ProQuest Adds PL Freebie

By Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 09/01/2006

Public library customers of ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers program are receiving a free upgrade with the inclusion of Extra Edition, which improves searching capabilities and offers a new interface. Using Extra Edition, users can cross-search the newspaper titles; its Topic Browse feature includes roughly 14,000 editorially selected articles that the vendor says have been “carefully reviewed and organized by editorial experts.”

The improved searching lets users dig for information by article type, publication, date range, and other variables. There’s also a “What Happened On…” quick search box for a specific date, a “This Day in History” element, and a “Famous Dead People” section that profiles 400 significant newsmakers from the last 50 years. Customers will be notified when the upgrade has gone into effect in their library.