The newest addition to the Boston College Libraries’ inventory of resources available for students on campus is a subscription to The Wall Street Journal with no monthly charge to student subscribers. BC Libraries has paid a fee so that students do not have to pay extra for access to the Journal. BC also offers access to The Financial Times.
“All current students, faculty, and staff at BC can have their own subscription to [the Journal now],” said Sonia Ensins, business librarian for BC Libraries. “We have hundreds and hundreds of periodicals. [The Journal and The Financial Times] are a little bit different in that it’s newspapers and you can get a subscription similar to what you would have if you did it individually.”
The partnership appeals to the library because no newspaper like the Journal has ever offered such unrestricted access to the University community. The entire Journal archive won’t be available through the subscription—it is available through the library’s newspaper research guide—but beyond that, BC students have never had the opportunity to have a subscription they don’t need to pay extra for to one of the largest newspapers in the country. Ensins noted that The Financial Times subscription, though comprehensive, has a limited audience compared to the Journal.
The charge to the library is discounted from a group subscription or buying individual ones for each student on campus, according to Ensins. Along those same lines, this partnership could be the beginning of a more serious relationship: Ensins said that journalists from the paper may visit campus at some point this year. The Journal’s presence at BC will not end at available subscriptions.
In addition, Ensins noted the most comprehensive resource in relation to current issues of newspapers across the country offered through the library is Factiva. A DowJones service, Factiva gives students access to searching through current events on an easy-to-navigate landing page. Showcased on the front page are the Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and many others.
Update (9/7/18, 10:16): This article and its headline have been updated to reflect that BC Libraries is currently offering, rather than intending to offer, the WSJ subscription.
Featured Image by Celine Lim / Heights Editor
