ProQuest Publishes the First Digital Archive of American Historical Annual Reports
More than 160 years of history of America's most celebrated businesses a click away
ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ProQuest Information and Learning announces the first-ever digital archive devoted solely to capturing rich historical data from American businesses. ProQuest Historical Annual Reports(TM) leverages ProQuest's acclaimed interface, creating desk-top access to sought-after business information dating from the mid-1800's to present day. The archive comprises 160 years of continuous coverage for more than 800 of America's top corporations.
"The Industrial Revolution ushered in unparalleled social, environmental, and political change," said David "Skip" Prichard, President of ProQuest Information and Learning. "From the rise of labor unions, to environmental protection, to multinational trade, the very fabric of our society can be traced through the past 160 years of corporate evolution. ProQuest Historical Annual Reports continues our commitment to deliver targeted information solutions to our customers. We are proud to offer this unique solution to further scholarly and corporate research into this critical period in American and world history."
"While there are other report databases on the market, only ProQuest offers the historical data found in this collection," said Todd Fegan, Vice President of Publishing for ProQuest Information and Learning. "Historical Annual Reports is the first collection to offer this depth of coverage, designed specifically to meet the needs of academic researchers. The two or three most current annual reports from a given company are widely available, but only Historical Annual Reports contains 160 years of reports in a comprehensive, digital package that's cross-searchable with other important business information."
"By digitizing these annual reports, ProQuest has given researchers a firsthand look at the evolution of the American business world over the past 100 years," said Judith Nixon, Head of Humanities, Social Science & Education Head and Professor at Purdue University. "The reports provide financial details, of course, but they're just as valuable for the image they present of the company at a given point in history. The president's letter in the front of each one shows how the company wanted stockholders to understand its position and plans for the future, while the look and feel of the report provides a picture of the company just as important as the financial data. And the flexible interface makes it easy for researchers to trace the social and economic issues of the times as well."
ProQuest developed Historical Annual Reports in consultation with university faculty and librarians, who said access was one of the most significant barriers to researching pre-1970 company information. Until now, these valuable retrospective reports were scattered around the country on film, fiche, and tattered paper. ProQuest responded to this need by gathering, digitizing, and indexing these vital business records for seamless access. This new application meets the needs of scholarly, legal, and corporate researchers -- allowing them to trace a company's family tree, including name changes and acquisitions, product life cycles, developments, financial data, statistics, and corporate self-images across time.
Historical content comes from a variety of sources including ProQuest's digitized microfiche collection, as well as content partners like Purdue University and Harvard Business School. Data from 1995 forward is provided by Mergent, Inc., a provider of business and financial data on global publicly listed companies. The collection of reports will continue to grow as new reports are added annually.
Historical Annual Reports contains the records for a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, insurance, transportation, oil and gas, food and beverage, and retail. Coverage spans the history of some of the most influential American businesses including: Mutual Life of New York (160 years), Ford Motor Company (93 years), General Electric Company (112 years), Coca Cola Company (85 years), Texaco (85 years), and Sears Roebuck & Co. (98 years).
Historical Annual Reports brings content together on the award-winning ProQuest platform. All report text is searchable, and special indexing makes key data readily accessible for analysis and trending. The interface makes it easy to find search terms on the page through hit term highlighting inside the PDF image.
Historical Annual Reports easily integrates with other ProQuest databases such as ABI/INFORM(TM), the most comprehensive business database on the market today. It also will be fully cross-searchable with other academic research tools like ProQuest Historical Newspapers(TM) and the American Periodical Series Online. Seamless cross-searching produces even richer results by integrating social commentary, scholarly analysis, and primary financial sources into a single answer set.
About ProQuest Information and Learning
ProQuest Information and Learning is a world leader in collecting, organizing, and publishing information for researchers, faculty, and students in libraries and schools. It is widely known for its strength in business and economics, general reference, genealogy, humanities, social sciences, and STM content. The company develops premium databases comprising periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, out-of-print books, and other scholarly information from more than 9,000 publishers worldwide. Users access the information through the ProQuest® Web-based online information system, Chadwyck- Healey(TM) electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary® and SIRS® educational resources, and Serials Solutions e-resource access and management solutions. ProQuest® Smart Search was named "Best Specialist Search Product" by the International Information Industry Awards in late 2005. For more information about ProQuest Information and Learning, visit www.il.proquest.com/ .
Source: ProQuest Information and Learning
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