Reference: Handy Spreadsheet With Info About 290 News Databases, Result of Recent CRL Survey

Last week we discovered (we’re always looking) a very informative new spreadsheet from the Center for Research Libraries that lists a sizable collection of news and news-related databases.
What we found came without any supporting documentation about when and why it was created.
We reached out to James Simon from CRL.  He got back to us very quickly with the following details about the data found on the spreadsheet.
James writes:

CRL recently performed a survey of its member libraries to gauge the extent of access to various commercially-produced news databases. For purposes of the survey, “news” was broadly defined, incorporating full-text and page-image news databases (historical and current), abstracts and indexing services, and subject-specific or multi-disciplinary databases that incorporate current awareness or news resources as part of their source content. CRL staff combed through e-resource pages of the 50 largest CRL institutions (by library material expenditure) to compile a thorough list of news databases. CRL then harmonized the data and re-checked those members’ sites to indicate the number of institutions subscribing to each identified product.
As part of its preliminary assessment of nearly 290 titles/products, CRL found that on average, large libraries purchased or subscribed to 70 different news databases (the lowest take-up was 27 products and the highest was 125). For current news databases, LexisNexis Academic, Factiva, and Ethnic NewsWatch were subscribed to by nearly all surveyed libraries. Historical resources with the highest subscription rate included Times Digital Archive (Gale Cengage), World Newspaper Archive: Latin American Newspapers (Readex/CRL), and New York Times Archive (ProQuest).
CRL is performing a similar assessment of its smaller member institutions to assess the comparative needs of undergraduate and small research institutions.

We think this spreadsheet will be of interest not only to CRL members and other research libraries but anyone looking for a large list of news and news-related databases. In other words, it might be a useful reference tool for many of you. Database publishers might also find the list useful.
The spreadsheet contains the following data:

• Name of Database

• Alternative Name (if Any)

• Database Publisher

• Percentage of CRL Members (Large Libraries) Providing Access to the Database

You can access the spreadsheet here.

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, Digital Collections, Digital Preservation, Gale, Libraries, News, Publishing, Reports