The Internet Archive launches a new database that allows anyone to search for television news broadcasts.

In a bid to further its mission to make public information widely accessible, the Internet Archive has launched a new information database called TV News Search & Borrow.

The database contains roughly 350,000 television news video clips and transcripts starting from 2009, with new clips and transcripts added every 24 hours, after the clip's original broadcast. The video is culled from U.S. national news networks and local stations in Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

In addition to the three-year's worth of data already collected, the project will continue to add video news clips from years past. The project will also allow users to borrow the video clips via DVD, or locally at the Internet Archive's library in San Francisco.

"The Internet Archive's TV news research service builds upon broadcasters' public interest obligations. This new service offers citizens exceptional opportunities to assess political campaigns and issues, and to hold powerful public institutions accountable," former FCC Chairman Newton Minow said in a statement.

According to Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, the news database was inspired by the pioneering work of the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, which has been archiving television news broadcasts since 1968.

In a departure from the Internet Archive's normally minimalist, no-frills approach to data presentation, the TV News Search & Borrow site is more in line with other contemporary websites, offering a slick visual interface that makes searching and browsing results easy and intuitive.

And if there's any doubt that the project has the support of a wide array of media professionals whose work will often appear in the database, the Internet Archive has posted a video featuring a number of media veterans promoting the new database.

"This easily searchable and sortable database will be a fantastic resource for journalists, researchers, librarians and news junkies alike," said project supporter and former CBS News president Andrew Heyward.