InfoLibNews: BERNAMA as the catalyst to the development of the country

Abstract

The Malaysian National News Agency or BERNAMA was established in 1967 and now has over 700 employees including 400 journalists, editors, photojournalists and video cameramen. BERNAMA produces and disseminates news and information through Newswire by paid subscribers and this include newspapers, broadcast stations and websites. The News Library & Information Centre (InfoLibNews) of BERNAMA is a library specializing in news and information about Malaysia. The users of InfoLibNews are mainly the BERNAMA staff and the BERNAMA Library and InfoLink Service (BLIS) clients from the various government and private organization libraries.

The two main collections are reading materials via ILMU, the library system; and more than 5 million news and information about Malaysia. BERNAMA News comprises of news, reports, articles, special reports, news focus/analysis in the following categories, namely, General News, Economic News, Features/Special Reports, Press Releases, Infographic and Advertorial. For reference and more choices of news, InfoLibNews archives news from local newspapers which are accessible through the Archival News Module. Information consists of the Who’s Who Module, a compilation of the profiles of important Malaysian personalities from various fields. Databank is a compilation of information that provide facts on diverse issues and events. Both modules extract information from Malaysian newspapers, BERNAMA’s wire reports and other authentic reading materials and websites. Our team’s role is to process and archive news and information about Malaysia and these modules can be accessed speedily by users and clients via BLIS.

A digitalization project involving more than one million news is being undertaken to preserve our written national heritage. On top of the news and information provided, the Information Package Unit repackages the news and information by compiling information according to the needs on a daily basis. Three of the researchers are also attached with various editorial desks on a rotational basis. By providing these services, InfoLibNews is playing the necessary role of assisting the Editorial Department to produce quality news material for the benefit of the nation.