In the release, historical news content from The Boston Globe will be available online from its first published edition in 1872 though 1922. The Globe, winner of 17 Pulitzer Prizes, is considered the mainstay for Boston and New England regional news coverage. The database will launch in March 2005.
Rod Gauvin, ProQuest senior vice president, marketing and publishing, said: “We’re very pleased to add The Boston Globe to our extensive collection of major U.S. newspapers in our Historical Newspapers program. With its unique voice and coverage of regional and national as well as local news and issues, The Boston Globe has emerged as the preeminent news source for the New England region. Because of its editorial excellence, we believe The Boston Globe makes a strong contribution to the Historical Newspaper product line. It will be a valuable research database for a wide variety of academic, public and school libraries.”
Researchers will be able to study significant events as they appeared in contemporary news accounts, such as Lizzie Borden’s 1893 trial for the axe-murders of her family, or the Sacco-Vanzetti trial, one of the most controversial trials of the 20th century. The pair of Italian anarchists was arrested outside of Boston in 1920 for murder and robbery. Their case became sensationalized because of their politics and past crimes in the widespread anti-immigration sentiment of post-World War I.
Using advanced zoning and digitizing techniques, ProQuest will digitally reproduce every issue from cover to cover ─ not just news stories and editorials, but also photos, graphics, and advertisements. Even novice researchers can navigate the database unassisted with fully searchable ASCII text and multiple search options (keyword, dates, author's name, article type, etc.) To see the text, the user simply chooses the article, and the article image is displayed. Users will also be able to display the full page image of any page in any issue. The database will be completely browseable by issue, allowing searchers to browse through entire issues page by page as they would a printed paper.
The ProQuest Historical Newspapers project encompasses newspapers with deep historical value for researchers in various fields. The Boston Globe will join other prestigious U.S. newspapers already in the ProQuest program: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, The WashingtonPost, ChicagoTribune, and Los Angeles Times. All of the newspapers are cross-searchable across each other and across all other ProQuest databases.
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 The BostonGlobe
The Boston Globe is a wholly owned subsidiary of The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2003 revenues of $3.2 billion, which includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 16 other newspapers, eight network-affiliated television stations, two New York City radio stations and more than 40 Web sites, including NYTimes.com and Boston.com. For the fourth consecutive year, the company was ranked No. 1 in the publishing industry in Fortune’s 2004 list of America’s Most Admired Companies. The company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.
About ProQuest Information and Learning
ProQuest Information and Learning is a world leader in collecting, organizing, and publishing information worldwide for researchers, faculty, and students in libraries and schools. Known widely for its strength in business and economics, general reference, humanities, social sciences, and STM content, the company develops premium databases comprising periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, out-of-print books, and other scholarly information from more than 8,500 publishers worldwide. Users access the information through the ProQuest® Web-based online information system, Chadwyck-HealeyTM electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary® and SIRS® educational resources, and XanEdu® online faculty and student resources. For more information about ProQuest Information and Learning, visit www.il.proquest.com.
ProQuest Information and Learning is a business unit of ProQuest Company (www.proquestcompany.com), which was recently named one of the 100 fastest growing technology companies in the United States by Business 2.0.
