ProQuest's Free Q&A Community for Grad Students Continues to Grow
The GradShare™ service creates a national forum where graduate students can share their challenges to both get advice from peers and find solutions offered by their library or graduate school. Since its launch at the American Libraries Association Midwinter conference, GradShare™, this free online question and answer community is growing with new users, Expert Advice columns, and enrolled partner schools.
“ProQuest has long been a technology focused company,” said ProQuest Innovation Officer Samir Singh. “Our innovation strategy is to develop and adapt technologies for our products in a way that will really make a difference for users. GradShare™ provides a social networking community service in a space that we deeply know – graduate research – which will help students have a more successful academic experience.”
GradShare has seen rapid growth and adoption since its launch. On average the site has had 100 visitors daily. In the last 30 days, it has also had visitors from every state in the United States, and 51 different countries. These new visitors have generated dozens of new questions and answers regarding graduate life and work.
In addition to new visitors, 27 universities have joined GradShare including: Florida State University, Wake Forest, University of Maine, Truman State University, College of Charleston, University of North Dakota, University of Central Florida, Montana State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Memorial University of Newfoundland. By joining GradShare, these participating institutions are helping extend students’ peer networks and raise awareness of the quality solutions offered by the library and graduate school.
ProQuest also continues to add Expert Advice columns like those from Sarah Starr - Director, Funding and Research Development, The Ohio State University Office of Research. For example, her article, “How to find help for writing a proposal”, identifies the best sources of help including sponsor's program officers, awards databases, Grant writing workshops, and others. Expert Advice provides explanations and insights relating to graduate school topics from experienced professionals such as faculty members and administrators.
ProQuest invites graduate students to sign-up at www.gradshare.com. ProQuest also invites academic deans, Librarians, and Graduate School Administrators to enroll in the service to allow their graduate students to discover resources available at their institutions. Academic institutions that wish to enroll or obtain more information should visit http://www.gradshare.com/school_signup.html.
About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.
More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.
For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com.