In December ProQuest announced its agreement with the Hartford Courant to digitize the newspaper’s issues, allowing desktop access to PDFs of the actual articles, ads and page layouts as they appeared the day they were published.  Through iCONN, Connecticut residents with public library cards will have access via the Internet to issues dating through 1922, while students and faculty at schools and universities will access through their school or university gateway.  Student access is available to anyone attending a university or college in Connecticut, regardless of residency.  

Connecticut residents’ fast access to the database is the result of joint effort among ProQuest, iCONN and its member libraries.  “There was early commitment from the State Library and the iCONN libraries to get this significant database digitized and out to the entire state,” said Rod Gauvin, ProQuest senior vice-president of publishing and marketing.  “That funding support and cooperation helped us quickly deliver on a project that will benefit Connecticut by delivering its history throughout the state and, as part of our entire historical newspapers program, throughout the world.”

The State Library and ProQuest see broad uses of the archive.   Scholars can use it as a source of primary research across multiple disciplines.  In the public library setting, it’s expected to be a sought-after resource for genealogical and local historical research.   In schools, it provides an intuitive, convenient way to address the increased emphasis on the use of primary resource documents in the teaching of American history. 

“This is an exciting and significant addition to the suite of iCONN databases and one that benefits all iCONN users,” said State Librarian Kendall F. Wiggin. He also credited the financial support from school, public, academic and special libraries across the state for making this happen. “This was the first time the State Library has gone to the library community to help fund an iCONN database and the response was very gratifying,” he said.

iCONN will begin providing the historical file – from 1764 – 1922 – this month to all Connecticut libraries.  The Courant's archives are part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers, the world's largest digital newspaper archive, encompassing 14 million pages and growing.  A core research holding in major libraries around the world, it includes such major newspapers as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Atlanta Constitution, Boston Globe and The Chicago Defender, one of the most influential African-American newspapers.  The Courant provides the earliest press accounts in the Historical Newspapers archive. 

The digitization of The Hartford Courant is one in a series of enhancements to the ProQuest news publications program.  Each is aimed at building a core of products that will allow comprehensive research to be done easily from a single starting point.  In addition to significantly expanding the availability of digital archives, ProQuest has recently announced enhancements to its current news program including the launch of Latin American Newsstand, which provides library patrons with comprehensive coverage of Latin America's most prestigious newspapers in their native Spanish and Portuguese.   ProQuest's extensive current collection now includes more than 350 full-text newspapers from around the world, creating a flexible, comprehensive current news resource.  ProQuest is also distributor of NewspaperDirect, a unique delivery system through which libraries get direct, immediate access to over 300 international and domestic dailies in full-page format, allowing them to provide same-day international newspaper service to their patrons. 

For more information about ProQuest news products visit the company on the Web at www.il.proquest.com.

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-Healey^TM electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary®, SIRS® and Voyager Expanded Learning educational 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 has twice been named one of the top 100 fastest growing technology companies in the United States by Business 2.0 as well as one of the 200 best small companies by Forbes Magazine.