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Weekly News Digest
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August 20, 2001 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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Questia Announces Version 2
Questia Media, Inc. (http://www.questia.com) has announced the introduction of Questia version 2.0, which includes a collection of more than 60,000 full-text titles—nearly double the size of its version 1.0 collection launched in January. Version 2.0 also improves Questia's tools, which enable users to personalize books by highlighting and making notes in them and to write better papers by automatically creating footnotes and bibliographies in various formats. Since the service's January launch [see http://www.infotoday.com/it/mar01/news9.htm], Questia has conducted extensive market research among student subscribers and has met with many professors and librarians. The company has used that feedback as well as the advice of its Corporate Advisory Council to improve upon the Questia service.Version 2.0 includes new features such as an increase in the library from 35,000 to more than 60,000 books and journal articles; new tools for subscribers, including an automatic view of the recently used books, a personal bookshelf for storing and retrieving favorite books; a customizable home page; reorganization of tools and functions around the three main areas—Search, Read, and Work—to improve the site's usability; and faster search and navigation between books and within books. The cost of accessing the entire Questia collection and using the research tools remains $19.95 a month and $149.95 annually. Special promotional pricing is offered through partners, including America Online, Britannica.com, and The Princeton Review, Inc.'s Web site, Review.com. Source: Questia Media, Inc.
Factiva Announces Enhancements to Content Integration Suite
Factiva (http://www.factiva.com) has announced enhancements to Factiva Search Module and Factiva Track Module. Factiva's global customers now have access to French- and German-language user interfaces and an expanded content set, including the full text of the Financial Times, the Financial Times Deutschland, Le Figaro, L'entreprise, and L'expansion.Released earlier this year, Factiva Search Module and Factiva Track Module are part of Factiva Integration, a suite of tools designed to enable companies to integrate Factiva's collection of global news and business information into intranets, portals, and mobile devices. The content can be integrated with no development required by the customer, giving end-users access to up to 6,000 sources in 22 languages from 118 countries. Factiva Search Module allows users to search Factiva's archive and retrieve information on any business topic. Factiva Track Module lets companies set up current awareness news folders to deliver relevant, profiled news and business information on their industry, competitors, or any key topics that affect their business decisions. Source: Factiva
ProQuest Acquires Heritage Quest
ProQuest's Information and Learning unit (http://www.il.proquest.com) has announced that it has acquired Heritage Quest, a Salt Lake City-based genealogical information company, from Sierra On-Line, Inc., a division of Vivendi Universal Publishing. With holdings of more than 250,000 publications and titles, Heritage Quest is the largest genealogical information provider in the U.S. The acquisition expands ProQuest's genealogical information offerings for libraries.The Heritage Quest product line—which includes the Heritage Quest Web-based information service (http://www.heritagequest.com), as well as microfilm, CD-ROMs, and print products (Heritage Quest magazine, Genealogy Bulletin, more than 400 books, and more than 100 indexes)—will be added to ProQuest's genealogical resources, including the Genealogy and Local History Online database and Sanborn Maps Online. To date, Heritage Quest information comprises more than 3 terabytes of digitized data, with more digitization planned. "Of particular value are the complete historical U.S. census records dating from 1790 to 1920, which are handwritten," said Joe Reynolds, president and CEO of ProQuest Information and Learning. These online census records will be fully indexed to extremely high standards and offered in full-page image, so users can view documents in their original format. In addition to the census records, ProQuest will expand its offerings with other content from Heritage Quest, including military records, ship passenger lists, county records, selected state censuses, Native American records, marriage records, local and family histories, African-American family records, city directories, and more. ProQuest will begin to integrate the Heritage Quest data into its genealogical databases immediately. Current subscribers to Genealogy and Local History Online, ProQuest's Web-based genealogy database for libraries, will have access to census data by late fall. The ProQuest product will support remote access, a key benefit for patrons who use library resources offsite. Source: ProQuest Information and Learning
Send correspondence concerning the Weekly News Digest to NewsBreaks Editor
Brandi Scardilli
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