CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, 28th November, 2006 - Literature Online, the world's leading academic full-text and reference resource for English-language literature, marks its 10th anniversary in December. Doubling the importance of the milestone, ProQuest’s Chadwyck-Healey unit is enhancing the resource by including search results from more than thirty literary reference titles from Oxford Reference Online's Premium and Literature collections published by Oxford University Press. Also, subscribers to both Literature Online and Oxford Reference Online can access the full-text of entries within Oxford Reference Online.

"Literature Online's launch in 1996 broke new ground in electronic publishing and set the standard for the delivery of scholarly materials over the Internet," said David "Skip" Prichard, president of ProQuest Information and Learning.  "Since then, Literature Online has continuously expanded. In combination with essential collections like Oxford Reference Online, it becomes an even more indispensable resource for literary studies."

Casper Grathwohl, Reference Publisher at Oxford University Press says "Our partnership on this project with ProQuest is a bold gesture. It represents exactly how publishers should be interlinking resources to provide users with the most powerful tools. The publishing and library communities have been talking about interoperability for years but I see too few moves in that direction. I hope it serves as a model for what librarians have been asking for and publishers have within their power to give them."

Literature Online subscribers can now cross-search key Oxford Reference Online titles including the new 5-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, the new 4-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, the 4-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature, the Oxford Companion to English Literature, and The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation.  

Oxford University Press, publisher of Oxford Reference Online, is renowned for its comprehensive and authoritative academic reference materials. This agreement brings together two of the most authoritative and respected electronic resources for literary study. Literature Online's comprehensive library of primary works, specialist journals, and author resources has already made it an established fixture in literature departments around the world.  The addition of seamless access to Oxford Reference Online's definitive set of reference titles will cement its position as the first port of call for students and scholars of literature.

Library Journal called Oxford Reference Online "the embodiment of the high-quality, authoritative ready-reference book in electronic format… suited to virtually any library setting."
Launched in December 1996, Literature Online's first release included primary texts from renowned Chadwyck-Healey Literature Collections previously only available on CD-ROM   Further collections were soon added (a total of eighteen are now available), followed by full-text journals and bibliographic and reference resources, as Literature Online evolved into a fully integrated and comprehensive digital library.
Today, Literature Online includes more than 350,000 works of literature with a vast pool of criticism and reference. Unique offerings such as 800 videos of poetry readings and links to more than 5,250 expertly selected literature web sites help Literature Online stand apart as the leading online resource for the teaching and studying of literature in English.
In January 2006, Choice magazine referred to Literature Online as "a powerful portal for researching English and American literature… Literature Online succeeds impressively at integrating a wide range of literary information. Highly recommended."  

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.cambridgeinformationgroup.com.

About Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press (OUP) is a department of the University of Oxford, and the world's largest university press. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education in its worldwide publishing. In addition to publishing over 4,600 new books each year and over 180 journals, Oxford is a major provider of online information to libraries and individuals worldwide.  For further information about Oxford University Press, visit www.oup.com.  Information about Oxford Reference Online is available at www.oxfordreference.com.