ANN ARBOR, Mich., January 14, 2005 - ProQuest Information and Learning stepped up the pace of digitization efforts in 2004, averaging 750,000 pages per week, more than double the pace of previous years. The conversion from paper and microfilm continues to grow in the new year, when the weekly average is expected to top 1 million pages per week. That makes the yearly totals truly staggering — more than 39 million pages digitized in 2004 and 54 million pages forecast for 2005, nearly 100 million newly digitized pages in two years alone. ProQuest Information and Learning, a unit of ProQuest Company, is an electronic publisher of content for libraries and educational institutions worldwide.

The page count would be impressive but useful only as a curiosity if it were not for ProQuest’s search tools making the information they hold easily accessible to scholars and students.  In 2004, ProQuest introduced ProQuest® Smart Search.  It leverages ProQuest’s extensive controlled vocabulary, enabling users to navigate quickly to the most relevant articles. It’s especially valuable for less-experienced researchers, who are not savvy about the subject thesaurus or constructing Boolean queries.  It also provides greater content transparency in the databases being searched so more experienced researchers can refine their search strategy as they go.

ProQuest is growing in other areas, as well.  On December 6, the company broke ground on a new headquarters building in Ann Arbor. The new 789 Building will be ready for occupancy in 2006.   ProQuest was named one of the 200 best small companies by Forbes Magazine and one of the top 100 fastest growing technology companies in the United States by Business 2.0.

The ProQuest Information and Learning product portfolio grew with the addition of three new companies acquired this past year:  Reading A-Z, Axiom Publishing (best known for its flagship product, CultureGrams^TM), and Serials Solutions.  ProQuest added 800 full-text titles to its databases along with abstracts and indexing for 600 more publications in 2005.

ProQuest databases have earned the confidence and loyalty of customers worldwide.  When news of the tsunami tragedy in the Indian Ocean reached the Department of Defense Intelligence Library in Quantico, Virginia, it asked ProQuest to grant access to CultureGrams for the U.S. Marine and Navy ships that were making their way to Indonesia for relief and rescue work.  As a subscriber to the service, the DOD Intelligence Library appreciates the value of the information in CultureGrams.

CultureGrams offer concise, reliable, and up-to-date reports on the countries and cultures of the world.  The material will help prepare service people for the cultures and customs they’ll encounter when they arrive.  Because relief agencies also need such cultural information, ProQuest is offering free access from its home page (www.il.proquest.com) to CultureGrams for Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, the three countries that suffered the greatest tsunami devastation.

Earlier, ProQuest announced that it will grant free access to its K-12 databases to students and teachers of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, to celebrate the launch of the new ProQuest Company headquarters.   

In other products news, The Boston Globe and The Atlanta Constitution joined ProQuest Historical Newspapers^TM.  The ProQuest Historical Newspapers project encompasses newspapers with deep historical value for researchers in various fields, providing the full run of seven leading national newspapers from their first issue. It is one of the largest digitization projects ever undertaken.

ProQuest’s flagship product, the ABI/INFORM® suite of business databases, is installed in 45 of the top 50 business schools as ranked by US News & World Report.  ABI/INFORM expanded in 2004 with the addition of EIU ViewsWires, Going Global Career guides, and European Management Review, among other new resources.

Free trials of ProQuest products 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.