Research at the University may become more difficult as of June 1, thanks to Reed Elsevier Inc. Beginning next week, the publishing conglomerate owning Lexis/Nexis, the popular on-line research service, will no longer offer the database to the University community. It will instead offer a new World Wide Web-based service called Academic Universe. According to University library officials, Elsevier deemed Lexis/Nexis -- which was created mainly for law and journalism schools -- inappropriate for University-wide circulation. Although the library has protested the switch, it simply could not afford to continue subscribing to Lexis/Nexis, according to Joe Zucca, executive assistant to Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Paul Mosher. "The library had access to Lexis/Nexis under a very generous agreement with the publisher," Zucca said. "We were getting a very substantial discount. But now they've taken [the discount] away and we can't afford it." The main drawback to Academic Universe seems to be that its search engine is far less powerful than that of its Lexis/Nexis counterpart, making keyword searches much more difficult. "[The publisher] went for ease of use rather than power of searching," reference librarian Bob Walther said. Access to foreign language magazines will also be severely limited under the new service. And although most legal and legislative material has been removed, it should still be available through an alternative database called Congressional Universe, according to officials. Zucca did point out several decided advantages that the new service will have over the previous telnet-based Lexis/Nexis, the most important being that Academic Universe will be available to the entire University. Access to Lexis/Nexis was restricted to current students and faculty, excluding University administrators and staff. The new system will also allow users to print and download entire articles and users will be able to e-mail search results to their own electronic mail accounts. The new graphical interface and drop-down menus will also make the system "look easier and be easier," according to Zucca. Although Walther said he thinks most undergraduates will welcome the new version, he admitted that some graduates who use the more sophisticated special features might be "less happy" with the change. Although Walther declined to disclose the exact cost of the Lexis/Nexis service, he did note that it was so expensive that "paying the full cost was never seriously considered." He noted that even the new system will be more expensive than the discounted service to which the library previously subscribed. One major concern that library officials have is that some faculty may have already constructed course and classroom assignments that depend on their students using Lexis/Nexis. Both Zucca and Walther noted that the library is looking into the possibility of retaining a certain number of passwords to the traditional Lexis/Nexis database, although they are not yet sure how they would be put to use.
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