Cambridge, United Kingdom, October 23, 2006 - ProQuest Information and Learning has announced that the award-winning ProQuest platform now supports the latest Athens software. The upgrade enables institutions using both Athens and Shibboleth to connect to ProQuest resources using Shibboleth authentication via the Shibboleth-to-Athens gateway.

"This upgrade to the ProQuest platform facilitates institutions’ adoption of evolving global standards of access authentication in education," said John Law, director of product management for ProQuest Information and Learning. "This is one of a series of enhancements ProQuest is making to continuously upgrade the user experience, and is an example of our ability to expertly assimilate rapidly evolving technology."

ProQuest databases are recognized worldwide as the most comprehensive sources of high-quality indexing and full-text content. The ProQuest interface and underlying technology make searching this vast content base easy enough for novices yet provides advanced searching capability to satisfy more sophisticated researchers.

Recent enhancements to the ProQuest platform also include ProQuest® SmartSearch and Spell Check. SmartSearch increases user success through a variety of techniques that map user’s search terms to relevant items in ProQuest’s extensive controlled vocabulary. Additionally, SmartSearch suggests combinations of terms and publications that are relevant to that search. Statistics show that Smart Search increases the user success rate by more than 20%. Spell Check will ask the user a "Did you mean…" question on the search results page to prompt for spelling corrections inside the user’s search query. This not only helps correct spelling mistakes, but can also help target searches towards a more common spelling that yields more search results.

About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.

More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.

For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com.