During the summer semester the Libraries will be replacing its subscription to the Lexis-Nexis Academic database with the Westlaw Campus Research database. Westlaw Campus Research has been available on the Libraries' Indexes and Databases webpages since May. The Rutgers University Libraries' subscription to LexisNexis Academic will end on June 30^th.

This change is one part of the Libraries' plans to cope with the drastic budget cut we face in the coming year, due to severe New Jersey State budget cuts to the University. Our subject specialist librarians who proposed this change did so after a careful comparison of the two databases. They determined that the change in databases will, in many respects, result in an overall benefit to Libraries users.

Rutgers subject specialist librarians found that the Westlaw Campus Research search interface is easier to use and allows for more for intelligent, flexible searching. In terms of content, both Lexis-Nexis Academic and Westlaw Campus Research are very similar. Both databases have all U.S. and Canadian law journals in fulltext. Westlaw Campus Research has some legal material, such as decisions from certain trial courts at the state level and, significantly, the New Jersey Administrative Code, which LexisNexis Academic does not have. In terms of newspaper coverage, LexisNexis Academic and Westlaw Campus Research are also comparable; the Libraries also offer an even better database for news coverage, Access World News.

The Libraries will offer training sessions in the late summer and fall for faculty, staff, and students on how to most effectively use Westlaw Campus Research. Training sessions are planned in Alexander Library on the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick, in the John Cotton Dana Library on the Newark Campus, and in the Paul Robeson Library on the Camden Campus. Specific dates, times, and room locations will be posted in a news story on the Libraries website in mid August.

For more information on this database change, please contact your subject specialist librarian - to identify the librarian that serves your academic area, please see: http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/about/collection_dir.shtml Questions and comments may also be directed to Mary Fetzer, Government Resources Librarian, at fetzer@rci.rutgers.edu or 732.932.7129, x121, or Tom Glynn, Anglo-American History and Political Science Librarian, at glynn@rci.rutgers.edu or 732-932-7129, x128.