Resource: Politics & Current Events

Wall Street Journal Digital Access

Image displaying The Wall Street Journal website across multiple devices: a laptop, smartphone, and tablet. Each screen shows different WSJ articles and content, highlighting the digital accessibility of the publication on various platforms. Trusted reporting. In-depth analysis. Paywall-free access.

Explore business, finance, and global news from one of the world’s most respected sources—now available for free with your library card. Whether you’re tracking markets, analyzing trends, or staying on top of breaking headlines, The Wall Street Journal offers the insight and credibility you can count on.

With your Wall Street Journal digital access, you can:

✅ Read unlimited articles on WSJ.com—no paywall, no hidden fees
✅ Browse the digital edition of the daily newspaper
✅ Dive into 4 years of searchable archives
✅ Stay informed with newsletters, videos, and podcasts
✅ Receive expert perspectives on business, technology, politics, and more

Stay informed, make smart decisions, and explore the world with The Wall Street Journal—all free with your library card.

Explore

ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS

Inside the library:

Using a library computer or our Wi-Fi? Just go to wsj.com and start reading—no account needed!

Outside the library:

Enjoy full, paywall-free access from home or on the go:

  1. Click the Access Now link below.
  2. Sign in with your library card number if prompted.
  3. Create a free WSJ.com account, or log in to an existing one.
  4. You’re in! Your access is valid for 3 days.
  5. To renew, simply return and click the link again to log in.

>> This access is available to individual library users only and must be renewed every 3 days.

Access Now

Important Notes

  • This subscription does not include the WSJ mobile app or WSJ+ premium content.
  • For the best experience, access WSJ.com using a web browser.
  • Having trouble logging in? Try logging out and back in again, or contact us for help.

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints

This rich resource provides pro/con viewpoints, reference articles, interactive maps, infographics, and more covering today’s hottest social issues. It’s an excellent resource for debaters, students, and educators alike. Content explores current events, news and commentary, economics, environmental issues, law and politics, health and medicine, and more.

Your gateway to:

  • 20,100+ pro/con viewpoints
  • 19,200+ reference articles, including topic overviews
  • 12,700+ charts and graphs, along with other statistical information
  • 300+ profiles of federal agencies and special-interest groups
  • Special coverage of the annual debate topic determined by the National Speech and Debate Association
  • Full-text newspapers and periodicals from multiple perspectives, including: The New York Times, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, American Scientist and Education Week, and more.

Special features include:

  • Educator Resources
    Find tools to help educators and students get the most out of Gale In Context resources. There are lesson plans and activities to put concepts into practice!
  • Topic Finder
    Visualize connections between search terms and topics and view relevant articles for those topics.

Explore Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints is provided by Kentucky Virtual Library. A special username and password are required for home access; ask at any BCPL service desk for the login credentials or call the main library at 543-7675.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Louisville Courier-Journal

ProQuest Historical Newspapers This local, historical newspaper source provides genealogists, researchers, and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts from the Louisville Courier-Journal and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society, and events of the time. Available content spans from 1830 through 2000, including not only articles but also editorials, comics, obituaries, classifieds, legal notices, and more. For researchers seeking an authoritative, regional perspective on national and international events, as well as local perspectives on community news, the full-text, digitized pages of this newspaper (1830–2000) are a valuable resource in a variety of fields including history, political science, African-American studies, and genealogy.

Relevant focus areas include:

  • African American Studies
  • Agriculture
  • American History
  • Culture
  • Economics
  • Genealogy
  • Government
  • History
  • Industrialization
  • Political Science
  • Sports
  • The US Civil War

Your library barcode will be required for remote access.

Explore ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Louisville Courier-Journal

New York Times Digital

New York Times devices Understand the world. Navigate life.
Access The New York Times here.

Whether you’re managing finances, tackling tough parenting problems, or simply looking to make sense of this moment, rely on original, quality journalism from The New York Times to lead the way. It’s an essential source for fearless reporting, varied perspectives, and practical advice on nearly every topic—from the vital issues shaping our world to the simple pleasures that make everyday life better.

  • The New York Times Digital subscription provides unlimited access to current New York Times articles but does not include New York Times Cooking or Crosswords.
  • Selected articles are also available in Spanish and Chinese.

ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS
*Please note, the READ ON link on NYTimes.com leads to a newsletter subscription page. However, you can bypass or navigate away to explore all that the New York Times Digital subscription has to offer!

Inside the library:

  1. Use a BCPL computer or connect your device to our Wi-Fi.
  2. Register or log in at nytimes.com/register.
  3. You can now enjoy unlimited access to NYTimes.com on any device during your visit.

