ProQuest

ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest provides applications and products for libraries.[1] Its resources and tools support research and learning, publishing and dissemination, and the acquisition, management and discovery of library collections.

ProQuest
Private; subsidiary
IndustryInformation and data provider
Founded1938
HeadquartersAnn Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
Key people
  • Andy Snyder, Chairman
  • Matti Shem-Tov, CEO
  • Robert VanHees, CFO
ParentCambridge Information Group
Websitewww.proquest.com

From its founding as a producer of microfilm products and then as an electronic publisher,[2] the company has grown through acquisitions.[1] Today, the company provides tools for discovery and citation management and platforms that allow library users to discover, manage, use and share research gained from authoritative content.

Total content, including dissertations and theses, ebooks, newspapers, periodicals, historical collections, governmental and cultural archives[3] and other aggregated databases is estimated at over 125 billion digital pages.[4]

Content is accessed most commonly through library Internet gateways.[2] The current chief executive officer is Matti Shem Tov. ProQuest is part of Cambridge Information Group.

Businesses

ProQuest was founded as a microfilm publisher.[5] It began publishing doctoral dissertations in 1939,[6] has published more than 3 million searchable dissertations and theses,[7] and is designated as an offsite digital archive for the United States Library of Congress.[8] The company's scholarly content includes dissertations and theses, primary source material, ebooks, scholarly journals,[9] historical and current newspapers and periodicals, data sources, and other content of interest to researchers.[10] ProQuest Video Preservation and Discovery Service, allows libraries to preserve and provide access to their proprietary audio and video collections.[11]

In May 2014, ProQuest LLC also operated businesses under the following names:[3]

  • Bowker provides bibliographic information management solutions to publishers, libraries and booksellers,[12] and is the ISBN Agency for the United States.[13]
  • Dialog is an online information service with more than 1.4 billion unique records[14] curated for corporate, business and government researchers, with a focus on pharmaceutical, engineering and patent research.[15]
  • EBL (Ebook Library), an ebook aggregator with a catalog of titles from academic publishers, serves academic, corporate and research libraries[16] while supporting emerging collection development models such as patron-driven acquisition.[17]
  • ebrary offers access to ebook collections, by subscription or a perpetual archive model, in subject packages tailored for academic, corporate, government, public and high school libraries.[18]

History
2008 conference booth

Eugene Power, a 1930 M.B.A. graduate of the University of Michigan, founded the company as University Microfilms in 1938, preserving works from the British Museum on microfilm. By June 1938, Power worked in two rented rooms from a downtown Ann Arbor funeral parlor, specializing in microphotography to preserve library collections. In his autobiography Edition of One, Power details the development of the company, including how University Microfilms assisted the OSS during World War II.[19] This work mainly involved filming maps and European newspapers so they could be shipped back and forth overseas more cheaply and discreetly.

Power also noticed a niche market in dissertations publishing. Students were often forced to publish their own works in order to finish their doctoral degree. Dissertations could be published more cheaply as microfilm than as books. ProQuest still publishes so many dissertations that its Dissertations and Theses collection (formerly called Digital Dissertations) has been declared the official U.S. off-site repository of the Library of Congress.[20]

The idea of universal adoption of microfilm publication of doctoral dissertations was furthered considerably by two articles researched and written by a then recent recipient of the doctorate in History at Stanford University. Vaughn Davis Bornet seized on the idea and published "Doctoral Dissertations and the Stream of Scholarship"[21] and "Microfilm Publication of Doctoral Dissertations".[22]

As the dissertations market grew, the company expanded into filming newspapers and periodicals. The company's main newspaper database is ProQuest NewsStand.

