CSPAN Video Library Goes Public

CSPAN has now made their video library available to the public.  This was great news for me and others who are newz junkies!  I was even able to share video of my Uncle Flipper's posthumous pardon by President Clinton that took place at the White House in February 1999.

Here is the press release from CSPAN with all the details about their extensive video library.

C-SPAN’s Online Video Library Now Open to the Public

Over 160,000 Hours of Searchable Digital Video
A Quarter Century of American Politics and Policy
*Extensive Embed and Social Media Opportunities*
“Washington Your Way”—A Cable Industry Public Service
(Washington, DC, March 17, 2010) – Today, C-SPAN officially launches the C-SPAN Video
Library, a free, searchable online collection of every C-SPAN program aired since 1987.

“Thirty-one years ago this week, America‟s cable companies created C-SPAN,” says C-SPAN
co-president Susan Swain. “With today‟s launch of the online C-SPAN Video Library, that
tradition of cable industry public service marks another major milestone in C-SPAN‟s history of
connecting the public to the national political debate through video.”


Through its West Lafayette, Indiana-based Video Library (www.c-span.org/videolibrary ), CSPAN
records, indexes, and archives all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational,
research, and archival uses by individuals. Programs are accessible through database and
electronic archival systems developed and maintained by the C-SPAN Archives under the
direction of C-SPAN archivist Dr. Robert X Browning.


Key features of the C-SPAN Video Library, which was designed in consultation with the JESS3
creative agency (http://jess3.com/), include:
Over 160,000 hours of searchable and watchable digital C-SPAN video
All C-SPAN videos dating back to 1987, and certain older videos from C-SPAN‟s
earliest years
A comprehensive search engine, developed exclusively for the Video Library
Flash player with clipping and sharing features
Share buttons for e-mail and social media (Facebook and Twitter)
Transcripts, photo galleries, statistics and more
User-friendly


The C-SPAN Video Library‟s Congressional Chronicle feature is an index to the C-SPAN video
recordings of the House and Senate floor proceedings - organized by speaker - with full-text and
full-video search and an extensive Congressional database going back to 1993.


Swain says, “The C-SPAN Video Library will be helpful to anyone seeking a view of the political and policy process whether they wish to research people or events from past decades or from earlier in the day. Its extensive holdings will allow the public to see how elected officials, politicians, journalists, experts, authors, and other opinion leaders present themselves on the issues of the day and over time. We hope it will quickly become a resource for the serious researcher as well as the casual observer – and those wishing to share political moments and events in their social online communities. We hope audiences as diverse as the media, members of Congress and their staffs, educators, and, perhaps most importantly, C-SPAN viewers far outside the Beltway will use the C-SPAN Video Library to connect to Washington in a new way. The C-SPAN Video Library truly offers „Washington your way’.”


“The C-SPAN Video Library is the entry to the vast history of public affairs events that C-SPAN has covered for over 20 years,” C-SPAN Archivist Browning says. He urges users, “Do not overlook many programs that may seem less momentous, but are equally important. In covering the routine meetings, news conferences, and briefings that occur in Washington every day, C-SPAN has built a multi-decade record of the ebbs and flows of the national debate over issues.”


About C-SPAN: C-SPAN was created by America's cable companies in 1979 as a public service and programs three public affairs television networks (C-SPAN, C-SPAN2 and C-SPAN3); C-SPAN Radio, a Washington, D.C. public affairs radio station distributed by XM Satellite Radio; and a video-rich website which hosts the C-SPAN Video Library. Visit www.c-span.org.

Images, Video, & Press Release courtesy CSPAN.org