New York Times FREE 1981-present

Great news! The New York Times recently announced that it will give free access to Times Select, including their archives (back to 1851) to people with a .edu e-mail address.

Here’s the press release (via the ACRLog):

Beginning on March 13, subscriptions to TimesSelect will be available for free to all registered college students and faculty with a .edu in their e-mail addresses. TimesSelect is NYTimes.com’s paid offering that provides exclusive access to 22 columnists of The Times and the International Herald Tribune as well as an array of other services, including access to The Times’s archives, advance previews of various sections and tools for tracking and storing news and information. Current student subscribers will receive pro-rated refunds for their previously paid subscriptions. College students interested in registering for free TimesSelect subscriptions should go to www.nytimes.com/university for more information.

This should be wonderful for students and faculty members in History–easy access to primary sources (newspaper articles) online. It also gives you access to the op/ed pieces which are not available on the public side of the New York Times website.

You have to register directly with the New York Times to access this (it doesn’t go through Research Port), but it’s fairly painless.

In the past, libraries would have to pay thousands of dollars a year for this type of online access to the Times. Now, you can get it for free. Go out and try it!

Update 4/3/07: The free account with TimeSelect no longer includes articles from before 1981.

Please note: your complimentary university subscription to TimesSelect does not provide access to articles published before 1981. You may be able to access this material through your university intranet or library.

For older articles, the library has microfilm of the New York Times. Many of the public libraries in the area also have subscriptions to ProQuest Historical Newspapers, which will provide access to the New York Times back to 1851. It’s not free, but your public library is footing the bill.