So much has quickly become virtual in 2020, giving everyone studying and working from home ways to connect with the world. Meetings happen over Teams or Zoom, movies are released to streaming services instead of theaters, and librarians offer virtual assistance with research questions. The Leatherby Libraries and the Chapman University Student Government Association (SGA) are excited to announce that, as the result of a partnership between the two, Chapman students, faculty, and staff are now able to access USA Today digitally for the 2020-2021 academic year.

The SGA has funded the Chapman University subscription to USA Today for a number of years now, but that subscription has been for the print version of the newspaper. SGA President Philip Goodrich writes, “SGA usually funds a hard copy subscription for USA Today; however, since we moved to a virtual environment, we figured it would be beneficial to the student body to offer this resource in an electronic format.”  SGA broached the idea of changing the subscription to a digital one with the Leatherby Libraries, Information Services & Technology, and USA Today, and Leatherby Libraries Coordinator of Scholarly Communications & Electronic Resources Kristin Laughtin-Dunker was delighted to facilitate the deal. She writes, “The Leatherby Libraries was happy to collaborate with the Student Government Association to provide online access to USA Today for this academic year. Once SGA President Philip Goodrich put us touch in with the representatives from USA Today, it was a fairly standard process on our end, much like that for any of our other databases, and I’m happy that students will be able to continue accessing this resource even through the campus closure.”

This is not the only electronic subscription that SGA funds. Since November 2017, SGA has also funded online access to the New York Times website for all Chapman students. This subscription is separate from and complementary to the Leatherby Libraries’ subscriptions to databases containing articles from the New York Times. As Kristin explains, “The SGA [subscription] provides access to the New York Times website, while the library subscriptions are for the articles within a database.”

As always, the Leatherby Libraries is proud to partner with student organizations working to provide access to more resources for Chapman University students, faculty, and staff. As Philip writes, “With everything going on in this world of ours, it is imperative for students to be aware and up to date with current events, and by continuing to fund the USA Today subscription, I believe we are helping our students stay informed and knowledgeable of the pressing issues facing our society.”

The digital subscription to USA Today can be accessed here.

 

 

 

The image for this blog: “Reading a periodical in the Thurmond Clarke Memorial Library, Chapman College, Orange, California,” Chapman University Campus Buildings collection of the Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections & Archives.