ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 25, 2004 - ProQuest Information and Learning announces two new options for accessing its renowned ProQuest Historical Newspapers content: ProQuest Historical Newspapers Graphical Interface and ProQuest Historical Newspapers Student Edition. ProQuest Information and Learning, a unit of ProQuest Company, creates and publishes databases for libraries and educational institutions worldwide.

“Our two new options for ProQuest Historical Newspapers—one a simplified interface and one a subset of essential primary source materials—will make this landmark collection even more accessible for younger scholars and for customers who may not be highly experienced researchers.  Each is tailored for its audience, and each has highlights and features that bring history alive on the desktops of schools and libraries around the world,” said Al De Seta, president of K-12, ProQuest Information and Learning.

Both options are available to K-12 schools and other institutions serving student audiences, especially public libraries and community colleges. The new enhancements tap into the riches contained in ProQuest Historical Newspapers, an exclusive file of primary historical content created by ProQuest Information and Learning for educational institutions and libraries around the world.  Newspapers covered by ProQuest Historical Newspapers include The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.  The collection offers ready access to the full content of each newspaper starting from its very first issue.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers Graphical Interface

Available for use with the full run of all titles in the original edition of the historical newspaper collection, the new interface enables new functionality: results sorted by era; “On This Day,” a showcase of front pages for every day of the year; and “Famous Dead People,” a collection of the most-studied people who are now deceased.

It offers easy-to-use functionality for novice users or seasoned scholars: 

• “On This Day” showcases a high-impact newspaper front page for each day of the year—designed to engage students immediately in the database content and the use of historical documents through recognizable events“Famous Dead People” highlights the published memorials and retrospective articles of 500 of the most-studied and requested persons of the past 150 years
• Page PDFs and Page maps allow users to see articles in context and to browse the paper as it originally appeared
• Users can limit their searches by selecting one paper from the drop down next to “publication” (Useful if library subscribes to more than one historical newspaper file.)

ProQuest Historical Newspapers Student Edition

This easy-to-use interface engages students and taps the rich content stores of ProQuest Historical Newspapers—an exceptional repository of unique primary source documents.  Designed specifically for middle and high-school aged students, the Student Edition is aligned directly to U.S.history curriculum. 

• This edition covers United Stateshistory from 1851 forward, covering the top 25 topics in American history with more than 7,000 articles on nearly 1,000 related key events. Future editions in the series may include World History and Social History.
• A timeline highlights the top 250 subtopics organized by decades and years.   Topics closely follow U.S.history topics as presented by popular textbook table of contents, making the Student Edition an excellent primary source document supplement to classroom coursework.   The Student Edition timeline and topics will also be available within the Graphical Interface.
• Articles must be authoritative on the event, provide insight and reporting contemporary to the event, and be of substantial length for research use.  Content is pulled from all historical newspaper files in the program. In the first release, The New York Times content makes up approximately 75% of the information.
• Students can browse the database using a Flash-enabled timeline organized by decades, or they can search or browse the topic tree by subject.  Because the interface is intuitive, students spend less time finding content and more time using it.

Free trials are available. Libraries may receive more information by contacting their account representative at 1-800-521-0600, ext. 3183 or 3452 (outside the U.S., call +44-1-223-215-512) or pqsales@il.proquest.com. Editors may call 1-800-521-0600, ext. 6489 or email pr@il.proquest.com.

 

About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.

More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.

For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com.