ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 12, 2009 - Libraries have a critical need for online access to the complete full-image backfiles of newspapers from 2008 through today. Until the recent launch of the ProQuest Digital Microfilm^TM service, much of this content was only available in microfilm format. ProQuest is continuing to close this gap by adding essential newspaper titles to its ProQuest Digital Microfilm^TM solution. Today, five newspaper titles are live and agreements have been signed to make an additional ten titles available soon.

 “We're partners with libraries, supporting their quest to get people to the content that's going to make a difference for them,” said Rod Gauvin, senior vice president of publishing for ProQuest.   “Classifieds, advertisements, photos, stock charts, editorial cartoons, birth notices, and other images are vital to piecing together the complete story of a time period or event.   ProQuest Digital Microfilm™ creates a path to that powerful content that lies in traditional film and makes it readily accessible online.”

The Wall Street Journal, American Banker, Barron’s, Sacramento Bee, and The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) are now available through the ProQuest Digital Microfilm™ solution.  The following newspapers will be added soon: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, The Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times (Record edition), Los Angeles Times (Library edition), Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Orange County Register, and St. Louis Post Dispatch.

ProQuest Digital Microfilm™ solution allows multiple, simultaneous users from subscribing libraries to view full-image newspaper content held in microfilm from any computer with internet access, thereby overcoming the on-site, single-user barriers of traditional microfilm. The Digital Microfilm™ process works by scanning microfilm of selected newspapers from the 2008 volume year and forward, supporting the resulting digital copy online.   Content is easily browsed, and supported with additional data -- publication title, year, month, day, and page – that make it easy to skip through “reels.”  In this online environment, the user can view enhanced high resolution grayscale images, scroll through issues, zoom, crop, print, save, and email images. 

 While ProQuest is known for its vast digital information collections, it continues to produce many products in microform since libraries often prefer to store research collections, dissertations, newspapers, and indexes in this more permanent, technology-neutral medium.  Founded as a microfilm publisher and building this special expertise under its UMI® brand, ProQuest owns the largest commercially available microform collection in the world.  Its 2.2 billion page images deliver 500 years of information, drawn from a myriad of literary, journalistic, and scholarly works.  Every year ProQuest adds millions of images of contemporary information to its microfilm vault.

To learn more, visit www.proquest.com