Starting immediately, SUNY Oswego students, faculty, and staff can access all New York Times content at no cost through Penfield Library. While library users previously had to search a database for partial access, this new subscription allows users to browse The New York Times’ interface and access all content in a more intuitive manner, including TimesMachine access to articles from as far back as 1851.
Collection Management Librarian Kathryn Johns-Masten said this subscription came about because of popular demand. “For years folks have asked the library to subscribe to this resource and for many years we were unable to do so,” Johns-Masten said. “After doing an in-depth review of our databases this spring looking at the data versus costs of databases we subscribed to, we found several that could be discontinued. This allowed the library to provide New York Times All Access.”
Librarians hope that shifting resource allocations toward this in-demand content will let the entire university community benefit from keeping up with current news, looking at historical content, playing games, trying recipes or reading about sporting events. Users may enjoy this content as they relax and unwind, use it to practice their English reading fluency or apply articles to their research.
“Our hope is that everyone will use it,” Johns-Masten said.
Provost Scott Furlong emphasized the importance of The New York Times as a paper of record, covering topics like politics, science, business, the arts and more. “It is an important component of our civic engagement/civic discourse initiatives,” he said. “It can provide an avenue for our students to become more informed of the world around them and allows our faculty to assign current events articles across all the range of disciplines.”
For instructors hoping to do just that, the library’s subscription to The New York Times includes a section called The New York Times inEducation, which aggregates articles in commonly studied subject areas like American government, history, psychology, computer science and more. Anyone looking for an article relating to their broad subject discipline can use this as a tool to help locate timely content.
“Instructors who would like to share an article with their students should use the Share option and copy the link at the top of the page,” said Electronic Resources and Systems Librarian Morgan Bond. “Instructors should also encourage their students to create accounts with The New York Times; otherwise they [students] will only be allowed to access one article for free.”
Politics faculty member Lisa Glidden highlighted The New York Times’ usefulness in assignments around identifying arguments and supporting evidence, discourse analysis, fitting individual articles into a larger context and more. “I use [The New York Times] as a course text in almost all of my classes,” Glidden said. “I do weekly current events quizzes in most of my courses. I also build several assignments around its content.”
The new, more accessible option benefits in multiple ways, she added.
“While the student subscription is not that costly, the campus subscription will remove a barrier to access, and also get students familiar with the Library’s digital holdings,” Glidden said.
Historical research
Faculty members in the History Department expressed enthusiasm for the digital content from TimesMachine, which lets users browse historical editions of The New York Times dating back to the paper’s origins in 1851.
“I typically use the paper to give the more conservative Republican point of view on the Civil War and Reconstruction,” history professor Frank Byrne said. “Digital newspapers are a boon to the historian as they make research much easier and efficient.”
Fellow history professor Chris Mack said that while he hopes students, faculty and staff get political news from other sources as well as The New York Times, “[I] still think it has value as a common source of information and touchstone for students, faculty and staff in our ongoing discussions in class and across the campus.”
Mack also highlighted the importance of The Athletic section of The New York Times for sports studies minors, saying it will “prove useful for discussion in the sports studies minor classes and as a source for their papers and projects.”
The subscription also includes cooking, Wirecutter and games –- including the much-beloved (or cursed) New York Times crossword puzzle. Penfield Library Administrative Assistant Christina Briglin said she was excited to get access to the crossword puzzle.
“Crossword puzzles are fun, and they make your brain work,” Briglin said. “I would love to be able to solve the Sunday puzzle.”
This subscription does have some login quirks that set it apart from other library databases: “The New York Times requires patrons to create an individual account with The New York Times, using their SUNY Oswego email address,” Bond said. “We've created a LibGuide to help guide users through the initial registration process.”
Student accounts will retain access until Dec. 31 of the student’s graduation year. Faculty and staff New York Times accounts will last for four years, after which everyone will need to reactivate their accounts. There is an option during the account creation process to add a reminder to users’ calendars so they don’t forget to renew their account.
Anyone who already has an active account with The New York Times associated with their SUNY Oswego email should contact The New York Times to cancel their existing account before creating their new, free account. Paid subscriptions can be canceled at customercare@nytimes.com, (800) 591-9233, or The New York Times online Customer Care Chat.
-- Submitted by Penfield Library