Library of American Broadcasting

{{Short description|Library and collection at the Broadcasting Archives of the University of Maryland}}

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The Library of American Broadcasting – a Washington, D.C. institution since 1972 – was founded as the Broadcast Pioneers Library in space donated by the National Association of Broadcasters in their headquarters.{{Cite web |date=January 31, 2025 |title=About Us |url=https://www.tvradiolibrary.org/missionfaq |access-date=January 31, 2025 |website=Library of American Broadcasting Foundation}} The collection was thought up by William S. Hedges, a retired NBC executive, who created the Broadcasting Pioneers History Project in 1964 and began collecting historical materials.

The Library expanded rapidly for twenty years; but as space and funding became increasingly scarce, its governing board decided to seek another setting for the collection. They chose the University of Maryland, and in October 1994, the Library moved to its new location.{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of television news |last=Murray |first=Michael D. |year=1999 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |pages=133–34 |isbn=9781573561082 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3fhcUnCC1AC&dq=%22Library+of+American+Broadcasting%22+National+Association+of+Broadcasters&pg=PA133 |access-date=February 27, 2012}}

Now housed in the Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland,{{cite book |title=Appropriation of colonial broadcasting: a history of early radio in the Philippines, 1922-1946 |last=Enriquez |first=Elizabeth L. |year=2008 |publisher=UP Press |page=25 |isbn=9789715425483 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jxD1npoXeDoC&dq=%22Library+of+American+Broadcasting%22+Broadcasting+Archives+University+of+Maryland&pg=PA25 |access-date=February 27, 2012}} the Library of American Broadcasting is a wide-ranging collection of audio/video recordings, books, pamphlets, periodicals, personal collections, photographs, scripts, and vertical files devoted exclusively to the history of broadcasting.{{cite book |title=Broadcast Announcing Worktext: A Media Performance Guide |last=Stephenson |first=Alan |author2=Reese, David |author3=Beadle, Mary |year=2009 |publisher=Focal Press |page=11 |isbn=9780240810584 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J0genlJFQ14C&dq=%22Library+of+American+Broadcasting%22+Sol+Taishoff&pg=PA11 |access-date=February 27, 2012}} the Library holds many collections of note, including the papers of Sol Taishoff, founder of the influential industry publication Broadcasting; the papers of Helen J. Sioussat, director of the Talks Department at CBS (1937–58);{{cite book |title=The telecommunications illustrated dictionary |last=Petersen |first=Julie K. |year=2002 |publisher=CRC Press |page=849 |isbn=9781420040678 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2mMzS0hCkAC&dq=%22Library+of+American+Broadcasting%22+Helen+J.+Sioussat&pg=PA849 |access-date=February 27, 2012}} scrapbooks, discs, photographs, speeches, scripts, awards, magazine and newspaper articles, and correspondence of Edward M. Kirby, Chief of the Radio Branch of the War Department in World War II, later also Chief of the Army's Radio-TV Branch in the Korean Conflict;{{cite book |title=Air castle of the South: WSM and the making of Music City |last=Havighurst |first=Craig |year=2007 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |page=253 |isbn=9780252032578 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IpSBULVeWoAC&dq=%22Library+of+American+Broadcasting%22+Edward+J.+Kirby&pg=PA253 |access-date=February 27, 2012}}{{Cite web |title=Edward Kirby papers |url=https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/595 |access-date=January 31, 2025 |website=University of Maryland University Libraries Archival Collections}} and the papers of Edythe Meserand, radio executive and first President of American Women in Radio and Television, among others.

The Library of American Broadcasting received on-screen credit for research materials provided to the producers of the film Good Night and Good Luck (2005). The holdings of the Library yielded photographs of Murrow, as well as a number of shots of the CBS studios and offices of that era. These were instrumental in creating the period detail of the film, which received a total of six Academy Award nominations, one for Art Direction.{{cite news |title=Maryland Remembers Edward R. Murrow |author=University of Maryland |author-link=University of Maryland |url=http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/515227/ |newspaper=Newswise |date=October 11, 2005 |access-date=February 27, 2012}}