In 1962, Xerox acquired the company for 51,750 shares of Xerox common stock, worth about $7.9 million.[23] Under Xerox's ownership, the name of the company changed several times, from University Microfilms to Xerox University Microfilms, to University Microfilms International, then shortened to UMI. In 1985 it was purchased from Xerox by Bell & Howell.[24]

In the 1980s, UMI began producing CD-ROMs that stored databases of periodicals abstracts and indexes. At a time when modem connections were slow and expensive, it was more efficient to mail database CD-ROMs regularly to subscribing libraries, who installed the discs on dedicated PCs. The ProQuest brand name was first used for databases on CD-ROM. An online service called ProQuest Direct was launched in 1995; its name was later shortened to just ProQuest.[25] The bibliographic databases are mainly sold to schools, universities and libraries.

In 1998, the company announced the "Digital Vault Initiative", purported to include 5.5 billion images digitized from UMI microfilm, including some of the best existing copies of major newspapers dating back 100 to 150 years, and Early English books dating back to the 15th century. While work continues to digitize the contents of the microfilm vault, ProQuest is already providing navigation of 125 billion digital pages, including nearly 20 million pages of newspaper content dating from pre-Revolutionary War America.

In 1999, the company name changed to Bell & Howell Information and Learning, and then in 2001 to ProQuest Information and Learning; Bell & Howell renamed itself the ProQuest Company.[26]

Also in 1999, the company acquired Chadwyck-Healey, a one-time microfilm publishing company that was one of the first to produce full-text CD-ROM databases. This acquisition gave Proquest ownership of a 100+ person publishing operation based in Cambridge, England and became the basis for a substantial overseas expansion.

During the 2000–2004 fiscal years, as well as the first three quarters of the 2005 fiscal year, ProQuest systematically overstated its net income. Cumulatively, pre-tax profits were overstated by 129.9 million dollars (or about 31 percent).[27] In 2008, Voyager Learning Company and ProQuest's CFO (from the time of the earnings overstatements) settled SEC "charges without admitting or denying the allegations of the SEC's complaint".[28]

In 2001 Proquest acquired Norman Ross Publishing, a small New York based microfilm publisher.[29]

In 2002 ProQuest acquired bigchalk.com, a company founded in 1999 with the combined assets of ProQuest's K-12 division and Infonautics Inc.'s K-12 business..[30]

In 2004, ProQuest Information and Learning acquired Seattle start-up Serials Solutions, a venture providing access management and search services for content hosted by other companies.

Also in 2004, the company acquired Copley Publishing Group.[31]

In 2006, ProQuest Company, then the parent company of ProQuest Information and Learning, sold it to Cambridge Information Group, owner of R. R. Bowker.[32] From the time of this sale, this article follows the history of ProQuest Information and Learning, not ProQuest Company. (ProQuest Company subsequently renamed itself to Voyager Learning Company, and later became part of Cambium Learning Group.[33])

In 2007, ProQuest Information and Learning was merged with CSA to form ProQuest CSA. Later that year it was renamed ProQuest LLC.

In 2008, ProQuest LLC acquired complete ownership of RefWorks, a web-based citation manager of which it had been part owner since 2001. RefWorks was merged with ProQuest's existing COS business to form RefWorks/COS.[34]

Also in 2008, ProQuest acquired Dialog, a major online database firm, from Thomson Reuters.[35][36]

In 2010, ProQuest acquired two properties from LexisNexis, Congressional Information Service (CIS) and University Publications of America (UPA). CIS produced one of the world's most exhaustive online collections of legislative content and highly respected statistical works, while UPA included deep historical content sets. The acquisition included digital products and an expansive microfilm vault that would leverage ProQuest's strength in conversion from film to searchable electronic formats.[37]

In 2011, ProQuest acquired Ebrary, an online digital library of full texts of over 170,000 scholarly e-books.[38] In 2013, ProQuest acquired Ebook Library (EBL), with plans to combine ebrary and EBL into a single e-book platform.[39]

In 2014, ProQuest acquired Pi2 Solutions, a privately owned company specializing in Drug Safety Triager (DST) & Product Literature Database (PLD) systems for the biopharmaceutical industry. The company aligned Pi2 Solutions with its ProQuest Dialog corporate information service.[40]

