Reading award-winning news stories in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal is now easier for the Vanderbilt community, thanks to a News Desk portal just added to the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries homepage. The portal is made possible through the support of the Office of the Provost.
“Citizens need reliable and diverse sources of news and information,” said University Librarian Valerie Hotchkiss. “It is our duty as an educational institution to champion the crucial value of informing oneself as fully as possible. We hope that by providing campuswide access to The Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as links to other valuable news sources, we contribute to thoughtful discourse on the issues of the day.”
The portal or bar includes two radio buttons for accessing those papers and three other buttons that connect to the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, a research guide with other news sources available through the libraries’ subscription databases, and a research guide with tools for determining news accuracy and objectivity.
Opening an account only takes a couple of minutes. Students, faculty and staff can activate their subscription to the Wall Street Journal via the radio button on the portal link. After signing in with a VUNetID and password, new subscribers must complete a short registration form before they are logged in with full access to WSJ.com.
Students, staff and faculty can take immediate advantage of their Times subscription by going to the News Desk portal on the libraries’ main page or by following the instructions in a welcome email they should receive from NYTimes.com.
“Students have wanted this convenient resource for a long time, so we are delighted to be able to add this service with the provost’s support,” said Kasia Gonnerman, director of Central Library. “The library continues to maintain digital access through numerous subscription databases to content—both current and archival—from a wide range of major newspapers and historical publications.”
Gonnerman noted that content from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, one of the premier sources for archival footage of news broadcasts for the past 50 years from ABC, CBS and NBC — with additional coverage of CNN and Fox News — is now available across campus via one of the buttons on the libraries’ News Desk portal.
Vanderbilt Library’s collections are especially robust in the area of news and journalism. Users will find research guides and more information about the news and journalism collections on the library’s website or by contacting Frank Lester, the librarian for Political Science, Government Information, Communication Studies, and Cinema and Media Arts.