ProQuest Expands Resources for Study of Global Data

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of its acclaimed resurrection of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, ProQuest will debut two major data resources in 2013. ProQuest Statistical Abstracts of the World, which takes the classic U.S. reference to a global level, will be released in early August. Additionally, a new collaboration between ProQuest, the industry-leading DataMarket and Oxford Economics, one of the world's foremost independent global economic firms, will enable researchers to search, compare, visualize and share time series, survey responses and other research data on hundreds of topics through a single interface. ProQuest International DataSets will be released in September.

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"Creating resources that can support in-depth data mining takes a unique skill set," said Susan Bokern, ProQuest Vice-President, Information Solutions. "Matching the strengths of ProQuest's team of statistical data experts with those of DataMarket and Oxford Economics is producing a particularly rich and expansive resource. Further, ProQuest Statistical Abstracts of the World will be a flexible and powerful resource, providing a full range of research techniques and analytic tools to help advance the work of researchers."

While both international products will include the global macroeconomic data compiled by the United Nations, the European Union, and other international organizations, the scope of the ProQuest products will go beyond these familiar benchmarks. Featured content will include population and industry data for 2600 major cities around the world, as well as for selected states/provinces; production and employment trends for 100 industries in the BRIC countries; data on ethnicity, religion, consumer spending, health care, income levels for selected countries; and expert long-term forecasts for 190 countries.

"Information centers often struggle to find granular and reliable data on industries and cities in major and emerging markets.  ProQuest International DataSets fills this critical information need with a best-of-breed data analytics tool, which draws on Oxford Economics unparalleled city coverage," said Lou Celi, President of Oxford Economics USA.

"Our goal is to give people one place where they can get the data they need to understand the world around them. We are thrilled to be bringing together our technology and data collections with those of ProQuest and Oxford Economics," said Hjalmar Gislason, founder and CEO of DataMarket. "This is the start of a long-term partnership, and our shared ambition is to create a world-leading gateway to global data and information."

ProQuest's International DataSets will bring complex and diverse data together from hundreds of sources in one place and one format, enabling data to be searched, compared, visualized and shared. The resource will combine the full content set and technology architecture from DataMarket along with content from both ProQuest and Oxford Economics' renowned array of quantitative and qualitative research.  ProQuest International DataSets will be fully interactive, allowing users to create their own charts and reports from diverse sources and also embed context and commentary with them.

ProQuest Statistical Abstracts of the World will have the same look and feel as ProQuest's Statistical Abstract of the U.S., while serving a larger purpose. This online resource will enable researchers to compare and contrast countries indicator-by-indicator and over time. The rich technology supporting the data provides line-item access to tables and table-specific capabilities for narrowing results by source, data date, subject, type of data breakdown. Edited by ProQuest's team of statistical experts, Statistical Abstract of the World will be updated monthly.

ProQuest's statistical editorial team is renowned for its ability to gather and edit data that enables rich mining for new discoveries. To learn more visit www.proquest.com

75^th Anniversary of Landmark Innovation

ProQuest is celebrating the 75^th anniversary of microfilm and the legacy of innovations that have supported researchers and librarians for more than a century. The launch of University Microfilms, Inc. (UMI) introduced a new era for libraries, enabling preservation and sharing of large document collections.

To commemorate this pivotal milestone, the company created a comic book that tells the story in true superhero fashion of how microfilm became the gold standard for information preservation. Eugene B. Power and the Wild Beginnings of UMI is available in print and e-book format.

About Oxford Economics
Oxford Economics was founded in 1981 as a commercial venture with Oxford University's business college to provide economic advice and forecasts to international organizations. Since then, it has become one of the world's foremost independent global economic firms, producing forecasts, analysis, and data on 190 countries and regions, 100 industries, and 2,600 sub-regions and cities. Their team includes over 80 professional economists, industry analysts, and management experts, supported by an extensive network of contributors around the world.

About DataMarket
DataMarket helps people find and understand data. We bring complex and diverse data together in one place and one format so it can be searched, compared, visualized and shared – between individuals, across groups and organizations, or with the world. DataMarket is licensed to enterprises and data publishers as a white-label SaaS solution and includes seamless access to our ever-expanding collection of facts and figures from leading global data providers. DataMarket is a private company with product development based in Reykjavik and its sales office in Boston, Massachusetts. www.datamarket.com.

About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company's products are a gateway to the world's knowledge including dissertations, governmental and cultural archives, news, historical collections and e-books. ProQuest technologies serve users across the critical points in research, helping them discover, access, share, create and manage information.

The company's cloud-based technologies offer flexible solutions for librarians, students and researchers through the ProQuest®, Bowker®, Dialog®, ebrary®, EBL® and Serials Solutions® businesses – and notable research tools such as the Summon® discovery service, RefWorks® Flow, Pivot™ and Intota®, a new library services platform. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.

SOURCE ProQuest