,000 books at their disposal. Additionally, the department has developed their own resources, which aid their reference services. They use the valuable list made by previous researchers, which include television firsts, T.V. taboos broken over the years and other facts. Their own answers to questions have become a growing resource. Finally, they maintain a current file by searching 10 newspapers each day and thirty weekly magazines, from which they clip all articles and reviews that relate to current television and radio programs or personalities.

The activities of the research services staff are closely intertwined with those of the other departments. The museum staff works cooperatively in order to accomplish the goals that Paley established and add to the achievements of the institution. The curatorial staff uses the information supplied by research services in order to decide which programs to catalog and what seminars and screenings to offer. The catalogers watch shows chosen by the curators, or donated to the museum, in real time and include pertinent information to add to the catalog access by users. The education staff offers programs to all levels of students, showing history through television and offering instruction on the interpretation of media. As a result, each department benefits from the research services department’s references work and contributes to the reference services of the entire museum.

Despite their many achievements, the research services department and the museum itself has several challenges. The research services department, specifically, seeks to establish a more cooperative relationship with the other departments of the museum as well as more corporations and networks. Additionally, they constantly strive to maintain current information, ensure the accuracy of their reference services and obtain as many old shows as possible. Both this department and the museum seek to adopt the most current technology for the preservation of materials. The research department must digitize the microfiched resources, the material first filmed is unreadable and the other sources are rapidly decaying.

In the age of the Internet, the museum seeks to use this technology to expand its contribution. As they desire to capture all the media that influences American culture, the museum will begin to acquire Internet programming. Earlier this year the museum formed a unique relationship with the Microsoft Corporation. In the next year the museum will encode its programs into digital form using Microsoft Windows Media and Trade techniques. By next year, the museum will offer users direct access to program from the web site. This will enable the museum to truly become "a museum without walls…one whose collection is neither confined or limited by its location."

This Internet format will help the museum improve its visibility. It already has a website (www.mtr.org) in which it details the organization of the building, seminars and special programs. Additionally, the museum publishes a quarterly magazine, the MT&Review, which describes previous events, seminars, lectures, festivals and museum news. As a review of the museum’s programs, the magazine makes it clear that the museum, in both locations, serves as an authoritative institution on the impact of television and radio in America. Countless celebrities seek the museum as a location to hold seminars, participate on panels, discuss their careers and socialize. Additionally, the quality of programs that it produces contributes to its respect by both industries. The museum’s many brochures (see appendix), available upon entrance, which are all of high quality, attest to its increasing role as the authority on broadcast history. The seminars, screenings, festivals, and celebrations, as well as the general reference services, help the Museum of Television & Radio capture the impact of broadcasting and bring it to the public.

The Museum of Television & Radio provides two distinct reference services. The first service is offered to the public, while the second is restricted to members and selected corporations, such as HBO and ABC.

The first service allows members of the public to come to the museum to search for episodes of their favorite Television and Radio shows on the networked system, and then reserve a viewing space and time to watch the episodes. The reference desk in this room is staffed with more than 5 workers at a time, ready to assist users. Once the particular show is selected, the patron goes to this desk to retrieve a printout, which contains a number for the episode and a viewing time.

After this is completed, the patron goes downstairs (similar to a patron in a library going into the stacks) where the viewing cubicles are set up. Here, two workers are stationed to direct the patrons to a viewing station and to show the patrons how to use the equipment.

The second service provided by the Museum of Television & Radio is more similar to what is traditionally conceived as "reference." This service is provided via telephone, email and fax, and is exclusively restricted to certain patrons, although the staff will answer the questions of anyone who contacts them. Two well-educated staff members oversee this aspect of the Museum along with their other duties. This aspect of service will be focused on more thoroughly throughout this paper.

The reference workers at the Museum of Television & Radio have an extensive reference library at their disposal. In terms of a print collection, this consists of hundreds of books about specific television series, almanacs (motion picture almanac, TV and video almanac), yearbooks etc. The Museum also can boast of having print copies of every single TV Guide printed since the magazine became national. The Museum also has a rather unique item -- over a million pieces of microfiche categorizing everything on TV by subject, biography and PBT -- Program by Type.

In terms of referral, this becomes apparent when a studio calls the museum looking for footage to use. The Museum does not provide footage, however they will track down a source that does provide such a service.

Document Delivery does not really apply here in the same way it does in a traditional library. The staff might fax pages from reference books, or photocopy reproductions of the Microfiche collection in order to satisfy an information need of a particular patron. However, as stated before, footage is not provided. (Footage being what would be considered "documents" in a library based on Television and Radio programs).

In terms of searching, we must turn to the first service, in which the public is able to utilize the computers to search for episodes of television series. These computers are Macintosh PowerPCs and are networked into the specialized system. This is a closed system, without any access to the internet and cannot be searched remotely. I found the search system itself to be rather guided and fairly simple to understand. An episode can be searched by title of series, actor or keyword. The display provides the title of the series, the title of the episode, as well as a summary and a brief listing of actors or voices.

