Keynote address by Representative Barbara Jordan, Democratic National Convention, July 12, 1976. Photograph by Warren K. Leffier; U.S. News & World Report. July 11-12, 1976. U.S. News & World Report Collection, Prints
and Photographs Division. LC-U9-32937, frame 32A-33.
A compelling example of the wealth of moving images that can be found for one individual
is provided by Barbara Jordan (1936-1996). This politician, educator,
social activist, and notable African American leader came to prominence in the age of
television. Searching for pieces of Jordan's life in MBRS provides an example of
strategies that can be used to locate television footage.
Searching Barbara
Jordan's name in the division's card catalogs locates appearances on The Dick Cavett Show (1979, VBC 8833) and Ben
Wattenberg's 1980 (VBM 7168). The Library's online catalog retrieves
moving-image records for the Watergate documentary Summer of
Judgment—The Impeachment Hearings (1984, VAA 0618) and identifies a
four-part series, Who's Keeping Score
(1981, VBC 9821-9823; VBC 9840), with Jordan participating in the examination of the pros and cons of minimum-competency
testing in American schools. The initial search of the division's catalogs has uncovered valuable but incomplete results.
The search
can be continued using the in-house inventories for Meet the
Press and NET/PBS, unpublished documentation for NBC programming, and the division's publication Three Decades of Television. Because of the lack of subject access to most of the Library's moving-image materials, a key strategy is creating a title
list from secondary sources available in the reading room. One should consult commercially published works, such as Special Edition: A
Guide to Network Television Documentary Series and Special News Reports, 1955-1979 (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1987; PN 1992.8.D6 E56 1987) and Television News Index and Abstracts (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt
Television News Archives, 1968-95; AI3.T44; 1968-present on the Web) (see Moving Image Section External Sites), as well as online catalogs and CD-ROMs, including FirstSearch, MediaSearch, and Variety's Video Directory Plus. These sources yield a list of dozens of Barbara Jordan's appearances on television and in educational videos. A return to
the division's catalogs using these titles retrieves from the collections holdings of the complete Watergate Impeachment Hearings,
two profiles on Sixty Minutes
VBA 1380, VBA 5059), the keynote speeches delivered at the Democratic National Convention in 1976 (VAG 5504) and 1992
(VAD 9755), a 1981 inaugural address (VAE 7528-7529), the Bill Moyers program Facing Evil (1988, VBI 8236-8237), two appearances on Meet the Press (1976, VBA 7721; 1987, VBH 1500),
an NBC White Paper: The American
Presidency (1979, VBB 2810-2811), and coverage of Barbara Jordan in several network evening news broadcasts.
