Editor’s Note: Campus Findings is a weekly column about things on campus that trigger the curiosity of the Iowa State community. Carrie Sutton, junior in journalism and mass communication, will investigate the inquires each week and post her findings. Submit inquires to [email protected].

The rumor about LEXIS-NEXIS being eliminated from Iowa State’s Parks Library is just that — a rumor.

Kristin Gerhard, collections officer for the Parks Library, said the rumor is not true, but concerns about keeping LEXIS-NEXIS have been discussed due to a rate increase in August.

Gerhard said LEXIS-NEXIS is a computer program designed to provide law and news information. LEXIS is a law information library, and NEXIS is a news information source, she said.

“LEXIS-NEXIS is kind of a unique source,” she said.

Gerhard said the cost of the service rose because the library’s LEXIS-NEXIS vendor stopped charging the library a special academic rate.

“The vendor’s pricing has really put us in a difficult situation,” she said. “The new cost is really prohibitive.”

Gerhard said the library was previously paying about $660 per month for two access stations, and the new rate would increase the price to $2,200 per month.

“The new structure is hard on academic institutions,” Gerhard said.

Gerhard said the library is trying to make a deal with the vendor to gradually “roll up” to the new price in three years.

She said the library has a month-to-month contract, which is not as expensive and will expire in August 1999. There is no official last day of the service, she said, and the library must give a 60-day notice if it wants to end the contract before August.

Gerhard said faculty as well as students are now guaranteed LEXIS-NEXIS for their use, and some faculty members will meet with library officials to discuss the continuance of the LEXIS-NEXIS at the library.

“We’re in the process of talking to who it will affect and discussing it from there,” Gerhard said. “Somehow we’ll find a way to keep it.”

Gerhard said LEXIS-NEXIS is used by specific classes in a variety of colleges, and some departments have their own LEXIS-NEXIS stations, but access to them is limited to the people in the departments. She said access to LEXIS-NEXIS is less limited on the two computers in the library.

Gerhard said the library has other sources students and faculty can use if LEXIS-NEXIS is ever eliminated.

“We have a wide variety of law and news sources,” she said.

She said the library has “lots and lots of electronic resources,” such as the Expanded Academic Index, which is accessible from anywhere because it is located on the library’s Web site.

“It’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.