Lexis is arguably the most powerful--and is certainly the largest--database we have.
Locating the current issue of the New York Times or Washington Post or any other paper in Lexis Academic.
Step One: Go to Lexis Academic.
Step Two: Click on Guided News Search.
Step Three: Select General News and Major Papers as your news categories:
Step Four: Select Today as your date:
Step Five: Select New York Times as the publication you want to search.
Step 6: Write New York Times in the search area--and (crucial) set the area to "full text."
You can tweak this search by designating which sections you want to appear--as they will not appear in regular order.
The entire search should look more or less (depending on how you tweak it) as below:
You could perform a similar search on National Public Radio. Here is a search looking at NPR's Morning Edition from September 11, 2001. Note that I have changed news categories.
The News Transcripts database contains an sub database called "Political Transcripts." These are transcripts of various and sundry official speeches and gatherings. Below is a search looking for the use of the phrases "flip flop" or "flip-flop" in speeches over the last six months. The full search is "flip flop" or "flip-flop" I use "flip flop" to account for misspellings.
Here's what the results look like:
Lexis also contains The New Yorker, The National Review, New Republic, New York Observer and many other magazines.
Here is a search locating New Yorker articles by Seymour M Hersh from the past year--which were recently published as a book, Chain of Command. In short, you could get the book for free.
Lexis also has a business database which allows you to search SEC Filings. For example, you can quickly locate the executive compensation information for publicly held entities. This one looks for executive compensation at the Apollo Group. Note: you will also find executive compensation in Proxy Statements--and sometimes only there.
Lexis also contains a powerful legal database that allows you to search for opinions and for state and federal law.
Here is a search of the Illinois Compiled Statutes for the HUMANE CARE FOR ANIMALS ACT,
Here is a search that will locate the entirety of Chapter 510 of the Illinois Compiled Statutes (510 ILCS)
You may also search for case law. Here is a search that looks at how 510 ILCS 70 (Humane Care for Animals Act) has been treated by the courts in the last ten years.
You could tweak that search to look for cases dealing with cruelty or inhumane treatment of animals throughout Chapter 510
You could expand the search by looking for any case where the words "cruel or cruelty" appeared within 15 words of "animal" or "animals." You do this by using the proximity command "w/some number" and the truncation operator ! ! tells the computer, "locate word variants." So animal! = animal or animals. cruel! w/15 animal! means "Find 'cruel' or 'cruelty' within 15 words of 'animal' or 'animals.'"
You can also search patents. Here is a search for patents assigned to the Adobe Systems Incorporated from 1985 to 1995.
Within Lexis, you can also search the National Library of Medicine's Medline, the world's largest medical database.
Here is a search for articles dealing with the question: Might cell phones cause cancer?
Note that I used a variety of terms for cell phones: cell phone, cellular phone, and mobile phone.
The full search = radio waves w/20 adverse effects and (cell phone! or cellular phon! or mobile phone!)
Within the Reference Database, you can search for polling data. Below is a search looking for polls of registered voters from the last five years dealing with the question of gay marriage.
The search statement is (gay or homosexual or lesbian) w/20 marr!
You can even search the World Almanac.