In 2015, ProQuest acquired SiPX[41] and Coutts Information Services, including the MyiLibrary platform and the Online Acquisitions and Selection Information System (OASIS).[42]

In October 2015, ProQuest acquired Ex Libris. It was to merge the Workflow Solutions division of ProQuest, which included the former Serials Solutions, into Ex Libris, with the enlarged entity to be named "Ex Libris, a ProQuest Company".[43]

In June 2016, ProQuest acquired Alexander Street Press, a provider of streaming videos and ebooks.[44]

Products

Among the products the company sells to clients such as public and research libraries are:[45][46][47][48][49]

  • ABI/INFORM Collection (including ABI/INFORM Dateline, ABI/INFORM Global, and ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry)
  • Accounting, Tax & Banking Collection (can be limited to "Accounting & Tax Database" or "Banking Information Database")
  • Advanced Technologies Database with Aerospace
  • Aerospace Database
  • AFI Catalog
  • AIDS & Cancer Research Abstracts
  • Algology Mycology and Protozoology Abstracts (Microbiology C)
  • Alt-PressWatch
  • Aluminium Industry Abstracts
  • American Periodicals Series
  • Animal Behavior Abstracts
  • ANTE: Abstracts in New Technology & Engineering
  • Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA)
  • AquaBrowser
  • AquaBrowser Liquid
  • Aqualine
  • ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM)
  • Arts & Humanities Full Text
  • ASFA: Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts
  • Asian & European Business Collection
  • Bacteriology Abstracts (Microbiology B)
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biotechnology and BioEngineering Abstracts
  • Biotechnology Research Abstracts
  • Black Studies Center
  • British Humanities Index (BHI)
  • Calcium & Calcified Tissue Abstracts
  • Canadian Newsstand
  • CBCA
  • Ceramic Abstracts
  • Chemoreception Abstracts
  • Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Computer and Information Systems Abstracts (Module)
  • Copper Technical Reference Library
  • Corrosion Abstracts
  • Design and Applied Arts Index (DAAI)
  • Dialog
  • Digital Sanborn Maps[50]
  • Early European Books
  • Earthquake Engineering Abstracts
  • Ebrary
  • Ecology Abstracts
  • Electronics & Communications Abstracts
  • eLibrary
  • eLibrary Canada
  • eLibrary Curriculum Edition
  • eLibrary Elementary
  • eLibrary Science
  • Engineered Materials
  • Engineering Research Database
  • Entomology Abstracts
  • Environment Abstracts
  • Environmental Engineering Abstracts
  • Environmental Science and Pollution Management
  • ERIC PlusText
  • Ethnic NewsWatch
  • FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Plus
  • Gannett Military Newspapers
  • Gannett Newspapers
  • GenderWatch
  • Genetics Abstracts
  • Health & Safety Science Abstracts
  • HeritageQuest Online[50]
  • History Study Center
  • Immunology Abstracts
  • Industrial and Applied Microbiology Abstracts (Microbiology A)
  • International Bibliography of Art (IBA)
  • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
  • International Index to Black Periodicals
  • International Index to Music Periodicals
  • International Index to the Performing Arts
  • Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA)
  • Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)
  • Literature Online
  • Literature Online Reference Edition
  • Materials Business File
  • Materials Research Database
  • Mechanical & Transportation Engineering Abstracts
  • MEDLINE with Full Text
  • METADEX
  • Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts
  • Middle East Newsstand
  • Neurosciences Abstracts
  • Nucleic Acids Abstracts
  • Oceanic Abstracts
  • Oncogenes and Growth Factors Abstracts
  • PAIS
  • Periodicals Archive Online
  • Periodicals Index Online
  • Pharmaceutical News Index
  • Physical Education Index
  • Pi2 Drug Safety Triager™ (DST)
  • Pi2 Product Literature Database (PLD)
  • Pollution Abstracts
  • PRISMA (Publicaciones y Revistas Sociales y Humanísticas)
  • Professional ProQuest Central
  • ProQuest 5000
  • ProQuest 5000 International
  • ProQuest Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Collection
  • ProQuest Agricultural Science Collection
  • ProQuest ANZ Newsstand
  • ProQuest African American Heritage
  • ProQuest Aquatic Science Collection
  • ProQuest Atmospheric Science Collection
  • ProQuest Biological Science Collection
  • ProQuest Career and Technical Education
  • ProQuest Central
  • ProQuest Computer Science Collection
  • ProQuest Criminal Justice Periodicals Index
  • ProQuest Discovery
  • ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (formerly known as DAI, Dissertation Abstracts International)
  • ProQuest Earth Science Collection
  • ProQuest Education Journals
  • ProQuest Engineering Collection
  • ProQuest Entrepreneurship
  • ProQuest Environmental Science Collection
  • ProQuest Family Health
  • ProQuest Health & Medical Complete
  • ProQuest Health Management
  • ProQuest Historical Annual Reports
  • ProQuest International Newswires
  • ProQuest Legislative Insight
  • ProQuest Library Science
  • ProQuest Materials Science Collection
  • ProQuest Medical Library
  • ProQuest Military Collection
  • ProQuest Natural Science Collection
  • ProQuest NewsStand
  • ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source
  • ProQuest Obituaries
  • ProQuest One Academic
  • ProQuest One Literature
  • ProQuest Political Science
  • ProQuest Polymer Science Collection
  • ProQuest Professional Education
  • ProQuest Psychology Journals
  • ProQuest Public Health
  • ProQuest Religion
  • ProQuest Regulatory Insight
  • ProQuest Research Library
  • ProQuest Sanborn Maps Geo Edition
  • ProQuest Science Journals
  • ProQuest SciTech Collection
  • ProQuest Social Science Journals
  • ProQuest Sociology
  • ProQuest Technology Collection
  • Resource/One
  • Risk Abstracts
  • SIRS Decades
  • SIRS Discoverer
  • SIRS Government Reporter
  • SIRS Issues Researcher
  • SIRS Renaissance
  • Social Services Abstracts
  • Sociological Abstracts
  • Solid State and Superconductivity Abstracts
  • State Packages
  • Summon
  • Sustainability Science Abstracts
  • Technology Research Database
  • Toxicology Abstracts
  • US Hispanic Newsstand
  • Virology and AIDS Abstracts
  • Water Resources Abstracts
  • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
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See also

