ProQuest Dialog

The rebuilt Dialog information service made its official debut at the Special Libraries Association Conference in San Diego.

Now called ProQuest Dialog, the service reinvents a classic resource and makes its content – about a billion documents – accessible for the first time to searchers of all skill levels. Three search modes in the same interface enable content from the world's most authoritative publishers to be quickly pinpointed and delivered in ready-to-use form.  

'When ProQuest acquired Dialog, we committed to revive this iconic service. Today we’re delivering on that promise with a dramatic advancement for information-reliant industries,' said Tim Wahlberg, ProQuest senior vice-president and general manager of ProQuest Dialog.

'This innovation goes well beyond modernising Dialog’s search experience. It removes pricing barriers to search and browsing and also supports document sharing within R&D workflows, enabling more users to participate in mission-critical projects.'

Dialog was the first commercial online information service and became a foundation for information professionals and researchers around the world who relied on the broad content collection and command line searching. Until now, using Dialog has required intensive training and practice, leaving it inaccessible to a new generation of users.

Furthermore, the underlying product architecture was not adaptable. Over the years and through a series of acquisitions, multiple attempts to update Dialog occurred, but all were hampered by the complexity of functionality and content.

'We are very pleased to have solved this challenge,' said Wahlberg. 'The new ProQuest Dialog provides the intuitive searching users have been asking for while maintaining industry-leading precision.'