A few weeks ago, I made a comment here about ProQuest's divestment of
their microform business in the context of a discussion about the Wall
Street Journal. I was mistaken when I said that ProQuest sold off the
newspaper microfilm part of their business.

Quoting from a message I received from the publisher of ProQuest
Historical Newspapers:

"ProQuest remains deeply committed to microform. The only piece of our
microform business that was divested were the periodicals.  ProQuest
continues to provide newspapers and research collections to libraries
around the world, carrying on our seventy-year history with film."

An article published in Information Today at
http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb051107-1.shtml provides more
detail about the sale of portions of ProQuest Information & Learning.

To be perfectly honest, even after speaking with the publisher and
reading the article I'm still a bit confused about exactly what
UMI/ProQuest does and does not do with microfilm, and precisely how they
distinguish newspapers from other periodicals. But I apologize for
making a comment that added to the confusion.

Steve Black

Reference, Serials, and Instruction Librarian

Neil Hellman Library

The College of Saint Rose

392 Western Ave.

Albany, NY 12203

(518) 458-5494

blacks@strose.edu