DENVER ( October 27, 2004) – Questia Media, Inc., today announced that the world’s largest online academic library is now available for widespread use at the secondary school level. Questia’s 21st century library consists of a growing collection of 50,000 full-text books, 400,000 journal, magazine, and newspaper articles and a comprehensive suite of research tools. Utilized as an online companion, Questia extends the physical library’s reach, capability and availability. In addition, one librarian at every secondary school in America will be given a free one-year subscription to Questia, which provides anytime, anywhere access to academically vetted content, focused on the specific needs of high school students.
“School libraries are a fundamental and effective resource in every child’s education,” said Troy Williams, president and CEO of Questia Media. “In order for our students to keep pace in the 21st century, a real shift needs to occur in how students access information. Questia’s 21st century library provides new and better research solutions for students, and ultimately transforms the educational experience by enabling students to customize their personal library space and do higher quality work with 21st century research tools.”
As part of its expansion into the secondary school market, Questia is giving one librarian at every secondary school in America a free, one-year subscription to its online academic library. The total donation, worth $3.7 million, will provide secondary school librarians and library media specialists with the opportunity to see how they can benefit students by expanding their school’s existing collections with quality, credible content that has been pre-selected by a team of professional librarians. The academically vetted content, both fiction and non-fiction, is focused on English Language Arts and Social Studies. Questia provides librarians, as well as school officials, with the opportunity to offer students a valuable educational resource that also makes sense fiscally.
“Studies have found that 94% of online youth say that they use the Internet for school-related research,” said Keith Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). “It is essential that we provide our students with access to credible content and information. Online libraries are the most reliable and respected providers of academically vetted knowledge on the Web.”
Questia’s online resource materials support the majority of secondary school curriculum topics, offering coverage of the top reading resources to which student should be exposed. With the online academic library, students can quickly and easily set their own workspace and reading preferences, create project folders and personal bookshelves and automatically develop properly formatted footnotes and bibliographies in seven different citation styles. In addition, the 21st century library solves the problems associated with lost books and limited quantities of research materials. Questia’s service enables an unlimited number of simultaneous users of books and articles and provides complete freedom and mobility.
“With Questia, no book is ever checked out,” continued Williams. “That means students are never frustrated by a missing or damaged library book. And teachers are never short materials for multiple classes. In fact, Questia not only enables wide-spread accessibility, but also mobility – students can conduct research 24/7 – they are not limited to the hours of their school library.”
Since the launch of its online academic library in January 2001, Questia has achieved widespread success among students, educators and researchers in the higher education market. More recently, Questia has seen an increased demand for an online companion to physical libraries among the secondary school market due in part to increasing book prices and shrinking school district budgets. With Questia, school districts can affordably supplement and grow their current library collections for a fraction of the cost, while giving every student access to a first-rate, 24-hour academic library and 21st century research tools.
In addition, Questia recently earned the Rookie of the Year Award at EdNET 2004, the Annual Educational and Telecommunications Markets Conference, for demonstrating the greatest potential to substantially impact the education community.
Librarians can fulfill their free annual subscription to Questia by calling Marisa Hayden at 888-950-2580 ext. 2689 or emailing mhayden@questia.com. One librarian from each secondary school in America is eligible for the free, one-year Questia subscription.Founded in 1998, Questia Media, Inc., launched its revolutionary online library in January 2001, with powerful search and writing tools created specifically to help students do better research and write better papers. Questia provides unlimited access to the full content of an extensive collection of books and journal articles, as well as a wide range of tools, including highlighter, markup, automatic footnotes and bibliography builder. For millions of students and researchers, the Questia SM service enables them to efficiently research and compose papers at any time, from virtually every connected corner of the world. Based in Houston, Questia is delivering on the true promise of the Internet by providing access to a wealth of human knowledge.
Visit www.questia.com for more information.