New PERSI Release for Local History and Genealogy Research

The following is an announcement written by ProQuest:

Ann Arbor, MI – September 29, 2006.  ProQuest Information and Learning and Allen County Public Library (Ft. Wayne, IN) add another milestone in their longstanding alliance with the release of a significant amount of new data in the Periodical Source Index (PERSI).  With this update, PERSI now contains nearly 2 million citations from over 6,500 periodicals published in the United States, Canada, and abroad. The new release includes indexing for over 235,000 articles from 2004 and 2005.  No other index covers periodical research in local history and genealogy as extensively as PERSI.

“PERSI is already a tremendous resource for genealogists and local historians interested in identifying the data available in periodical literature for their research endeavors,” said Curt Witcher, Manager, Historical Genealogy Department, Allen County Public Library.  “PERSI has been substantially enhanced with this release of nearly one quarter of a million index entries.  This release also demonstrates the intense interest in and commitment of both organizations to serving the genealogical research community.  Expanded access to periodical literature published in the early part of this century will be a boon to researchers.”

PERSI is the standard for periodical research in local history and genealogy.  This comprehensive subject index covers genealogy and local history periodicals written in English since 1800.   It helps researchers quickly locate helpful articles about families, local history and records, and genealogical methodology.

As a key component of HeritageQuest™ Online, PERSI is available online exclusively in the library market from ProQuest. On the award-winning HeritageQuest Online, users can search PERSI for surnames, places, and how-to advice, and discover publishing information. 

PERSI is an integral content set within the ProQuest Genealogy Center resources, and is a strong complement to HeritageQuest’s U.S. Federal Census, Genealogy & Local History Books, Freedman's Bank Records, and Revolutionary War Era Pension & Bounty-Land Warrants Applications. “The PERSI release is part of ProQuest's ongoing commitment to bring valuable genealogical resources to libraries and their patrons,” said Chris Cowan, ProQuest vice president of publishing.  More information on ProQuest Genealogy Center Resources can be found at www.il.proquest.com.

About ProQuest Information and Learning

ProQuest Information and Learning is a world leader in collecting, organizing, and publishing information for researchers, faculty, and students in libraries and schools. It is widely known for its strength in business and economics, general reference, genealogy, humanities, social sciences, and STM content.  The company develops premium databases comprising periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, out-of-print books, and other scholarly information from more than 9,000 publishers worldwide.  Users access the information through the ProQuest® Web-based online information system, Chadwyck-HealeyTM electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary® and SIRS® educational resources, and Serials Solutions e-resource access and management  solutions.  ProQuest® Smart Search was named "Best Specialist Search Product" by the International Information Industry Awards in late 2005.  For more information about ProQuest Information and Learning, visit www.il.proquest.com.

Comments

[Janice Meredith]

Will the updated PERSI also be available on CD?

[Ben Franklin]

Previous version of PERSI contained 592 Franklin surname entries. New version: 715. Old version, accessed on Ancestry had about 1% duplicates. New version does not have them. Could an an artifact of Ancestry's display/retrieval method, but it could be that they've cleaned up the source data. That would be nice. New stuff is from various sources, mostly post 2002, but some quite old. Empirically, the new entries appear to be the result of indexing new acquisitions, with some old stuff that they hadn't previously included added.

Assumption: They've either newly acquired old periodicals, or are getting around to some old stuff that they have had for a while.

[Dick Eastman]

---> Will the updated PERSI also be available on CD?

I doubt it. ProQuest's primary business is making data available online. They normally do not sell CD-ROM disks of data.

- Dick Eastman