Questia Librarian Advisory Council - press release

[Lonna Beers]

Questia Media, Inc. Announces Prominent Librarian Advisory Council
       Academic leaders form consortium to drive scholarly research

HOUSTON (November 1, 2000) - Questia Media, Inc. announces the formation of
its Librarian Advisory Council, created to provide strategic insight in
developing the collection which will grow to 250,000 scholarly books and
journals by 2003.  Importantly, this news follows the October 30
announcement of the Questia Advisory Council which includes Former First
Lady Barbara Bush, Harvard University Library Director Dr. Sidney Verba,
Xerox Corporation Chief Scientist Dr. John Seely Brown and Coalition for
Networked Information (CNI) Director Dr. Clifford Lynch.

     Inaugural members of the Librarian Advisory Council are all leaders
in the field of library and information science.  The distinguished
members include Rhoda Channing of Wake Forest University, Barbara
Doyle-Wilch of Skidmore College, Mari Miller of the University of
California, Berkley, Ann Okerson of Yale University, John Lubans of Duke
University, Sue Phillips of the University of Texas, and Julie Todaro of
Austin Community College.

     Questia's Librarian Advisory Council members will assist in the
analysis of student research needs.  Moreover, they will provide guidance
in the development of the Questia online collection and composition tools
that enhance writing skills among students.  The group will also be
instrumental in supporting and identifying current trends and issues in
higher education and librarianship.  Members serve two-year terms, with
meetings twice a year.

   "The appointment of this elite group of librarians and information
specialists reinforces our core mission of providing students worldwide
with better access to knowledge," said Troy Williams, founder and CEO of
Questia Media, Inc.  "Guidance from the advisory group will enable Questia
to develop its collection to best suit the needs of college students
nationwide."

   "From the beginning, Questia has recognized the importance of creating a
balanced scholarly collection which emphasizes the topics that college
students are researching most often," said Carol Hughes, Ph.D., Questia
director of collections development.  "This advisory council, along with
our first-rate staff of librarians, will help us continue to develop a
comprehensive service with the breadth and depth to meet researchers'
wide-ranging needs."

   As the world's largest digitization project, Questia is building the
first online research service for undergraduates, featuring unlimited
access to tens of thousands of scholarly books and journals.  Launching in
January 2001 with more than 50,000 books and journals, and growing to
250,000 by 2003, the subscription service will include a suite of
composition tools, with powerful keyword searches and hyperlinks.  The
Questia service will also have the ability to automatically format text, to
create footnotes as well as a bibliographies, in specified formats.

Rhoda Channing

Rhoda Channing is the Director of Wake Forest's Z. Smith Reynolds Library
in Winston-Salem, N.C.  She has been with Wake Forest for 11 years, and her
responsibilities have grown to include many aspects of library management,
academic facilities planning, and integration of high technology.  Her past
positions include social science reference librarian at the University of
N.C. at Chapel Hill, business and economics librarian at the University of
Kentucky, and chief librarian of school management at Boston College.

Barbara Doyle-Wilch

Barbara Doyle-Wilch, college librarian, is with the Lucy Scribner Library
at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.  She began her career in
library science over 25 years ago, having held positions such as
Acquisitions Librarian, University of Illinois at Chicago, Collection
Development Consultant, Colorado State Library, and Dean of Academic
Services, Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill.  She is responsible for a
wide variety of library and media services, collection assessment, and
circulation services.

Mari Miller

Mari Miller, librarian for undergraduate collection for the University of
California at Berkley, possesses more than 25 years of professional
experience.  Her accomplishments include an award in 1997 for outstanding
contributions as Northern California Chair (1996-1997) from the California
Clearinghouse on Library Instruction.  In addition, she has served as
editor of the CCLI newsletter for five years and has held leadership roles
in the American Library Association including chairwoman of the ALA
Distance Learning Section Discussion Group and chairwoman of the ALA
Association of College Research Librarians Alliances for New Directions in
Teaching and Learning Discussion Group.

Ann Okerson

Ann Okerson is Associate University Librarian at Yale University.  She has
more than 25 years experience in her field, and she has authored numerous
articles and papers on topics from licensing to electronic libraries.
Ms. Okerson serves as the chief library officer for collections development
and management, as well as technical services.  One of her primary goals
at Yale is to make information resources, including digital resources,
available to Yale's students, faculty and staff. She was awarded the
Library
and Information Technology Association(LITA)/Library Hi Tech Award in
recognition
of outstanding achievement in library and information technology in 1999.

John Lubans

John Lubans is Deputy University Librarian at Duke University.  Currently
on sabbatical, he is writing and consulting about organizational studies
and Internet use, as well as conducting workshops for public and academic
librarians.  He holds Master of Arts degrees from the University of
Michigan School of Library and Information Science and from the University
of Houston Public Administration program.

Sue Phillips

Sue Phillips is associate director for technical and networked services for
the University of Texas' Austin General Libraries.  She plays an active
role in the university's digital library system, as well as the TexShare
program, a statewide library resource sharing program in Texas.

Julie Todaro

Julie Todaro, dean of library services at Austin Community College,
possesses more than 25 years of experience in library and information
environments.  A former member of the Texas Library Associations' Executive
Board, she is currently president of the Texas Library Association, and
chairs the Library Services and Technology Act Advisory Council for the
Texas State Library.  Ms. Todaro was presented with the Library
Administration and Management Association (LAMA) 1997 Institute of the Year
award, and was named Librarian of the Year in 1996 by the Texas Library
Association.

About Questia Media, Inc.

Founded in Houston 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 and journals, 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 with over 270 employees, Questia is delivering on the true promise
of the Internet by providing access to a wealth of human knowledge.  Visit
www.questia.com for more information and to receive a free one-month trial
subscription.
                                  #  #  #

_______________________________________________________________________
Click the following link for a sneak preview of Questia and an opportunity
to enroll for a free, no obligation one-month trial of the service,
redeemable when the service launches in January 2001.

http://www.questia.com/trial/study/index.html.

Hurry! Opportunity to enroll for this offer expires 1/07/01.

Questia is a revolutionary new online service, helping undergraduate
students write better research papers faster and easier.  In addition to a
collection of tens of thousands of full-text hyperlinked books, it contains
a set of research and paper writing tools including an automatic footnote
and bibliography generator.