In terms of the second type of service, the reference staff has access to the catalog via computers in their office. There is a microfiche machine located next to the stacks of reference books for easy access should any of that information be required.

Unlike a traditional library, the Museum of Television & Radio lacks any systematic user instruction. However, the staff in the search room will sit down one on one with a user and walk them through the program. The Museum also provides programs and special screenings with different themes in mind. The most recent event was a screening of Traffik, the British series that eventually became the movie Traffic. Such an event provides education in a different way.

There are many other services that the reference staff provides that are unique to a Museum, which may parallel the additional work a reference library must do in a traditional library. First, the staff must catalogue each individual piece of television that enters the collection. Unfortunately there are no MARC records for such things. Instead, cataloguers must sit and watch each episode, noting down important information from the credits, and writing a summary of said program.

A second service is that one member of the research services staff devotes part of his day to clip articles from various newspapers and magazines that refer to television, entertainment and anything in which the Museum has an interest. These clipping are archived.

Lastly, the Museum itself is functioning in a capacity that no other information center does, and that is archive television and radio programs. Both programs often are on magnetic media, which means that they have a tremendously high rate of decay. These programs are tangible testaments to American Popular Culture and need to be preserved just as any modern periodical does. This special library fills that need.

One thing about the reference staff of two that I noted as interesting was that neither holds a degree in Library Science or Information. Both however, have degrees in Television and Theatre, one a B.A., the other an M.A. Despite not having formal training in the information profession, both staff members were extremely knowledgeable about the processes involves in Reference.

The staff noted that there are two types of questions they answer. The first is from the general public (members of the Museum) who are curious about certain trivia facts. The second is from corporations and networks, which focus mainly on copyright questions.

Some of the challenges faced by the reference staff, according to themselves, is to keep up with the ever changing facts. Theirs is a field that grows by leaps and bounds every day. Another challenge is to insure that all their information is accurate, so they can answer questions as correctly as possible. Finally, like detectives, they often must track down old, obscure shows.

In terms of a vision for the future, the staff hopes to digitize their current collection of microfiche, hoping to preserve and clarify outdated technology. Another avenue they might consider is offering an online catalog to the public, as well as digitized episodes for previews on the internet. They have just begun this type of project.

Lastly, I would like to address the fact that the reference services are not offered for free to the general public. This might be seen as a disadvantage, but the Museum is a private institution. Additionally, with a staff of two, it is unrealistic to expect the services to encompass the public.

After careful thought and evaluation, we have a number of recommendations for the Museum of Television & Radio. First of all, we feel that the Museum’s reference services to the public could be upgraded and expanded. In this, we mean that there should be some other sort of research service offered, other than the reference hotline, which is only offered two hours a day and only to certain high paying members of the Museum. In addition, perhaps a mini-library of similar resources the research services staff uses can be made available for public use.

Another suggestion concerns the spatial arrangement of the search stations and the console terminals. It might be less confusing if the two areas were located closer together, so as to enable easier access.

In terms of technology, especially the changing face of it in the 21^st century, the museum could conserve time and space by creating consoles that serve as both searching and viewing stations. Additionally, technological advances such as readers for the visually impaired and subtitles for the hearing impaired should be integrated in future revisions of the Museum.

Lastly, we feel that the services of the Museum of Television & Radio are so important to the public and in conserving the visual past, that advertising and public awareness should be increased. This includes advertisements in major newspapers and magazines informing the public about upcoming special events. A wider audience can be reached and the visibility of the museum should be increased.

We discovered a valuable resource for American culture in the Museum of Television & Radio. This unique institution provides a vital service by offering access to the best of television and radio to the public, corporations and researchers. The seminars, festivals and special events offer rare glimpses of the television and radio community. The researcher’s program and the research services department enable the museum and its resources to influence the essence of television and radio. This museum captures the forgotten past and allows the public to revisit important images that shaped them. While we have offered several recommendations to improve the visibility, use and viability of this museum, we see it as providing important benefits. As the only institution that provides these services it plays a crucial role in American culture.

In consideration of our careful study of the Museum of Television & Radio, we conclude that there are several aspects that need improvement. Primarily, the research services’ department needs to acquire additional staff. This would remove the tremendous burden on the two individuals and allow this department to offer its valuable services to more people. Additionally, we feel that technologically the Museum needs an upgrade. Although Macintosh computers are the best systems for media, the PowerMacs the Museum uses are two generations removed from current Macintosh technology. Additionally, they should use resources that now exist for visually and hearing impaired users. The future project with Microsoft for making programs accessible online will allow the museum to reach a larger audience, however, we worry about compatibility issues with the Macintosh systems.

First of all, clearly we have gathered only a miniscule amount of data necessary to make these conclusions, however, we accomplished as much as we could within the timeframe allotted. Of course, we lack expertise in the field of television and radio, and this might affect our judgments. Yet, we have learned so much about the importance of preserving this material and are impressed by the museum’s commitment to this goal. Further researchers can assess the future web project and draw their own conclusions about how this would increase the visibility of the museum and affect the museum’s mission.

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