CDL: Print newpapers (responses 8-9)

[The original posting is in the list archives at:

     http://www.infomotions.com/serials/colldv-l/06/0102.shtml

      and responses follow below.]From: l-lyons_at_northwestern.edu

There was a response sent to me responding to Jane Kliner's post, but
I have accidentally sent it into the region occupied by
the former planet Pluto.  If the sender will send again to me
I will post it.  Thx, JA


==#8==

At Northwestern, we have just subscribed to "NewspaperDirect."  The 
print quality is, in some cases, better than what you would receive 
from the publisher.  In the long run, it will save money.  In the 
meantime, it makes it possible to have foreign papers today.  As our 
head of newspapers says:

     "At least it gets the print papers to be timely and less 
expensive. And, somehow, it seems to me, holding and reading an actual 
printed paper is a very different experience from going to a newspaper 
web site. I'll be interested to see how users respond to our 
NewspaperDirect papers over the next year."

==#9==

From: Linwood DeLong <linwood.delong_at_uwinnipeg.ca>

We certainly appreciate the information that is provided through
newspaper databases such as Lexis Nexis, but our experience has been
that newspaper databases are not always reliable.   The information is
often updated based on an "atypical update schedule" and only sections
of the newspaper are available.  (Tahini decision strikes again!)

More importantly, newspaper databases often do not provide the
information on a day-by-day basis.   You can search for something, using
keywords, authors, etc., but you frequently can't glance over the
headlines of the day, to see what happened.    I would say that in
newspapers, more than almost any other source, most information is
discovered serendipitously.

Which is a long way of saying that we only have a few print newspaper
subscriptions (we can't afford a large no. of them), but we would be
unlikely to cancel them in favour of electronic.

I am surprised at the number of German newspapers in Lexis Nexis that
aren't even in German.   They are English-language versions that 
appear to be heavily truncated.

Linwood DeLong
Collections Coordinator
University of Winnipeg Library
515 Portage Ave.
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
R3B 2E9

Ph. (204) 786-9124