ABSTRACT
The Boston TV News Digital Collection aggregates collections from WGBH, Northeast Historic Film, Boston Public Library, and Cambridge Community TV that include local news programs from the early 1960s to 2000. Although the collection does not include all of Boston's television news from the period, it is broadly representative. The online database combines the catalogs of news content from Boston Public Library's WHDH film collection; Cambridge Community Television; Northeast Historic Film's WCVB film collection; and WGBH-produced The Reporters, Evening Compass, and the Ten O'Clock News. The Boston TV News collection provides a comprehensive catalog of film and video materials that exist at the four locations, but descriptions are often minimal. Given the volume of material—51,782 records—and the inaccessibility of the film components, the content in the collection was not viewed to build the catalog. Rather, priority was placed on providing better access to the descriptive metadata that already existed.
