"ProQuest is committed to bringing the best research to light, allowing users to access it directly," said Mary Sauer-Games, vice president, Chadwyck-Healey publishing. "In a world where users are bombarded by information at every turn, our role as publishers is to be the signpost that guides them to the best sources that are the most relevant and the most trustworthy. This agreement does exactly that by allowing users to seamlessly cross search more than 400 years of every work published in English."
EEBO and ECCO digitize historic documents - both classics and previously little-known works - allowing researchers to view them in their original state on their desktops. EEBO, the first project in ProQuest's massive Digital Vault Initiative, includes more than 100,000 literary and historic works from 1475 to 1700. Its stellar author list includes Joseph Addison, Daniel Defoe, William Congreve, and Thomas D'Urfey. The database also includes musical exercises by Henry Purcell, novels by Aphra Behn, and prayer books, pamphlets, proclamations, almanacs, calendars, and other primary resources.
ECCO, published digitally by Gale in 2003, captures more than 28 million pages of books, dictionaries, directories, Bibles, sheet music and sermons - in fact, almost everything printed in England between 1700 and 1800. The more than 120,000 books in ECCO contain the seminal works of the age of Enlightenment, the provocative documents that surrounded the American and French revolutionary causes, and landmark writings of scientific, technological and medical discoveries from the Age of Reason. Sourced from the leading libraries of the world, all the works in ECCO are fully text searchable, and include high resolution images and bibliographic metadata.
Libraries that have purchased both EEBO and ECCO can activate cross-searching at no charge. Once activated, the cross-search technology requires only a single search to access and view more than four centuries' worth of relevant documents in their original form on a desktop.
"Libraries need publishers to pursue agreements like this…agreements that make the databases they invest in easier to use and discover," said Frank Menchaca, senior vice president of publishing at Gale. "I'm delighted that Gale and ProQuest are able to make these two essential research sources work better together."
For more information about EEBO, ECCO and cross-search technology, visit ProQuest or Gale online at www.il.proquest.com or www.gale.com.
About ProQuest
ProQuest provides seamless access to and navigation of more than 125 billion digital pages of the world's scholarship, delivering it to the desktop and into the workflow of serious researchers in multiple fields, from arts, literature, and social science to science, technology, and medicine. ProQuest is part of Cambridge Information Group (www.cambridgeinformationgroup.com).
ProQuest's vast content pools are available to researchers through libraries of all types and include the world's largest digital newspaper archive, periodical databases comprising the output of more than 9,000 titles and spanning more than 500 years, the pre-eminent dissertation collection, and various other scholarly collections. Users access the information through the ProQuest® and CSA Illumina™ online information systems, Chadwyck-Healey™ electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary® and SIRS® educational resources, Ulrich's® Serials Analysis System, COS Scholar Universe, and Serials Solutions® resource management tools. Through the expertise of business units Serials Solutions and COS, ProQuest provides technological tools that allow researchers and libraries to better manage and use their information resources. For more information, visit www.proquest.com, www.proquest.co.uk, and www.csa.com.
About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning, formerly Thomson Learning, delivers highly customized learning solutions for colleges, universities, professors, students, reference centers, government agencies, corporations and professionals around the world. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs - from homework help to health questions to business profiles - in a variety of formats - books and eBooks, databases and microfilm. For more information visit: www.cengage.com or www.gale.com.
