Gale's Nineteenth Century Collections Online Arrives at Academic Institutions Worldwide

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., April 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Gale, part of Cengage Learning and a leading publisher of research and reference resources for libraries, schools and businesses, today announced the availability of Nineteenth Century Collections Online, a groundbreaking multi-year global digitization and publishing program. Nineteenth Century Collections Online brings together rare primary source materials – monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, photographs and more – from the "long" nineteenth century (1789-1914) and beyond. British Politics and Society and European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection – the first two of four Archives for 2012 – are now available to customers.

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"The launch of Nineteenth Century Collections Online marks an important milestone in our history as a leading learning and research solutions publisher," said Ron Dunn, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cengage Learning. "It is the most ambitious scholarly digitization and publication program ever undertaken, and we are excited that Nineteenth Century Collections Online is already being met with great interest worldwide."

Several leading research institutions have recognized the revolutionary effect Nineteenth Century Collections Online will have on research of this important era. Early adopters include the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta, McGill University, Simon Fraser University, the University of Ottawa, the University of Regina, Old Dominion University, York University, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, and the University of Miami.

"The University of Miami maintains a reputation as a leading research institution and, with the purchase of the first four archives of Nineteenth Century Collections Online, we are ensuring our students and faculty have access to the most comprehensive collection of nineteenth century materials available," said William D. Walker, Dean of Libraries, University of Miami.

The vast majority of the content within Nineteenth Century Collections Online has never before been digitized, and much of the content has never been captured for microfilm or been otherwise made available outside the source institution. These Archives will open up a world of material to scholars across the globe. Extensive conservation and preservation work is also being done on the materials to ensure the originals can be used by future generations of researchers.

In addition to the nearly 10 million pages of content within the overall Archives for 2012, the resource is built on an innovative technology platform that features a range of tools to support advanced research, including:

• Textual analysis tools that allow users to identify and visualize patterns, trends and relationships, and explore content in completely original ways;
• Subject Indexing that makes the content accessible and exposes key elements within the data to help researchers identify relationships among documents;
• User Generated Tags and Annotations that allow users to create and add their own metadata for document categorization – tags can be shared publicly or used privately, and text can be highlighted and annotated with virtual notes;
• Image Viewer allows users to zoom, highlight, rotate, reverse (negative image), and view individual pages in full screen mode, with the ability to adjust brightness and contrast; and
• Zotero, a popular and robust browser-based tool for collecting, citing, and organizing research sources, is optimized for use with Nineteenth Century Collections Online.

Through the use of agile software development methodology, which allows for a high degree of collaboration among development teams and enables users to review and test products early in the process, Gale has been able to incorporate all of these features into Nineteenth Century Collections Online in a quick and efficient manner.

Two additional archives – Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange and British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture will be available this spring. For more information on Nineteenth Century Collections Online or to request a trial, please visit www.gale.cengage.com/nineteenthcentury. To download the Nineteenth Century Collections Online Museum app for both iOS and Android devices, visit the iTunes app store or the Android marketplace.

For questions or to speak with a Gale publisher, please contact Kristina Massari at [email protected].

About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs – from homework help to health questions to business profiles – in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.cengage.com.

SOURCE Cengage Learning