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Lexis-Nexis: Old School Searching Still Has Its Place

by Alan Bilansky, CITES EdTech Consultant

Nowadays, everyone knows that you can get useful search results using Google. Back in the day, however, before Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, we used Lexis-Nexis to do the same sort of search. A decade or so ago, if you wanted to find out about, say, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, a search of Lexis-Nexis would be your best bet. Nowadays, if you didn't know anything about Mitt Romney, you'd just Google his name. For most students today, researching a topic starts with a web search. Instructors hope that research doesn't end with the web, and that students will also use other library databases to find information and ideas. So, it's worthwhile to know and point out to students what advantages these old school databases still have.

Lexis-Nexis was originally intended for legal research and includes all legal documents (statutes, cases, opinions, etc.) of the United States. Also, Lexis-Nexis includes a vast, searchable archive of print publications: newspapers, magazines, references, and other public records. This archive represents an effort to be comprehensive in a span of time from the present (a few hours ago) to around 1980, and also includes a good deal before that. Should we use Lexis-Nexis instead of Google? Of course not. Google is broad, Lexis-Nexis is deep, and each has advantages and disadvantages.

But here's the main reason to use Lexis-Nexis regularly: Lexis-Nexis archives the texts of a vast array of publications, including the full text of articles we would otherwise have to access by subscribing to them all or walking into the library. For example, I read the New York Times online, and was frustrated at first when they recently decided to restrict web access to its columnists and many feature articles to paid subscribers. Now, if I see an editorial that interests me, I log into Lexis-Nexis, and a simple search gives me the full text of the article. I know what you're thinking: is this stealing? Not at all. Lexis-Nexis negotiates for the rights to use all that text and then the University subscribes to Lexis-Nexis. So, I can use this to access recent (the same day) articles to other newspapers that require an online subscription like the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. This also means that it's very easy for your students to access these publications for use in assignments. There's more. I also listen to National Public Radio. If I'm interested in a news story, I can also use Lexis-Nexis to get a transcript of it within 24 hours!

To access Lexis-Nexis through the U of I's web site:

  1. Go to the Library Gateway (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/).
  2. Select Online Research Resources and enter Lexis in the search form at the top of the page.
  3. Login with your NetID.
  4. Enjoy.
  5. Repeat as necessary.