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U. partners with Wall Street Journal to provide students with free subscriptions

“We’ve been waiting for this for such a long time,” explained Assistant University Librarian for Collection Development Patty Gaspari-Bridges, referring to the University’s new partnership with the The Wall Street Journal. On Oct. 3, 2017, the Princeton University Library announced that members of the University community, including staff, students, and faculty members, now have access to the Journal’s online edition.

In April 2014, The New York Times online was made available to members of the University community through negotiations between the Times and the Center for Research Libraries, a consortium of libraries throughout the country, which includes the University’s Library.

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Gaspari-Bridges noted that she had tried to do the same with the Journal, adding that, until recently, the “Journal wasn’t ready for that kind of partnership,” as it was relying on personal memberships instead of institutional memberships.

This year, the Journal finally became interested in pursuing a model that includes institutional memberships. This allowed Gaspari-Bridges to approach Dow Jones & Company, the Journal’s parent company, in search of a partnership.

Gaspari-Bridges went directly to the Journal instead of going to the Center for Research Libraries, which is currently negotiating a partnership of its own with the Journal.

“I subscribed because I think that The Wall Street Journal has very good economic reporting,” noted Samuel Russell ’18, who recently took advantage of the Journal partnership.

“I think that they make articles that are — although very technical — very accessible,” said Russell, explaining that he also enjoys some of the hot takes written by the Journal’s Editorial Board.

In order to ensure that those no longer affiliated with the University do not continue to subscribe to the Journal after they have left, subscriptions are allowed to be active for only 120 days. After that, the subscribed student, staff, or faculty member will be sent an email requesting that they re-verify their University affiliation.

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The license negotiated between Princeton University Library and the Journal extends for a five-year time period.

On Oct. 10, 2017, however, Princeton’s Office of Information Technology staff, along with the Journal’s IT department, were resolving an issue with the linked registration form.

“If you don’t already have an account and you click on the link, it doesn’t take you to the [proper] registration form,” said Gaspari-Bridges. “It takes you to a registration form as though you were not associated with the University.”

“I was having issues activating the subscription, and I know other people have been having the same problem,” Zachary Liu ’18 said.

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Once the technical difficulties are resolved, the University library will begin to advertise the partnership more heavily.