Managing a well-balanced and diversified portfolio between classes just got a little easier with the installation of a brand-new Bloomberg Terminal in Main Library. 

The high-tech hub for financial news and information currently has an annual price of $30,000 (without an educator discount) and is wedged between computer workstations in the John P. McGowan Information Commons. It’s been up and running since the beginning of Winter Quarter. 

“It’s got great information in the more esoteric corners of the financial market,” librarian Carol Doyle said. “Bond information, municipal bonds, derivatives, options and things like that.” 

As Northwestern Libraries’ management and business librarian, Doyle is responsible for aggregating resources that improve faculty and students’ access to business materials, such as resource guides or market reports.  

Doyle said that previously, undergraduates looking to access a Bloomberg Terminal would have to visit the Kellogg Global Hub after looking up guides on NU Libraries’ website. 

“I would work with the people in Kellogg research support, so that they would know that undergraduates were coming over,” Doyle said. “Through our outreach and through our research guides, we let people know that (Terminals) were located there and that they could go over and access them.” 

Just over a year ago, Doyle advocated for one to be installed in Main Library, removing extra steps in the process and making the Terminal’s resources more accessible to undergraduates.

Doyle said she hopes students use the work station for classwork in courses related to economics or business institutions. 

Students within the finance community at NU see potential for the Terminal to help those interested in financial services gain familiarity with industry-standard technology that many full-time analysts rely on everyday. 

Women In Business President and Weinberg junior Phoebe Cahill was an investment banking intern at Bank of America last summer, and part of her final presentation required her to use the Terminal to price assets and bonds. 

Though she had previously interned at a hedge fund as a market research analyst, she was able to pick up more technical skills at her most recent internship.

She said that full-time analysts incorporate information and data from the Terminal in their day-to-day work, such as building financial models.  

“I think it would be awesome to incorporate (the Terminal) into some of the BIP classes or econ classes, just so you get hands-on experience because it really is used in a lot of banking jobs and internships,” Cahill said. 

Though WIB has a finance division, Cahill also sees potential for members of finance-oriented clubs, like Investment Management Group or Northwestern Capital Management, to use the Terminal to gain experience with skills they will need in the future. 

Medill junior Elisabeth Betts, who will return to J.P. Morgan and Chase as an investment banking analyst this summer, said her first experience with the Terminal was during her summer internship last year. 

“When we were operating within the sales and trading markets division, they took us to the trading floor and everything, and we saw people using the Bloomberg Terminal,” she said. 

There, Betts was able to “poke around” the interface and become familiar with its functions. 

Though she may not work with the Terminal every day post-grad, she said that because she’s going into financial services, knowing how to navigate around it helps her communicate with the coworkers who do. 

Betts added that if the University promotes the Terminal more, undergraduates who are unfamiliar with financial services as a career will be able to get a headstart in the industry. 

“I think it would be nice to see Northwestern foster an understanding of the Terminal and what it is,” Betts said. “Financial services as a whole is still pretty inaccessible as an industry.”

As for limitations on use, Doyle said that Information Commons staff are keeping an eye on the number of people asking to use it and will adjust according to demand, meaning adding sign-ups for time slots. 

Communication junior Frances McKittrick, who works at the circulation desk, said she has fielded a handful of inquiries from students curious about the Terminal since its installation, but the demand hasn’t been too overwhelming. 

Until then, the Terminal is available for students of all levels to use during the library’s hours of operations.

“We always want to make access easy for students,” Doyle said. “We don’t want students having to wait long periods of time to use the Bloomberg Terminal.”

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