Outside the library:

Claim your digital access code for full, 24-hour access to unlimited articles on NYTimes.com or in the New York Times app.

Kanopy

Indie movies. Critically-acclaimed documentaries. Classic films. Celebrated educational series like NOVA, Ken Burns America, and The Great Courses. BCPL’s newest streaming service offers all of this and more.

Kanopy provides easy access—free with your Bullitt County Public Library card!—to a cinephile’s dream library of more than 26,000 films, many of which cannot be  found on popular streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video. While the Kanopy collection includes some blockbuster films and shows, such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Call the Midwife, Kanopy’s biggest claim to fame is their unique and extensive collection of independent, international, and classic films.

Of particular interest, 420 Janus Films—art house and classic films from the Criterion Collection—are included, allowing you to stream cinematic masterpieces like 8 ½, City Lights, Eraserhead, A Hard Day’s Night, Seven Samurai, Stagecoach,  A Woman Under the Influence, and more on your smartphone, tablet, PC, or smart TV. The documentary selection—featuring titles like I Am Not Your Negro, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Super Size Me, The Red Pill, Don’t Look Back, and Hoop Dreams—is equally impressive.

Another highlight is the wide variety of educational and training videos from suppliers like The Great Courses and PBS. You can browse and explore videos covering Business Skills, Dance, Engineering, History, Photography, Religion & Philosophy, Sports & Fitness, and more. Plus, find instructional videos on topics ranging from refrigeration and air conditioning to first aid and therapeutic massage. There are even curated collections for educators and students that provide lessons in mathematics, languages (including ESL), and science. Teachers can use these in their classrooms with no concerns about licensing—group viewing rights are free!

So next time you have Netflix fatigue and think there are no good movies left to watch, reconsider. Even if indie films and documentaries aren’t usually your go-to for movie night, you could give it a shot. You never know what great entertainment you can find if you step outside your comfort zone.

Visit Kanopy»

 

Alt-PressWatch (KYVL)

This database, provided by Kentucky Virtual Library and ProQuest, contains full-text newspapers and magazines from alternative, independent presses rather than the mainstream media.The database features over 670,000 articles from more than 230 publications, offering a wide range of unfettered, critical coverage of the news. All of these varied alternative and independent presses are presented in 100% full text, allowing researchers total access to regional, rural, and metropolitan perspectives on local, national, and international issues. Providing an alternative to corporate controlled media, the Alt-Press Watch database presents big stories from small sources.

Alt-Press Watch gives readers and researchers access to distinctive, thought-provoking titles, many of which cannot be found in any other database. Magazines and journals of the independent press such as Broken Pencil, which focuses on zine culture, Dissent, Solidarity’s Against the Current, The American Conservative, Left Curve, The Braille Forum and Earth First! provide in-depth coverage of a broad range of critical issues confronting contemporary society, including environment activism, disabilities, public policy, and facets of the political spectrum.  And alternative newsweeklies like Eugene Weekly, Missoula Independent, and The Village Voice offer non-mainstream perspectives on government, policy, and culture; report on local, national, and international issues; and cover hot-button topics like hunger, abuse, religion, and pop culture. The Alt-Press Watch database includes these titles and many others, providing an unmatched, multi-disciplinary resource for researchers seeking an alternative to mainstream media perspectives.

Alt-PressWatch is accessible through the Kentucky Virtual Library Proquest portal. A special username and password are required for home access; ask at any BCPL service desk for the login credentials or call the main library at 543-7675.

Explora

Explora - An EBSCOhost Experience

Let learning take flight in Explora!

Whether you are completing research for a school project or just looking to satisfy your curiosity about a topic of interest, Explora can help you achieve your goals. Explora offers reliable information on thousands of topics covering a wide range of subjects including art and music, literature, language arts, geography, history, social studies, world cultures and languages, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, health, and sports.

With Explora, you can…

  • Search for articles, e-books, news, videos and more using a single search box
  • Browse popular topics by category to get research ideas
  • Read Topic Overviews to gain the background information you need to start your research
  • Limit results to articles that match your reading level
  • Hear HTML articles read aloud with EBSCO’s Text-to-Speech feature
  • Use the citation tool to build your list of references/works cited
  • Get research tips on identifying relevant sources, citing them properly and avoiding plagiarism

Explora is designed to meet the unique needs of its users, supporting both student research and classroom instruction with rich, reliable content and easy-to-use functionality. Use the EBSCOhost—Home Access portal for remote access; a valid library card is required for use outside a BCPL library location.

Explore Now