Library of American Broadcasting

Name

Library of American Broadcasting

Legal name

Library of American Broadcasting Foundation

Website

https://libraryofamericanbroadcasting.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1967

Operating status

Operating

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Broadcasting History Archives

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (519210), Libraries and Archives (51921)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

Libraries, Archives & Special Collections (BPAGAHAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Public Library Operations & Community Branch Management (EDAEAGAC), Clip/Short-Form & Archive Footage Syndication (Libraries/Stock) (MPABAMAL), Public Media Archives, Libraries & Content Preservation (MPABADAL)

Keywords

• Broadcasting history archives
• Oral history collections
• Media research library
• Broadcast industry records
• Cultural heritage preservation

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others, Marketing or Sales

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Library of American Broadcasting operates as the preeminent national repository for American broadcast history, maintaining extensive archival collections including over 1,000 oral histories, 200,000 photographs, 8,000 books, audio tapes, scripts, and video recordings. It provides research access to these collections through its physical reading rooms at the University of Maryland and online, while honoring industry leaders through the annual Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts awards ceremony and recognizing distinguished achievements via the Prime Time Registry.

Product overview

The Library of American Broadcasting (LAB) is a non-profit archive and research institution, not a technology product company. It operates as the preeminent national repository for broadcast history, policy, and tradition. The organization offers access to its collections through its website and reading rooms, including over 1,000 oral histories, 200,000 photographs, 8,000 books, 6,000 audio tapes, 7,000 pamphlets, 8,000 recorded discs, 2,000 scripts, and growing video/film material. Key offerings include the annual Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts awards ceremony honoring distinguished individuals in broadcasting, the PRIME TIME Registry recognizing distinguished achievements in the broadcasting industry, and various educational outreach programs including lectures and symposia. The institution maintains an online presence through its website at the University of Maryland.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts Awards Ceremony Annual celebration honoring distinguished individuals in broadcasting and electronic arts, held at Gotham Hall in New York. Recognizes the creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, performers, and journalists who have shaped the electronic arts industry.
• Prime Time Registry Registry recognizing distinguished achievement in the broadcasting industry for permanent collection inclusion, honoring industry leaders and contributors.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Library of Congress: The Library of Congress maintains extensive broadcasting, audio, and moving image collections and operates as the nation's primary archival institution, making it a much larger incumbent peer whose mass-scale operations and digital access systems dwarf the Library of American Broadcasting's.
• National Archives and Records Administration: NARA is the federal government's primary record-keeping institution, holding government-related broadcasting records, Presidential recordings, and federal communications materials, making it a much larger and broader-scope incumbent that overlaps with portions of the Library of American Broadcasting's radio and television policy collections.
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History: The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History holds significant broadcasting artifacts, scripts, and historical recordings as part of its broader mission to preserve American cultural heritage, making it a larger, better-funded peer whose holdings overlap with the Library of American Broadcasting.

Emerging players

• Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research: The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research is a nonprofit archive holding extensive collections of American film, television, and radio scripts, recordings, and photographs, sharing the Library of American Broadcasting's specialization in broadcast-era archival materials, though with a more regional emphasis.
• Television Academy Foundation: The Television Academy Foundation operates The Interviews, an extensive oral history collection of leading television professionals, and is a peer whose mission to preserve and provide access to television history overlaps directly with that of the Library of American Broadcasting.
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives: The Rock Hall Library and Archives is a nonprofit archive preserving music and broadcast industry materials including oral histories, photographs, and recordings, making it a partial overlap peer whose nonprofit archive model and radio-broadcast-era materials parallel the Library of American Broadcasting.

Direct peers

• Paley Center for Media: The Paley Center for Media is a nonprofit archive and museum dedicated to the history of broadcasting and television, maintaining extensive collections of broadcast recordings, special collections, and oral histories - directly comparable to the Library of American Broadcasting in mission, collections, and nonprofit funding model.
• New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: NYPL's Library for the Performing Arts houses major collections of broadcast recordings, scripts, photographs, and oral histories related to radio and television history, making it a direct nonprofit archival peer serving overlapping academic and industry research communities.
• UCLA Film & Television Archive: The UCLA Film & Television Archive is one of the largest collections of broadcast and moving image materials in the world, also housed within a major public university (UCLA), making it a closely comparable university-based media archive with overlapping research and preservation missions.

Regional players

• NPR Archives: NPR maintains a broadcast archive and oral history program for public radio history that overlaps thematically with the Library of American Broadcasting, though it is housed within and primarily serves NPR rather than operating as an independent national archive across both radio and television.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Library of American Broadcasting