A new agreement for a national license between Jisc and ProQuest will enable access for the UK Higher Education community to two major digital archives: Early European Books Collections 1-4 and The Vogue Archive.
Providing access to almost 25,000 rare and often unique books, Early European Books is a key resource for those with a strong research interest in the period from 1450 - 1700, delivering a wide variety of primary sources from one of the most fascinating and influential periods in Western history and has been developed in collaboration with a range of major European libraries. Very few libraries have access to such a large corpus of works as Early European Books offers and researchers and students will now be able to view this material wherever and whenever they choose.
Updated monthly with the most recent edition of the magazine, The Vogue Archive gives researchers of fashion, photography, advertising and history access to the entire publication run of the US edition of Vogue magazine, back to its first issue in 1892. Fashion marketing students will be able to research the history of a brand identity by viewing every advertisement featured, whilst researchers in cultural and gender studies can explore themes such as body image, gender roles and social tastes from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The collection contains over 400,000 pages, reproduced as high resolution full colour images, along with very rich indexing and metadata.
Jisc champions the use of digital services and solutions in UK universities and working with ProQuest to make these archives available to researchers will help them achieve this aim. Having both of these products available on the one ProQuest platform will enhance efficiency in accessibility which will benefit both the students and those teaching them.
Lorraine Estelle, executive director content and discovery and divisional CEO Jisc Collections, Jisc said: "We are committed to making scholarship as accessible as possible across UK institutions and are thus very pleased to ensure all libraries can have access to Early European Books and the wealth of material it contains. We have long seen the potential of The Vogue Archive to support education across many disciplines - not only those with a focus on fashion - and look forward to it being a well-used resource in higher and further education."
Stephen Brooks, senior director for literature and the arts at ProQuest said, "This agreement is great news for researchers and students across a range of disciplines; providing them with access to a vast collection of new, digitised content. We are incredibly passionate about meeting researcher needs around the world and this collaboration is a valuable and effective way for us to achieve this goal. We applaud Jisc for its recognition of the potential for these resources to impact research in the UK and will continue to work closely with Jisc and the higher education community to support its use of Early European Books and The Vogue Archive."
About Jisc (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/)
Jisc offers digital services and solutions for UK education and research. The charity does this to achieve its vision for the UK to be the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world.
Working together across the higher education, further education and skills sectors, Jisc provides trusted advice and support, reduces sector costs across shared network, digital content, IT services and procurement negotiations, ensuring the sector stays ahead of the game with research and development for the future.
Find out more at www.jisc.ac.uk or contact the press team on press@jisc.ac.uk
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 ebooks. 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, the RefWorks® FlowTM collaboration platform, the PivotTM research development tool and the IntotaTM library services platform. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.