ProQuest’s All-New Platform Will Redefine Search Experience

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 6 /PRNewswire/ — ProQuest is leveraging its extensive research of end-users, librarians and faculty search behaviors to drive the creation of an all-new platform that will redefine the search experience for library users around the world. Available in 2010, the new platform will transform the company’s highly-regarded platforms into one unified search experience, providing access to a broad range of resources, content, and services that only ProQuest offers. The ProQuest(R), CSA Illumina(R), and selected Chadwyck-Healey(TM) products will be available on the new platform at launch, and all ProQuest products will migrate to the new platform over time.

“We’re creating the best search experience possible for users, while simplifying administration of e-resources for librarians,” said Marty Kahn, CEO of ProQuest. “ProQuest has assembled the right assets and fostered strategic partnerships over the years that will allow us to offer not just the right content, but also the best technology. We’re taking extreme care to combine the two in ways that are meaningful to all types of library users.”

The new platform is being built from the ground up based on years of extensive student observations, surveys of more than 6,000 end users, focus groups, and individual interviews, along with ongoing interactions with users, librarians and faculty. Its core is a single platform for all content, with a single content store, single search engine, and unified user experience. Users will experience deeper discovery of information, and will then be able to organize and use their findings more efficiently and with greater precision.

ProQuest’s Chief Information Officer Bipin Patel says that the company is focused on purpose-driven design. “Customer and user needs are driving the new platform requirements and design. Each element of the new platform has been identified as necessary to meet the needs of today’s users — and tomorrow’s — and we’re engaging users and librarians throughout the development cycle.”

ProQuest has worked with librarians and end users to get feedback on storyboards, mock-ups, and prototypes. The company is testing new solutions piece by piece — both with its internal R&D and User Design teams using detailed user personas and through routine, rigorous user feedback.

The new platform will facilitate and simplify access to the broad range of authoritative resources, content, and services that only ProQuest offers. Users will be able to quickly and easily narrow in on the answers they need by searching across all content and a broad range of complementary sources, including leading journals, periodicals, news content, rare and archival information, dissertations, research reports, ebooks, and multimedia. Powerful navigation tools will surface the most relevant content of any format in context to help guide users in their search. Sophisticated post-search manipulation features will make it faster and easier to zero in on the most relevant results. For libraries, the unified platform will offer new administrative and reporting tools that provide greater flexibility in customizing the experience to their institution’s needs.

ProQuest has long been known for listening to the research community and that legacy continues with the new platform. All of the features, functionality and design of the new platform are a direct outgrowth of extensive outreach to and feedback from libraries, faculty and end users. The platform will be a living service, evolving over time to meet changing user needs. To learn more about the new platform visit www.proquest.com/go/yourpath .

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 CSA(TM), UMI(R), Chadwyck-Healey(TM), SIRS(R), and eLibrary(R). With Serials Solutions(R), Ulrich’s(TM), RefWorks(R), COS(TM), Dialog(R) and now Bowker(R) 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.cambridgeinformationgroup.com.

SOURCE ProQuest