Serials Solutions Announces Departure of Founder & Director of Research Peter McCracken
Seattle, WA – August 26, 2009 Serials Solutions, a business unit of ProQuest, today announced that Peter McCracken, the company’s co-founder and current Director of Research, will be leaving the company September 30 to pursue technology projects related to his lifelong interest in maritime history.
Serials Solutions grew from Mr. McCracken’s initial vision for improved management of electronic resources developed while working as a reference librarian at East Carolina University and the University of Washington. In 2000 he joined forces with his two brothers, Steve and Mike McCracken, and a friend, Chris Pierard, and founded Serials Solutions. In its 2001 article about Serials Solutions, Library Journal lauded him: “Peter McCracken: Librarian as Entrepreneur; How a University of Washington reference librarian helped launch one of the hottest companies in the library market.” Since that time, Serials Solutions has grown to a global market leader offering solutions that enable libraries worldwide to better manage and access electronic resources.
“This is the latest stage in a long journey for me as one of the company’s founders. It began with a handful of people working out of my brother’s basement and has grown to over 170 people, in locations across the US and around the world,” McCracken commented. “It’s been an amazing experience over the last nine years to dramatically improve the accessibility of e-resources and provide so many services to so many libraries, librarians, and their patrons. Serials Solutions will always have a special place in my heart, but I feel that now is the right time to pursue one of my other interests, maritime history.”
“Peter’s marvelously clear vision of what today’s library needs has been ingrained into the DNA of Serials Solutions. That vision will continue to be a driving force at Serials Solutions,” said Jane Burke, Vice President of Serials Solutions. “He has personally made a dramatic difference in improving information access and management for librarians globally – the company truly was founded ’by a librarian for librarians.’ On behalf of everyone at ProQuest and Serials Solutions, I would like to extend our deepest gratitude to Peter for all his efforts and guidance throughout the years and wish him the best in his new venture.”
Mr. McCracken will now focus on his expanding work in maritime history with his Shipindex.org. Mr. McCracken and his brother Mike created the website a number of years ago to help people find information about specific vessels. It contains more than 100,000 freely searchable ship names mentioned in dozens of books and journals. Immediate plans are to create a new site that expands beyond free access to these 100,000 ship names to include subscription-based access to many more. They expect the new version of the site to launch near the end of 2009 with half a million references.
Mr. McCracken is a member of the Founding Board, University of Washington Information School, Seattle and currently serves on the Board of Visitors for the University of North Carolina School of Information & Library Science in Chapel Hill, NC and the Friends of the Library Board for Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH. He is also the Co-Chair of the NISO/UKSG KBART ((Knowledge Bases and Related Tools) Working Group. Mr. McCracken is also on the Board of Directors for Alternatives Federal Credit Union in Ithaca (NY) and was recently selected in the inaugural Tompkins County “40 under 40” competition as one of “Tompkins County’s most prominent business and community leaders under the age of 40.”
About Serials Solutions
Founded by a librarian for librarians in 2000, Serials Solutions is the global leader in E-Resource Access and Management Services (ERAMS) that serves more than 2,000 libraries of all sizes and types. Serials Solutions® KnowledgeWorks, the authoritative e-resource knowledgebase, is the foundation for Serials Solutions® 360, the only complete and integrated e-resource access and management solution. Serials Solutions recently introduced the Summon™ unified discovery service, a revolutionary discovery tool that provides instant access to the full breadth of the library’s collection through a single search.
Serials Solutions also is the exclusive source for Ulrichsweb.com™ and Ulrich’s Serials Analysis System™ worldwide, and represents the AquaBrowser Library® unified discovery interface in the academic market in North America. The WebFeat® federated search service recently acquired by ProQuest soon will be incorporated into the Serials Solutions family of access and discovery services.
Serials Solutions provides fast implementation, easy customization, and outstanding value to libraries throughout the world.
Serials Solutions is a business unit of ProQuest LLC.
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 CSA™, UMI®, Chadwyck-Healey™, 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.cambridgeinformationgroup.com.