University library searches to undergo modernization

Research requires work, but thanks to the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), that work may soon decrease for University students, staff and faculty.

The conventional LEXIS-NEXIS system, a research database for those with University access accounts, will undergo an overhaul.

The current LEXIS-NEXIS system, originally developed at the University of Pittsburgh, is a research tool found within the CIC -- Big Ten schools and the University of Chicago working together to increase academic cooperation between the institutions. The system is used for doing legal and legislative research, or research about news, business and industry.

With the old system, students needed to travel to Pattee to use its resources, said Kevin Harwell, social sciences librarian in Pattee. But with the new system, anyone with a University access account will be able to access the base in Dayton, Ohio from any computer terminal on campus, he said.

The new system is World Wide Web-based and will use search forms organized around various topics, Harwell said, adding that the system will be capable of compiling more information from a greater variety of sources.

Kim Fisher, a humanities librarian in Pattee, calls the new system -- LEXIS-NEXIS/UNIVerse -- a collaborative one among all CIC member universities.

University library representatives routinely meet within the CIC to discuss methods of improvement of various services, Fisher said.

The new system will be easier for students to use because there won't be any passwords required and students won't need to know a command for every function, Harwell added.

Fisher currently heads the student training service, which walks users of LEXIS-NEXIS through the system. With the installment of the new system, this need would be eliminated, he said.

Hariharan Krishnaraj (junior-political science) said he was pleased with the imminent change in the LEXIS-NEXIS system.

"I think the new system would be better just because a lot of times it comes down to fighting for a spot at the computers," he said, "and there are only four."