access world news research collection – St. Thomas Libraries Blog
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access world news research collection

Business & Economics, Database Highlights & Trials, New Materials

UST libraries will cancel Nexis Uni, and replace it with Westlaw Campus Research

 

The University of St. Thomas Libraries subscribe to databases and electronic materials based on curricular needs and faculty requests.  We are continually watching for products that address these needs with relevant, easy-to-access content.  One long-standing need is legal information for students who are not in law school.  For example, students studying business or social work may require primary and secondary legal information on a variety of topics in their disciplines.   Lexis Nexis, now known as Nexis Uni, has long been our database for that type of legal information, as well as providing national and international news sources and public company information.  However, this database has never been easy to search or navigate, so we have been looking for another database that can provide the same information.  We have finally found one, Westlaw Campus Research.

Westlaw is a reputable database, and a staple in law libraries across the country.  The Westlaw Campus Research is designed for academic research across the disciplines.  Along with legal materials, it also contains thousands of full-text news sources, and information about public companies.  The decision to cancel Nexis Uni and replace it with Westlaw was made after careful consideration and a trial of the database during which librarians gathered feedback from students and faculty. The response to Westlaw was positive, especially around the interface and ease of searching.  We understand that this is a big change and are committed to working with you to make that transition as easy as possible. Our subscription to Nexis Uni will end on July 1, 2018.  Access to Westlaw Campus Research is expected to begin by June 2018, so you will have some time when both are available.  And for current local and international news sources updated daily, the UST libraries subscribe to Access World News and ProQuest Global Newsstream.  Both databases provide access to thousands of news sources that can be searched by topic, Access World News can also be searched by regionIf there is anything that your subject librarian can do in order to assist you in using these databases, or to understand the materials in Westlaw, please let us know.

 

Database Highlights & Trials

TRIAL – New international newspaper database

How often have you read a story about an important news event taking place in another part of the world and wanted to know more about it? Or what about wanting to know how world events are perceived in other parts of the world as opposed to the North American perspective? The Access World News Research Collection from Newsbank provides full text access to over 6,000 international news sources including newspapers, newswires and magazines.

You may enter keywords or phrases just as you would any other article database –

 

 

The real power of this database is the ability to take the topic you want to learn about and then pick the news sources you want to use.  You can start out broad and look for newspaper sources from all over the world, you may choose to search specific regions such as all of Asia, or you may decide to drill down to specific countries.  You may choose the countries you would like to search with menus or you can click on colorful maps that put the countries you are interested in into context with the rest of the region.

 

 

 

 

Finally, if you decided that you wanted to get a very local perspective instead of a larger, global view of an event, you can use The Access World News Research Collection to search North American and state sources.  Just as you can click on individual countries to find their newspapers, so you can click on states for regional stories and opinions.  This way you can read views on the Arab Spring from as far away as Kazakhstan, or as close to home as Delano, MN.

In full disclosure, the University of St. Thomas does already have two databases that contain the same level of international and local news coverage,  however after trialing this database I have to say that this beats them both in terms of ease of use.  If you have used either Factiva or Lexis-Nexis before I believe you will find The Access World News Research Collection a breathe of fresh air.  And if you have not searched either of those news databases then I think you are in for a treat.

 

Either way I would love to hear your opinion!  This trial will continue for three months so you have plenty of time to explore and compare it to what we currently own.  Regardless if you agree with me or not, I would love to hear your opinion!  Please send any and all comments or questions you have to me.