| Questia Media, Inc. has announced the launch of Questia, a service
that offers students access to a large collection of quality, credible
content online to research and compose papers 24/7. Questia enables subscribers
to read the full text of hyperlinked sources and automatically create footnotes
and bibliographies; provides instant access to an online dictionary, thesaurus,
and encyclopedia; and allows users to personalize text with highlighting
and margin notes and save papers online so they can access them from anywhere,
at anytime. According to the announcement, with the Questia service, students
will be able to do research and write papers from their home or dorm room,
eliminating the frustration of checked-out books and the hassle and expense
of photocopying.
Questia has more than 50,000 titles in the humanities and social sciences
disciplines and plans to further expand the service to about 250,000 titles
in 2003. Users are able to search the service's entire collection for free,
but a subscription fee is required to read the full text of books and to
use the set of research and writing tools.
Troy Williams, CEO and founder of Questia Media, Inc., said: "Students
and faculty around the world have been frustrated by the fact that quality
content, such as what is found in a library, is simply not available online
today. Simply put, before today, the Internet has not effectively helped
students in their research. Starting today, the Questia service changes
that. Most of this content has never been available online and much of
it is available in print form only to a limited number of people with access
to the best libraries. We believe that by providing students with 24-hour,
unlimited access to the full text of books, Questia will encourage students
to devote more time delving into their topics, consulting a wider array
of resources, and formulating and articulating a thesis or argument. The
service eliminates many of the unproductive and frustrating aspects currently
associated with the paper-writing process."
The Questia business model compensates publishers every time a page
is viewed and creates a new, incremental revenue stream for them by capturing
the revenue they miss with single-copy sales. After the initial sale, books
are checked out and photocopied by library patrons thousands of times each
year with no additional revenue to the publisher. All titles, including
older, out-of-print titles that currently generate no revenue, benefit
from increased visibility and usage through Questia's model, which enables
an unlimited number of users to read a book simultaneously. According to
the announcement, Questia has found a way to create this new revenue for
publishers while keeping the cost affordable for users. The company has
negotiated agreements with more than 170 publishers, including Harvard
University Press, Stanford University Press, Columbia University Press,
University of Chicago Press, W.W. Norton and Co., Pearson PLC, Greenwood
Publishing Group, and Perseus Books Group.
According to the company, a team of 10 professional librarians on staff
has built the Questia collection using both traditional library collection-development
techniques and innovative methods. This will ensure proper representation
of all major humanities and social sciences disciplines, and create the
most useful possible collection for undergraduates.
Users can subscribe annually for $149.95, monthly for $19.95, or on a
short-term basis (48 hours) for $14.95.
Source: Questia Media, Inc., Houston, 713/358-2704; http://www.questia.com. |
