ANN ARBOR, Mich., January 20, 2006 - ProQuest Information and Learning announced today the completion of major enhancements to SIRS Researcher, a one-stop reference solution providing thousands of full-text articles that explore social, scientific, health, historic, business, economic, political, and global issues. The newly re-launched SIRS Researcher helps students make sense of the current and enduring social issues affecting their world.

SIRS Researcher features nearly 100 Leading Issues, plus thousands of topical issues. SIRS covers enduring issues such as capital punishment, gun control, and pollution, as well as today’s most current issues such as evolution, doping in sports, and same-sex marriage. The Your Top 10 list features the ten most-accessed Leading Issues for the previous month.

 

All Leading Issues are now accessible from the primary search screen. Leading Issues' non-divisive, unbiased editorial approach allows students to build critical thinking skills and form their own opinions by seeing all sides of an issue – pro, con, and everything in between. Also, the new Pro/Con and myAnalysis tabs make exploring the opposing viewpoints easier.   New Leading Issues curriculum guides walk students through the research process, utilizing Leading Issues as a primary source of information.

In addition to a cleaner and more visually sophisticated interface, SIRS Researcher has a new That's Debatable feature. This allows students to vote in an online poll and become vested in the research process.  This month’s poll has had more than 40,000 responders to date.

Other new features include targeted image searching and My Research Links.  Special Features such as Maps of the World, Today's News, Spotlights, ChallengeQuests, Educator’s Resources, and Research Guides have also been given more prominent placement for easy access.

SIRS Decades Now Complete SIRS Decades has completed its collection of 20^th century content with the addition of content and topics for the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.  Sample topics include:

• End of the Vietnam War
• Watergate—Break-in and Cover-Up
• Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War
• Reaganomics
• Clinton and the Republican Congress
• Foreign Policy and Terrorism
• The Age of the Internet

SIRS Decades provides more than 5,000 hand-selected articles, highlighting key events, movements, people and places in 20th Century America. Documents span a wide range of formats – letters and memos, editorial cartoons, illustrations, ads and articles – with some being released from ProQuest’s UMI vault for the first time in digital format. Organized by decade and topic, SIRS Decades places primary and secondary sources into a curriculum-oriented framework that builds a relevant context for understanding, enriching the content and students’ experience with the material.

 

About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.

More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.

For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com.