ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 6, 2009 - Five ProQuest products have been selected as finalists in the Software & Information Industry Association's (SIIA) 24th annual CODiE Awards, which honor outstanding achievement and vision in the software, digital information and education technology industries. The finalists were chosen from more than 850 nominations submitted by 600 companies and include ProQuest Central, Black Studies Center™ with The History Makers™, SIRS Discoverer®, SIRS Researcher®, and HeritageQuest™ Online.

"As an organization we are continually listening to our community of researchers and librarians, using that specific feedback to drive new and enhance existing products,” said Marty Kahn, CEO of ProQuest.  “Having ProQuest solutions named to the list of CODiE finalists is an affirmation of our enduring mission to stay ahead of our users needs.  I'm delighted that ProQuest is getting this special recognition from our peers in the information industry.”

ProQuest Central, the world’s largest aggregated full-text database, is a finalist in the Best Online General Reference Service category.   Designed to act as a central resource for researchers of all types in a wide variety of libraries, this product provides access to the full text of millions of articles from thousands of scholarly journals, popular trade publications, company reports and dissertations, newspapers, newsletters and newswires, including information not available in other aggregated resources.

Black Studies Center with The History Makers is a finalist in the Best Education Reference or Search Service category.  Black Studies Center is acclaimed for its detailed coverage of history, literature, political science, sociology, philosophy, and religion, creating a framework for undergraduate and graduate level Black Studies courses.  The History Makers, launched in 2008, is an add-on collection of digitized videos of notable contemporary African Americans, sharing stories of their early lives, families, history, education, and their professional work.

SIRS Discoverer is a finalist in the Best Instructional Solution in Other Curriculum Areas category. SIRS Discoverer delivers safe, kid-friendly online learning resources selected for students in elementary and middle school. Discoverer helps students develop their research, writing, language, and computer skills via an intuitive interface and engaging content. Resources include thousands of full-text articles, images, and websites—all carefully selected for their educational content, age-appropriateness, and readability. 

SIRS Researcher is a finalist in the Best Social Studies Instructional Solution category.  SIRS Researcher enables debate of the pros and cons of thousands of current and enduring social issues. Analyses and illustrative documents, websites, and multimedia—hand selected from national and international sources— guide kids through the range of issues on complex topics.

HeritageQuest Online is a finalist in the Best Online Consumer Information Service category. HeritageQuest Online is an incredible storehouse of American genealogical information rich in unique primary sources, local and family histories, and finding aids, with coverage dating back to the late 1700s. It helps researchers discover their past with millions of records such as U.S. federal census, genealogy and local history books including an exclusive collection from the American Antiquarian Society, and the Periodical Source Index™ (PERSI™), the most comprehensive genealogical periodical index available.

CODiE awards finalists are selected by a panel of judges from the trade press, consulting, educators, IT specialists and other experts. Finalists move on to a second round of judging in which SIIA members cast their votes to determine the CODiE Awards Winners. The 2009 CODiE Awards will be presented at a gala event on May 5 at the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

 

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.