 Screenshot as of January 9, 2011 | |
Type of site | Public affairs video streaming |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | C-SPAN |
| URL | http://www.c-spanvideo.org/ |
| Registration | None |
| Launched | March 17, 2010 [1] |
| Current status | Online |
C-SPAN Video Library is the audio and video streaming website of C-SPAN, the American legislative broadcaster. The site offers a complete, freely accessible archive going back to 1987. It was launched in March 2010, and was integrated into the main C-SPAN website in 2013.
The site provides access to C-SPAN's collection of Congressional proceedings and other political and public affairs programming, including complete archives dating back to 1987. Content is searchable and browsable by program, topics, date, and speaker. At its launch in 2010, the site offered 160,000 hours of archived programming. New programming is archived shortly after broadcast. [2] [3] [4] [5]
C-SPAN was launched in 1979 but has limited archived material from its early years. According to C-SPAN itself, the first ever event broadcast by the network to be archived was the 90-minute confirmation hearings for Judge Robert Bork that aired on C-SPAN1 in September 15, 1987. [6] When the site was launched in 2010 its director Robert X. Browning said 10,000 hours of other tapes from 1979 to 1987 were slated for restoration, digitization, and addition. [3] [7]
Congressional Chronicle is a section with searchable transcripts of House and Senate floor debates and pages for current and past members of Congress, with biographies, voting records, campaign finance records, and a timeline of House and Senate sessions. [8] The site also provides episodes of Book TV and Booknotes , its now discontinued series of author interviews. [3] [9] In addition to C-SPAN programming, the site provides access to certain historic videos from the National Archives, such as video from President Nixon's 1972 trip to China. [5]
Journalists and opposition researchers have used the site to locate past statements by politicians. Three sources used it to locate clips and information about Christine O'Donnell during her failed 2010 Senate bid. [10]
Political commentator and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow is a prominent fan of the site. She said having access was "like being able to Google political history using the ‘I Feel Lucky’ button every time." [3] Mediaite columnist Frances Martel called it "a landmark in government transparency" and said it was valuable for historical research. [4]
In September 2010, the site was awarded the Golden Beacon by the Association of Cable Communicators, [2] and in May 2011 it was recognized with a Peabody Award. [11]
C-SPAN has recorded and catalogued its coverage of Congress and other public affairs programming since the establishment of the C-SPAN Archives in 1987 at Purdue University's Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana. [12] However, prior to the Video Library's launch, C-SPAN's archived programming was only available to the public via videocassette and DVD purchase from C-SPAN; with the approval of the network's board of cable industry executives, the online archive was developed to make C-SPAN content more immediately accessible. [7] The C-SPAN Video Library debuted unofficially in August 2007, with hosted video streaming and limited search tools. The following year, C-SPAN added an embeddable player to the Video Library's website. [13] The full archive officially launched March 17, 2010, [1] [13] upon completion of a multi-year project that digitized C-SPAN programming from 1987 onward. [2]
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money to establish a college of science, technology, and agriculture; the first classes were held on September 16, 1874.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also tasked with increasing public access to those documents that make up the National Archives. NARA is officially responsible for maintaining and publishing the legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential directives, and federal regulations. NARA also transmits votes of the Electoral College to Congress. It also examines Electoral College and constitutional amendment ratification documents for prima facie legal sufficiency and an authenticating signature.
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network is an American cable and satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises proceedings of the United States federal government and other public affairs programming. C-SPAN is a private, nonprofit organization funded by its cable and satellite affiliates. It does not have advertisements on any of its television networks or radio stations, nor does it solicit donations or pledges on-air. However their official website has banner advertisements, and streamed videos also have advertisements. The network operates independently; the cable industry and the U.S. Congress have no control over its programming content.
Internet Archive is an American nonprofit digital library website founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle. It provides free access to collections of digitized materials including websites, software applications, music, audiovisual, and print materials. The Archive also advocates for a free and open Internet. As of September 5, 2024, the Internet Archive held more than 42.1 million print materials, 13 million videos, 1.2 million software programs, 14 million audio files, 5 million images, 272,660 concerts, and over 866 billion web pages in its Wayback Machine. Its mission is committing to provide "universal access to all knowledge".
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of journals in the humanities and social sciences. It provides full-text searches of almost 2,000 journals. Most access is by subscription but some of the site is public domain, and open access content is available free of charge.
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The 112th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2011, until January 3, 2013. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2011, and ended on January 3, 2013, 17 days before the end of the presidential term to which Barack Obama was elected in 2008. Senators elected to regular terms in 2006 completed those terms in this Congress. This Congress included the last House of Representatives elected from congressional districts that were apportioned based on the 2000 census.
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Metavid is a free-software wiki-based community archive project for audio video media. The site hosts public domain US legislative footage. It was started as a Digital Arts/New Media MFA thesis project of Michael Dale and Abram Stern under the advisement of Professor Warren Sack in late 2005 at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Its continued development is supported by a grant from the Sunlight Foundation. It works by using a "simple Linux box to record everything that C-SPAN shoots", which can then be used to provide "brief searchable clips using closed-captioning text".
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