Over 6,000 miles away from the Kean University campus, something has grabbed the attention of Lebanon news headlines. The challenge, given to a Kean student, who has no personal connections to the country or knowledge of its language, is to find out what exactly that headline news is. It is safe to say that by the time one has purchased a flight ticket and mastered the language, or even taken the more logical route of exploring internet search engines for hours in hopes to come across a site that offers current international issues, the news has already become "old news". The Nancy Thompson Library at Kean University offers students a solution to this seemingly impossible task: Library PressDisplay.
With a few clicks of the mouse and a library barcode, students may access current news from Brazil, Demark, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Spain, and yes, Lebanon; as well as almost one hundred other countries. Through Library PressDisplay, one of The Nancy Thompson Library's newest resources, students may access worldwide news with the capability to translate and filter current events; or even explore archived news. In total, the site offers over 1,700 newspapers covering 48 different languages.
Students have the option to search the alphabetized list of counties who participate in the Library PressDisplay, and may further narrow their search for publications specifically within that country. Another option allows a user to filter through articles based on topical interest, such as business, entertainment, sports, and editorials. Specific topics and "key words" can also be used as a filter via a search bar located at the top of the site's page. Though filtering options and navigation of Library PressDisplay are "user friendly", a demo of application basics can be found at the top right of the homepage. This demo serves as more than a standard tutorial, as it will also cover customization options for users, and even link a user to a support blog for further assistance.
First time users of the Kean University Library database may access its homepage through the Kean University website or visit http://library.kean.edu directly. Once on the homepage, students will be able to view the five gray tabs, located in the center. The tab ‘Articles & More', second from the top of the five, will open access to an alphabetical listing of the databases. Once here, a student should click the on the ‘L' letter along the top to jump to the section that offers the link to "Library PressDisplay".
Students attempting to access Nancy Thompson services off-campus may be prompted to input their personal Kean University library code, located on the back of their Kean ID card. First time users may receive a bar code by presenting their Kean ID to library staff.
Additional features of Library PressDisplay are: a stream of "hot topics" located on the home page; a comments and review tracker to indicate which articles are receiving the most user-attention; editors versus readers guide to editorial news topics; blog forums; and an audio option for users who wish to have their articles choices read aloud.
PressDisplay is a service by the company NewspaperDirect, Inc. Access to news at convenience and the "green" alternatives to newsprint are two of the missions of NewspaperDirect. The company urges the later mission as a philanthropic step towards the news future. The PressDisplay blog shares with users, "Our 6 million daily visitors have saved thousands of trees since 2003 and the numbers keep growing."
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