[13321] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Carol Hughes Appointed Questia Collection Development Director
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Nancy Buchanan)
Thu May 25 20:03:34 2000
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 09:54:55 -0500
From: Nancy Buchanan <NBuchanan@UH.EDU>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hughes to Direct Collections Development for the Questia Online Research
Service
Carol Ann Hughes, Ph.D. will direct library staff and promote external
dialogue to support the information needs of undergraduates.
Houston TX (May 15, 2000) - Questia Media, Inc., today named Carol Ann
Hughes, Ph.D., an experienced academic librarian, as director of
collections development. Dr. Hughes and a staff of librarians are helping
to define and develop the company's online research service in meeting the
information needs of a wide range of QuestiaSM service users who, for the
first time, will be able to search the full text of thousands of books,
journals and periodicals.
"Dr. Hughes is an important addition to the Questia team because of her
extensive background in managing substantial library collections and
digital technologies," noted Troy Williams, Questia founder and CEO.
In her new position, Hughes will direct Questia's collections development
strategy, manage a team of collection, catalog and reference librarians,
and communicate with key library, scholarly and technological associations.
She will also work with an advisory board of university librarians and
faculty in shaping the Questia collection.
"The transition from an academic setting was an easy one because Questia is
building a first rate online book and journal collection and the company is
committed to supporting the learning process," commented Hughes. "Questia
will help meet the needs of librarians, students and researchers by
augmenting their local library collections with unlimited, simultaneous
access to a broad number of titles in the liberal arts."
Questia will facilitate librarians' goal of helping students find the right
information quickly and easily. It will expand access to thousands of
titles currently only available to students using libraries with larger
budgets (and, therefore, larger collections) and give them access to books,
journals and periodicals that may not be available because they are
out-of-print, checked out, or on reserve.
The search function will be free and available 24 hours-per-day, 7 days
per-week via the Internet. The subscription-based QuestiaSM service has a
unique integrated research environment equipped with a suite of research
tools that includes linked references between the full-text books and
journals in the collection.
"Questia is looking forward to building partnerships with librarians
because we believe they are essential to the research process," Hughes
added. "We'll work with librarians to review our collections development
strategy, participate on our library advisory board to determine the
information needs of students, and help evaluate the Questia service as a
research tool."
Hughes was most recently the Interim Director, Information and Research
Libraries, University of Iowa. Previously, she was the Member Services
Officer of Research Libraries Group; assistant to the director, University
of Michigan Library; and director, University Center at Tulsa Library.
Hughes received her doctorate from the University of Michigan and an MBA
from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Also joining Questia's collections development staff will be Suzan
McGinnis, assistant head of information service for liaison and collections
development, Texas Tech University, and Nancy Buchanan, coordinator of
electronic resources, University of Houston.
Questia is a member of the American Library Association and will exhibit
(Booth #4625) at the ALA Conference in Chicago, July 8-11, 2000.
About Questia
Founded in 1998, Questia Media, Inc. is building the first online service
to provide unlimited access to the full text of hundreds of thousands of
books, journals and periodicals, as well as tools to easily use this
information. For millions of college students and researchers, the
QuestiaSM service will enable them to efficiently research and compose
papers at any time, from every connected corner of the world. Based in
Houston, TX with over 200 employees, Questia is delivering on the true
promise of the Internet by providing access to the wealth of human
knowledge. Information can be found at www.questia.com.
Questia and the Questia logo are service marks of Questia Media, Inc.
# # #
Media Contact:
Tom Colyandro, Brookwoods Group, 713-934-0517, tom.colyandro@brookwoods.com
Investor Contact:
Tim Harris, Questia Media, Inc., 713-358-2642, tharris@questia.com
Nancy Buchanan
NBuchanan@uh.edu
Coordinator of Electronic Resources
University of Houston Libraries
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-2091
phone: (713) 743-9763
fax: (713) 743-9778
