Free Times Select...

from the ACRLog:

Lots of New York Times readers were disappointed when the Times took away free access to editorials and commentaries and turned it into the subscription-only TimesSelect. Well those of us working in higher education are getting a break from the Times. They recently announced that as of March 13 students and faculty with an “edu” email address would be eligible to get free access to TimesSelect. From the press release:

Beginning on March 13, subscriptions to TimesSelect will be available for free to all registered college students and faculty with a .edu in their e-mail addresses. TimesSelect is NYTimes.com’s paid offering that provides exclusive access to 22 columnists of The Times and the International Herald Tribune as well as an array of other services, including access to The Times’s archives, advance previews of various sections and tools for tracking and storing news and information. Current student subscribers will receive pro-rated refunds for their previously paid subscriptions. College students interested in registering for free TimesSelect subscriptions should go to www.nytimes.com/university for more information.

UPDATE: I have now completed this process and it definitely works! I also wanted to mention to student readers that I have it from well-placed sources that you can now purchase a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 down at the bookstore for $10.00, as a part of our campus license agreement. (I posted this in comments, but didn't know if you read those.)

All The News That's Fit To Be Free...

Good news from the New York Times....

Director Phil Tramdack forwards this article, as the New York Times announces that as of midnight on Tuesday (how dramatic!) the following New York Times resources will be free:

All content from 1987-present
Public domain content from 1851-1922
Some content from 1923-1986

This effectively ends the Times Select program which charged $49.95 per year for access to certain portions of the Times, but was free to students and educators.

Change and Libraries...

• On browsing... Browsing library collections, from the shelf to the online catalog, Robert Kieft, Educause Review
• On the future of digital libraries... Scan this book, Kevin Kelly, New York Times Magazine
• John Updike responds... Explosive Words, Bob Thompson, Washington Post

Does anyone besides me think it is funny/ironic that you can't read the article on scanning all of the world's literature to create a ginormous, free-wheeling information utopia without paying for New York Times Select?

New History Database

The online index America: History and Life is now available at SRU.
America: History and LIfe contains bibliographical citations of book and media reviews and dissertations as well as journal articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. In addition to covering English-language historical journals, coverage includes selected historical journals from major countries, state and local history journals (including Pennsylvania), and a targeted selection of hundreds of journals in the social sciences and humanities. Many of these journals are only indexed in AHL. Periodicals from 1954 to the present are included.
WIth AHL consider the new service called CLIO Alert. You can create a profile containing up to 10 user-defined searches­to be performed for you on a monthly basis with the results e-mailed to you. This service can be accessed from either the Advanced or the Simple Search screens via the "CLIO Alert Profile" link.
To access America: History and Life from school or home, go to the library website, www.sru.edu/library, select Journal Articles/Databases, then chose Databases Alphabetically By Title.

from Lynn Hoffmann