It's almost as simple as picking up a copy of today's Deseret News.
The full text of the newspaper's editions from days gone by - April 1, 1988, to the present - are available from the modern version of the newsstand, the Internet.Through a licensing agreement announced this week, Utah's public libraries, public schools, colleges and universities, and state agencies now have access to the Deseret News' computer data base.
The landmark agreement allows the general public, through the libraries, unlimited access to information published in the newspaper, including all obituaries recorded since Jan. 1, 1990.
"All in all, it's pretty exciting," Amy Owen, director of the State Library Division, said of the agreement. "We've been involved over the last couple of years in a special project to build public library on-ramps to the Internet, and we're doing that through telecommunications backbones that already exist."
The Deseret News is the first newspaper to become part of that effort.
"When you think about it, every story that's been printed since 1988 is available on computer - if you can get to it," said Don Woodward, managing editor of the Deseret News. "This makes it available throughout the state.
"This is really a big step forward. We're excited about it."
The data base has been available to the state's reference librarians through a computer modem, which allows for only limited use. With the Internet connection, the same data base is available to 100 users simultaneously.
"Quality resources like this are very much needed in our school library media centers because we've had a decrease in funding over the years for library media material," said Sharyl Smith, library media education specialist for the State Office of Education.
Anyone can access the Deseret News data base while at the library, but access from home computers is not available through Internet.
All public libraries, public schools, colleges and universities, and state agencies with Internet access can now tap into the newspaper's electronic data base. But those groups are in various states of becoming connected.
Owen hopes 85 percent of the state's public libraries will be hooked up to the Internet by this summer. The state agencies may take a little more time, she said.
Bonnie Mellor, librarian for the Mt. Pleasant Public Library, said her Sanpete County community has shown much interest in the Deseret News data base since it was placed on the Internet.
"It's only been working for a couple of weeks, but a lot of students have come in," Mellor said. "One girl needed some articles on sex education in the state; another needed some (articles about) accidents for drivers education class.
"We found some good stuff on gangs that was real current. Then we found an obituary for someone."
Public schools across the state are entering the information superhighway, but not at high speed. Only about 50 of the state's 700 public and private elementary, middle and secondary schools are linked up, according to Ed Sharp, director of the University of Utah Computer Center. The remaining 650 schools could be aboard, though, within five years, he said.
The licensing contract, which took effect Jan. 1, is the product of yearlong negotiations among the Deseret News, the schools and the state. The cost of the service, under an initial two-year contract, will be shared equally by three parties - the State Office of Education, the state's college and university libraries, and the State Library Division.
David Croft, systems manager for the Deseret News, credits Utah State University information specialist Warren Babcock with encouraging the newspaper to think about offering its data base via the Internet.
Babcock, chairman of the Utah Library Association's Committee on Utah Newspapers, contacted the Deseret News several years ago about obtaining an index of past articles. He was delighted to learn the paper had created its own full-text data base.
"That really expanded our role," Babcock said of the committee.
"Indexing is all right, but it doesn't give you the full article, so this is most exciting."
The data base will be updated daily by the Deseret News' library staff, managed by Colleen Randall. Articles are generally available on the Internet within two to three days of their appearance in the newspaper, she said.
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Additional Information
Where to find on-ramps to superhighway
The Deseret News data base is available on the Internet at the following locations:
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
American Fork
Park City
Brigham City
Price
Cedar City
Provo
Davis County
Salt Lake City and branches
Delta
Spanish Fork
Logan
Springville
Mt. Pleasant
Washington County and branches
Orem
Weber County
AVAILABLE BY THE END OF FEBRUARY
Davis County branches
Ephraim
Salt Lake County and branches
AVAILABLE SOON
Kaysville
Manti
Roosevelt/Duchesne County
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Brigham Young University, main and law libraries
College of Eastern Utah
Dixie College
Salt Lake Community College
Snow College
Southern Utah University
University of Utah, main, law and medical libraries
Utah Valley State College
Utah State University
Weber State University
Westminster College
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS
About 50 of the state's 700 elementary, middle and secondary schools now have Internet access, but all could be online by the year 2000.