References
  1. "ProQuest Goes Global". Information Today. 2014.
  2. "ProQuest LLC". PrivCo.com. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
  3. "Jisc and ProQuest Enable Access to Essential Digital Content", retrieved May 21, 2014
  4. "ProQuest LLC | Company Profile from Hoover's", retrieved May 21, 2014
  5. Microfilm's 75th Anniversary, retrieved June 15, 2014
  6. Thistlethwaite, Polly, "Publish. Perish?: The academic author and open access publishing", Media Authorship (edited by Cynthia Chirs, David A. Gerstner). Routledge, 2013, p. 274
  7. Dissertations & Theses, retrieved June 15, 2014
  8. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, retrieved September 6, 2014
  9. "Briefly". Detroit Free Press. 160 (326). Knight Ridder. 26 March 1991. p. E1 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ProQuest - Academic, retrieved June 15, 2014
  11. Against the Grain, News and Announcement 1/9/2014, retrieved June 15, 2014
  12. "RR Bowker LLC - Businessweek", retrieved May 21, 2014
  13. "Bowker - Products & Services", retrieved May 21, 2014.
  14. Dialog | Cambridge Information Group Archived 2014-02-21 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved May 22, 2014
  15. Dialog, LLC home page retrieved May 22, 2014
  16. "ProQuest completes acquisition of EBL", retrieved May 22, 2014
  17. "EBL Unveils the New LibCentral", retrieved May 22, 2014
  18. "ebrary | Pre-Packaged Products", retrieved May 22, 2014
  19. Power, Eugene B.; with Robert Anderson (1990). Edition of One: The Autobiography of Eugene B. Power, Founder of University Microfilms. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International. pp. 128–142. ISBN 9780835708982. OCLC 231087195.
  20. "Library of Congress and Copyright Office Sign Landmark Agreement with UMI" (Press release). Library of Congress. January 22, 1999. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  21. Bornet, Vaughn Davis (October 1952). "Doctoral Dissertations and the Stream of Scholarship". College and University. 28: 17–30. ISSN 0010-0889. OCLC 6168802.
  22. Bornet, Vaughn Davis (Autumn 1953). "Microfilm Publication of Doctoral Dissertations". Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors. 39 (3): 501–513. doi:10.2307/40220982. JSTOR 40220982.
  23. "Microfilm Deal Slated by Xerox". The New York Times. February 21, 1962. ProQuest 115685638.
  24. Winter, Christine (November 14, 1985). "Bell, Howell Acquires Two Data Firms". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved Sep 10, 2014.
  25. "ProQuest (brand)". Archived from the original on 2008-09-25. Retrieved 2008-02-19 – via ProQuest.
  26. "Bell & Howell Becomes ProQuest Company". Information Today. June 11, 2001. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
  27. "SEC Complaint vs. Scott Hirth and ProQuest Company [in 2008] known as Voyager Learning Company" (PDF). United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
  28. "Press Release: SEC Charges Ann Arbor-Based Company and Former Executive in Accounting Fraud Scheme". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
  29. "Untitled Page". www.rosspub.com.
  30. Company, ProQuest. "ProQuest Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire bigchalk". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
  31. "ProQuest Information and Learning has acquired Copley Publishing Group, Inc". findarticles.com. May 2004.
  32. Mary H. Munroe (2004). "Cambridge Information Group Timeline". The Academic Publishing Industry: A Story of Merger and Acquisition. Archived from the original on October 2014 – via Northern Illinois University.
  33. "Cambium Learning Group Inc. - Investor Relations - Management Team". Archived from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
  34. "ProQuest acquires RefWorks". ProQuest LLC. January 18, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  35. "ProQuest acquires Dialog" (Press release). ProQuest LLC. July 1, 2008. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
  36. "ProQuest signs agreement to acquire Dialog business from Thomson Reuters". scientific.thomsonreuters.com. June 12, 2008. Retrieved January 18, 2009.
  37. "ProQuest Acquires Acclaimed Congressional Information Service and University Publications of America from LexisNexis" (Press release). ProQuest LLC. November 30, 2010. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
  38. Fitzpatrick, Sean (January 8, 2011). "ProQuest acquires ebrary". American Libraries. Retrieved 2012-02-03.
  39. "ProQuest Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire EBL" (Press release). ProQuest LLC. January 22, 2013. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
  40. "ProQuest Acquires Pi2" (Press release). ProQuest LLC. May 1, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
  41. "ProQuest Acquires SIPX". ProQuest LLC. April 8, 2015. Archived from the original on June 30, 2017. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  42. "ProQuest to Acquire Coutts Information Services and MyiLibrary from Ingram Content Group" (Press release). ProQuest LLC. April 30, 2015. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  43. Breeding, Marshall (6 October 2015). "ProQuest to Acquire Ex Libris". American Libraries.
  44. "Alexander Street Press Joins the ProQuest Family of Companies" (Press release). ProQuest LLC. June 22, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  45. ProQuest. "Title List System". Products & Services. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  46. ProQuest. "CSA Title Lists". Products & Services. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  47. ProQuest. "Chadwyck-Healey Title Lists". Products & Services. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  48. ProQuest. "eLibrary Title Lists". Products & Services. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  49. ProQuest. "SIRS Title Lists". Products & Services. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  50. Thomas Mann (2015). "Special Subjects and Formats: Genealogy and Local History". Oxford Guide to Library Research (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-993106-4.
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