A New Benefit to the Georgetown Community

One of my fondest memories of time spent in libraries revolves around reading newspapers. As an undergraduate student, this was a good excuse for avoiding homework or other studies. On a graduate student stipend, it was a good way to stay current and avoid the expense of home delivery. I still remember the racks of scores of newspapers at my college, with wooden rods holding the pages together.

Newspapers have changed greatly over time. While prominent newspapers still provide print editions, which continue to be delivered to homes and offices, other newspapers are completely digital. Indeed, the digital form has more desirable features than the print form – more color, video content, active commenting, updating of news stories in near real time.

So libraries throughout the country have cut back on racks of physical newspapers. It’s a loss.

Many students come to Georgetown in hopes that they can use their talents to build a better world. Such self-selection fits the Jesuit heritage of people for others, and it fits well with Georgetown’s location in the capital of one of the powerful countries of the world. Aspirations of changing the world are best founded on deep understanding of the ingredients of those problems. What are their possible causes? What activities are already occurring to ameliorate the problems? What prior efforts have been found to be effective; which, have failed? What are the career lines of those working on the problems? What organizations are active in the area?

Our degree programs are thus filled with students with unusual needs to keep up to date with both US and foreign news. At the same time, our faculty and staff, because of their careers, have the same needs.

The Provost Student Advisory Committee raised the question of whether the university might consider constructing a group subscription for students, staff, and faculty to some major newspapers. They conducted an informal poll of which newspapers might be most often read by the peers. The answers came back that the New York Times and the Washington Post would be the top two reads.

Through the leadership of Harriette Hemmasi, the dean of the library, the university has been investigating how we might make this happen. An individual digital subscription to one of these papers runs between roughly $140 and $200 annually. It looks like we can do much better than that if we offer all students, staff, and faculty subscriptions as part of their membership in the community, with no cost to them. The plan would be to offer digital access to the two publications, not physical print versions.

There are several details to be completed, but it now seems clear that we will be able to offer this as a new benefit to students, staff, and faculty. It’s most likely subscriptions will be set up through the website of the library, checking on one’s credentials as a member of the Georgetown community. (When things are finalized, we’ll send out email announcements of the new service.)

We’re thankful to the Provost Student Advisory Committee for highlighting this issue. Their leadership has created a new benefit for us all.