Covering the Persian Gulf War: The first 72 hours at ABC News library.

This article presents the author's reflections on her efforts and other librarian staff at ABC News Research Library in preparing for the news coverage of the 1990 Persian Gulf War. Since Iraq's August 2, 1990, invasion of Kuwait, we had been preparing for war. We knew that good subject headings would be key to providing easy access to this burgeoning mass of information. In addition to the publications we collected from outside agencies, our New York office sent us a series of briefing books they had prepared. We had anticipated which transcripts would be needed by ABC staff to piece together our evening broadcast. The closer it got to our 6:30 post meridiem broadcast--and as it became late night and early morning in Baghdad--the more frantic the scene in the library became. Although our library is packed floor to ceiling with bookshelves, movable shelving, and files, it is still a popular place to film stand-ups. Researchers from one of our weekly news shows began work on a segment on airport security. Another team asked us to investigate any Gulf-related terrorism that may have occurred. We concluded that since the invasion of Kuwait we had collected a wealth of information and made it readily accessible to our patrons. We had confidence in the files we had developed.