ANN ARBOR, Mich., May 19, 2003 - Comprehensive coverage of ten countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat is now part of the ProQuest Reference Asia electronic database with the latest release, PQRA: South East Asia.

ProQuest Reference Asia (PQRA) is created and distributed by ProQuest Information and Learning, a unit of ProQuest Company (NYSE: PQE). The comprehensive, Web-based resource covers one of the most complex and important business regions in the world. The full-text product is available by subscription to libraries, businesses, and government departments.

PQRA: South East Asia delivers authoritative, comprehensive and timely geo-political, economic, social and business reference information about an area of the world where such information is scarce. Included are news sources, reference materials, statistics, directory content, official policy material and analytical sources for Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the ASEAN Secretariat.

PQRA: South East Asia includes 61 sources, drawn from a variety of local and international publishers including:

• government departments and national statistical offices
• inter-governmental organizations
• non-governmental organizations
• research institutes and think tanks
• state and commercial publishing houses
• academic institutions
• custom content commissioned by ProQuest such as Topic Guides, In Focus articles and Web directory with abstracts

Local content is a key element of PQRA, allowing access to hard-to-source information and multiple perspectives on regional issues gleaned through content licensed from a range of providers. PQRA’s emphasis on local content and exclusive sources not available elsewhere on the web makes it a valuable addition to Asian reference tools in academic, corporate and government libraries. The subscription service offers the new South East Asia module as a standalone or in combination with the first module, PQRA: Greater China, which covers the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. Future regional modules will cover the major regions of north and south Asia. The collection will be ongoing with updates and new materials to be added regularly.

New features have been added to the PQRA interface along with the new content. Subscribers to both modules may search PQRA: South East Asia and PQRA: Greater China together or separately. Search by publication has been added, with an advanced search option allowing searches to be restricted to specific titles. The Table of Contents page has been streamlined, grouped by module with titles identified by country.  Documents may now be emailed, a popular function for users.

The new features become part of an interface already rich with options for researchers and scholars. Users may search by keyword, country or region, subject, publication, date range and content type. They may also choose to browse by region, subject, or publication. Search history is available. Three custom-written features offer weekly Bulletins on breaking news, events and developments; Topic Guides for one-stop briefings on key subjects; and weekly In Focus articles summarizing and analyzing the week’s main events and developments. Custom email alerts keep regular users up to date on new content. Some statistical information may be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet for easy editing. Results are sorted by content type and every resource, including web links, is selected by ProQuest’s skilled editorial team.

Free trials are available. Libraries may receive more information by contacting their account representative at 1-800-521-0600, ext 3183 or 3452 (outside the U.S., call +44-1-223-215-512) or pqsales@il.proquest.com. Editors may call 1-800-521-0600, ext 6489 or email pr@il.proquest.com.