The EUobserver.com is an independent website published by EUobserver.com ASBL, a non-profit association registered under Belgian law. It represents the largest online news site covering European countries and matters, providing the latest news and press reviews on a vast array of topics. The site content is also divided in different thematic areas, such as Political Affairs, Justice & Home Affairs, Defense, Human Rights. Freely available for personal and non-commercial use, EUobserver.com features a pay license for full access to professional users – while some articles are “Premium content” requiring the purchase of Pay Per View Credits. Over 750,000 readers visit this site each month, primarily accessing data in such fields as Businesses/Consultancies, Academic Institutions, and national or EU administrations. EUobserver.com features several layers of information, with news categories and sections always easy to locate and to browse. The news content is also well structured, rich-in-text and well presented, including a series of easily-accessible menus and sub-menus.
EUobserver.com
An independent news service focused on the European Union
Global NewsBank
Newswire items from around the world tailored for libraries
Global NewsBank provides primary source news information on international issues and events. Its extensive database offers varying perspectives on international issues and events, with information coming mostly from official and media sources. Its web-based resources feature content from newspapers, newswires, business journals, historical and scholarly documents, periodicals and more, and include news items drawn from more than 2,000 sources and about 95,000 articles added yearly from radio and television broadcasts, wire service, newspaper and magazine articles, news agency transmissions, and government documents from around the world. Articles and broadcasts are fully translated into English, while other records are also in Spanish. Aiming at supplying schools and libraries with information resources that expand the impact of library media and technology programs, Global NewsBank information is delivered on CD-Rom and via the internet, in this case with added options such as dynamic daily updates, full-text articles, and indexed articles. Its services are fully accessible only through paid subscriptions, with detailed descriptions of collections and services available for free. With its professional design and approach, this site offers to paying subscribers several search and downloading options.
Online Newspapers
A gateway to all newspapers websites worldwide
Online Newspapers is a gateway offering a large amount of worldwide newspapers’ websites links, at a local, national and international level. The site is maintained by an Australian company providing internet search services, even though no clear information about its identity is provided here. This website contains listings of almost any newspaper website worldwide, with direct links organized in a single page. It’s a very useful tool for researchers interested on the media and press, and for any user interested in following and retrieving updated news. Newspapers’ websites links are organized by geographical areas, although there is no direct access to newspaper articles, but only to their homepage. This website has a very clear structured and features some sections containing a series of link listings, reachable through a basic search engine interface on its homepage. Content is completely free; users can also have some degree of direct interaction: they can add new newspaper links, alert about errors or web address changes. Overall the website interface design is poorly developed, though, mainly limited to its search interface. Also, there is no specific information about the general updating rate.
Pro-Quest Historical Newspapers
Newspapers, periodicals and dissertations repository
Pro Quest Information and Learning is a big company managing partnerships with 9,000 publishers worldwide, giving access to a huge amount of periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, articles, reviews and journals – available in a wide range of formats (text and media). Most records are coupled with comments, meta-info and bibliographic data, and the database is daily updated. Pro Quest is the unique off-site repository of digital information for the Library of Congress. Politics and History, Social Sciences and Public Policies are relevant areas of the website, also providing access to public records and archives. In particular, Pro Quest offers historical and current newspaper databases, providing access to full-text and full-image articles of any issue of the main U.S. newspapers dating back to the 19th century. The Historical Newspaper collection includes digital reproductions in downloadable pdf files of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and others. Very rich descriptions and detailed previews of the products are freely accessible, while access to records is on a pay-per-use basis. Demos, descriptions and free trials are also available. An advanced search option features a user-friendly interface and an international technical support is also provided – thus resulting in an easy navigation even for first-time users.
Project Syndicate
An association of newspapers around the world
Project Syndicate, a non-profit organization, is an international association of around 260 newspapers in more than 110 countries providing hundreds of articles and commentaries on current political, economic as well as social and international issues and hot topics, written by prominent figures in the world’s foremost newspapers, including politicians, novelists, academics, and activists. The website provides twenty monthly series and one weekly series of articles on topics ranging from economics and international affairs to science and philosophy. Records are classified by topics and date of publication, annotated and translated from their original versions in several languages. All kinds of users are allowed to access all articles and material for free and browse through detailed directories. Yet, downloading options are quite limited: users are only allowed to save webpages, or use printer-friendly versions. The linking structure is well developed, providing the direct links to member newspapers’websites. Updating frequency is on a weekly or monthly basis according to the publication series. Although few navigational supports are provided, the website presents no problems of orientation thanks to its clear content organization.
