Library offers a new online service

The Washoe County Library is here to help. The Library recently began subscribing to Newsbank.com, and the service is free to the public.

Simply go to www.newsbank.com. At the bottom left side of the home page, click on “Customers, click here to access your Newsbank products.” On the next page, click the yellow box, “Click here to access your Newsbank products.” Yes, it’s redundant; welcome to the Web. The log-in: ra-2500. The password: ra-2500.

This is a complete full-text content of the RG-J’s local and regional news going back to November of last year and a few random articles with dates earlier than that. It includes most of what appears in the newspaper, excluding paid advertisements.

“NewsBank’s pretty good,” says Library Assistant Kim Raines. “It’s got almost everything—obituaries, birth announcements. Pretty cool.”

It should be noted that this service works in conjunction with the Washoe Country Library’s “clip” files in the periodicals section in the basement at the downtown library, which Raines administers. The little-known clip files are hard-copy articles on a variety of subjects—for example, the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority. The clip files—some of which date back to the ‘40s—became a regular library service in the early 1980s. For those who’ve never seen the system, a browse through the notebook containing the various topic areas is necessary. It’s a phenomenal resource for students and researchers.

Now, if NewsBank could only start archiving the Sparks Daily Tribune and the Reno News & Review, it’d be an unparalleled database. In lieu of a comprehensive area newspaper database, you can always go to the RN&R’s past issues at www.newsreview.com.