Busse Library Web

MMC NOTEBOOK - NOTE #A16: LEXISNEXIS™ ACADEMIC and LEXISNEXIS™ Congressional

LexisNexis Academic is a large collection of databases from a single aggregator vendor. It is especially useful for finding topical news articles from through the world, business news and company financial information, legal information and court rulings, indexes to medical information and some general reference materials (country profiles, public opinion surveys, etc.).

LexisNexis Congressional is another collection of databases devoted to the legal process, laws, regulations, members of Congress and topical issues.

On the Periodical Indexes and Other Databases page for on-campus users, you may go to the main page for Academic Universe or you may go directly to the general subset you need, e.g. general news, U.S. news, medical, state courts, etc. When you select Congressional Universe, you go to the main page and make your subset selection there. When off-campus you will go to a page where you start your search by selecting either Academic Universe or Congressional Universe and continue from there. Passwords are required.

Both use similar interfaces and have similar search capabilities. Within most of the search screens, you have several choices in limiting and refining your search. Some of the limits are: Source (particular subsets of publications), Date or time frame (today, this week, past six months ... all available dates), types of articles or general subject category, court types, etc. These are available in drop down menus indicated by a button beside the form field.

Lexis-Nexis™ provides a 'How Do I..." page with suggestions on finding particular kinds of information --- which Academic Universe database to use and which features to select. A similar page for Congressional Universe provides suggestions for finding information on the US Congress, the legislative process, bill histories and government regulations.

See the Reference Librarians with your questions.

Mount Mercy College -- 1330 Elmhurst Drive NE -- Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Every effort is made to keep the links to the Busse Library Webpage current and relevant to the library's mission. It is your responsibility to evaluate the quality of information found. Some may be outdated, inaccurate or personally offensive. Parents are advised to monitor their children's use of these resources. US Copyright Law applies to materials published and accessed. It is illegal in Iowa to download or purvey child pornography and to commit fraudulent acts over the Internet.