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Intellectual Access to Peabody Awards Collection Materials

Of the over 40,000 programs in the Peabody Awards Collection, only a few thousand have been cataloged on GIL, the University of Georgia Libraries online catalog.  The Media Archives is currently involved in a project to fully catalog additional television programs.  An inventory database of all Peabody television programs is available for searching in the Media Department.  (See below for details.)  There are several sources to use in researching the Collection’s holdings:

Annual Peabody Award digests

The digests are bound volumes that list titles, stations, and brief descriptions of entries to that year's awards.  Each volume is divided into sections by award category:  news, entertainment, children's, documentary, educational, public service, individual/organizations.  Information for an entry from 1940 through 1974 consists of one or two sentence summaries, with usually no credits listed.  Some credit information can be obtained by looking through the supplemental paper files in the Hargrett Library.  Beginning with the 1975 digests the full entry forms submitted by entrants are duplicated in the digests.  Entry forms often include key cast and production credits, broadcast time, more detailed summaries, and addresses for the station and contact names.  Every digest has an index in the back that is sorted in this order: state, city, station, and program title. Unfortunately, there is no name or subject indexing.  Broad genres can be searched by looking at sections for a specific award category.

Finding aids

Some topic or genre-specific lists (finding aids) to the Collection are available.  Finding aids in paper form can be found in a binder at the Media Department reference desk.  There is also a binder listing 1973-89 Peabody television programs in alphabetical order by title.  Finding aids are available in the following topics:
  In addition to these paper finding aids, several databases are available in the Media Department.  These databases index other subjects and genres within the Collection:
  The African-American television database will soon be available through this website.  Also, most of the television programs from 1949-1996 are also fully described in GIL, the Libraries online catalog.

To make advance arrangements to use these databases, or to request research assistance, please contact the Media Department.

GIL records

Peabody television programs from 1949-1959, 1978-81, and 1988 are cataloged on GIL.  In addition, over 1,100 television programs from 1949-1996 that focus on African-American history and culture have been fully cataloged as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities project.  Records for the early television programs and the African-American programs contain extensive name, subject, and genre access.  (Records for programs from 1978-81 and 1988 do not have genre access.)  Some of the most popular genre headings are:  Children’s, News, Commercials, and Anthologies.

For tips about searching in GIL, click here.

For information about physical access to the collection, click here.

The Peabody Awards Collection public service area is part of the Media Department on the 7th floor of the University of Georgia Main Library.  All digests and finding aids can be found behind the Media Department reference desk.  Videocassette and audiocassette players are available for viewing/listening to the user copies.  There is also a seminar room that seats 18 and a screening room that seats 40 for group viewing.  For more information, please contact the Media Department.
 

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Last update: December 20th, 2004
Comments to: Paul Nunn pnunn@uga.edu
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