This following is likely exciting news for historians, journalists, government analysts, etc.

For nearly 75 years the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) has been an important research resource for open source information (the “local perspective”) from broadcasters located around the globe. All broadcasts are transcribed and non-English transcripts are immediately translated into English. They are made available via the World News Connection (a Dialog database).

WNC is provided to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) by the Open Source Center (OSC). Analysts from OSC domestic and overseas bureaus monitor timely and pertinent open-source materials.

Material in the WNC database goes back to 1996. Here’s the Dialog Blue Sheet.

What about all of the FBIS content prior to 1996? Keep reading!

Today, Readex (a division of NewsBank) announced that beginning this fall they will begin releasing a web-based and searchable archive of FBIS reports.

The first web-based database of material that Readex will release is:
The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Report: Series 1: Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, 1974-1996.

Series 1: Middle East, Africa, and South Asia contains more than 400,000 pages from foreign press materials, news transmissions, and radio broadcasts that are invaluable for understanding the issues and events that preceded the current crises within the region. Students and scholars are afforded local perspectives on such events as the Camp David Accords, the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini, Somalia’s invasion of Ethiopia, Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Angolan independence, the Iran-Iraq War, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War, Israel’s peace agreement with Jordan, Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, and much more.

Source: Readex

See Also: If you’re interested in some of the sources the FBIS monitors today, here’s a list.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 and is filed under Archives and Special Collections, Databases, Directories, and Guides, Digitization Projects, Information Industry, Search News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.