More News about Questia

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Forwarded from Arnold Hirshon, of possible interest.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 09:26:21 -5
From: Arnold Hirshon <ahirshon@nelinet.net>
Subject: More News about Questia

In addition to the article that Ann cites, readers of this list may also
find this item of interest:
                                
Educational Marketer 
Copyright 2001 Simba Information Inc.
June 18, 2001 
SECTION: Vol.32, No.18 

Online Library Service Questia Gains Its First Campus Subscriber 

Questia Media, the Houston-based online library service for college
students that launched in January, has signed up its first college client.

Elmhurst College, a liberal arts college of about 2,700 undergraduate and
graduate students in Elmhurst, IL, will begin using the Web-based library
service this fall. The college will pay subscription fees for about 300
students to use the online service, giving them access to more than 35,000
full-text books and journal articles. Subscribers pay $19.95 a month for
access and can print or download material. Publishers receive a small fee
every time a user views a page of one of their books.

"We look at it as just another resource in the tool kit of what we can
offer our students," said Sandra Swords Steffen, the head librarian at
Elmhurst's A.C. Beuhler Library. Beuhler has some of Questia's content in
its 230,000-volume-packed shelves but not all of it, Steffen said.

Rather than using Questia to supplant the on-campus library, Elmhurst
plans to incorporate the online service as a part of course materials. The
library is in charge of the student accounts and passwords, Steffen said,
and the college is targeting specific courses for the service. The courses
have not yet been determined, she said. Most of the students at Elmhurst
are enrolled in pre-professional or business courses, and Questia's
liberal arts-oriented content is not as useful to those students as to
traditional liberal arts students, Steffen said. "At any given time, only
about 20% of our courses are areas Questia is appropriate for," she said.

The agreement comes after Questia's spring subscription drive, including
giving away free trial subscriptions to thousands of students. The company
last week would not release subscription figures but said the number of
subscribers has increased about seven-fold since Questia ended the freebie
period in April. In published reports in April, the subscriber base was
reported as about 1,000 students.

While Questia pushes ahead with its subscription drive, ebrary, which
industry observers expect to be Questia's chief rival, has yet to launch.
Ebrary plans a pay-per-view model, in which users can browse most of the
content for free, but pay each time they download or print any material.
The company's latest estimate of a launch date is later this summer.

While Questia searches for acceptance on college campuses, it has trimmed
its staff and cut back on the pace of acquisition and digitization of
content. In December it anticipated having more than 50,000 books in its
virtual library; it has about 35,000. Company officials have attributed
employee cutbacks this spring to the slowdown in digitization of new
content as it concentrates on building subscriptions. About half of
Questia's 300 employees were let go in May.

Questia Media can be reached at (713) 358-2500 or at www.questia.com.
Elmhurst College can be reached at (630) 617-3500 or at www.elmhurst.edu.

LOAD-DATE: July 11, 2001 

___

On 19 Jul 01, at 18:29, Ann Okerson wrote:

Date sent:      	Thu, 19 Jul 2001 18:29:46 -0400 (EDT)
From:           	Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>
Subject:        	News about Questia

EDUCATION INDUSTRY:
-------------------------------------------------------------

The online library Questia Media today announced an agreement with America
Online. Through the deal, Questia will sponsor portions of AOL's "Research
& Learn" channel, and, by clicking on special links, all AOL members will
be able to use the online library for free for one month. Says Questia
founder Troy Williams, "Questia will be able to reach and offer special
promotions to a highly-targeted audience that is predisposed to learning
and continued education."

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010719/dath028.html


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Arnold Hirshon
Executive Director, NELINET
153 Cordaville Road, Suite 200
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Email: ahirshon@nelinet.net
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