Simpson students can sign up for The New York Times digital paper for free this year through Dunn Library.

The library used to receive the print copy of The New York Times by mail and offered it as a resource to students. But now, students can subscribe to the newspaper through Dunn Library at no charge.

The librarians said they had many reasons to implement this update; one being that the newspaper did not come daily and was always a few days behind.

“We never got it on time, so for that purpose it wasn’t very helpful to people for current events,” research librarian Liz Grimsbo said.

Another reason was because the print issues did not seem to be well used, according to Grimsbo.

Only faculty and staff are able to check out magazines, journals and periodicals from the library, but students must use them in the library.

The digital subscription changes that.

Signing up through the library is free by using a student email. If students want to subscribe to the newspaper by themselves, the cost is one dollar a week or a little over $50 a year.

The subscription is the basic access which allows subscribers to read unlimited articles on the website or the app and full access to the archives for The New York Times stretching back to when the paper first started in 1851.

The subscription also works for New York Times in Education, which is designed for educators and requires the creation of another account.

Without the subscription, readers can only view five articles in a month and cannot access The New York Times’ archives.

There are sign-up directions listed on the Dunn Library page of the Simpson website. The librarians can also answer questions.

Go to AccessNYT.com to sign up. Search for Simpson College, then create an account by entering a student email address.

The access pass can only be used by those who do not already have a subscription to The New York Times. For students, the pass is only valid to until the graduation year set in the account. For faculty and staff, the pass is valid for one year after which it has to be renewed.

The subscription is a group subscription with Iowa Academic Library Alliance and Center for Research Libraries. Both of these organizations are partners with other schools or public libraries to offer free digital resources to encourage learning.