Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts
| Private; Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Information & Data Provider |
| Founded | 1938 |
| Headquarters | Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
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Key people
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| Parent | Cambridge Information Group |
| Website | www |
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest provides solutions, applications, and products for libraries. Its resources and tools support research and learning, publishing and dissemination, and the acquisition, management and discovery of library collections.
From its founding as a producer of microfilm products and then as an electronic publisher, the company has grown through acquisitions. Today, the company provides tools for discovery and citation management and platforms that allow library users to discover, manage, use and share research gained from authoritative content. Total content, including dissertations and theses, ebooks, newspapers, periodicals, historical collections, governmental and cultural archives and other aggregated databases is estimated at over 125 billion digital pages. Content is accessed most commonly through library Internet gateways. The current chief executive officer is Kurt P. Sanford. ProQuest is part of Cambridge Information Group.
ProQuest was founded as a microfilm publisher. It began publishing doctoral dissertations in 1939, has published more than 3 million searchable dissertations and theses, and is designated as an offsite digital archive for the United States Library of Congress. The company's scholarly content includes dissertations and theses, primary source material, ebooks, scholarly journals, historical and current newspapers and periodicals, data sources, and other content of interest to researchers. These are made available through a variety of Web-based interfaces. A recent offering, ProQuest Video Preservation and Discovery Service, allows libraries to preserve and provide access to their proprietary audio and video collections.
ProQuest LLC also operates businesses under the following names:
Eugene Power, a 1930 M.B.A. graduate of the University of Michigan, founded the company as University Microfilms in 1938, preserving works from the British Museum on microfilm. By June 1938, Power worked in two rented rooms from a downtown Ann Arbor funeral parlor, specializing in microphotography to preserve library collections. In his autobiography Edition of One, Power details the development of the company, including how University Microfilms assisted the OSS during World War II. This work mainly involved filming maps and European newspapers so they could be shipped back and forth overseas more cheaply and discreetly.
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