Editing ProQuest (section)

=== 1930s–1950s ===
[[Eugene Power]], a 1927 BA and 1930 MBA graduate of the [[Ross School of Business|University of Michigan]], founded the company as University Microfilms in 1938, preserving works from the [[British Museum]] on microfilm. By June 1938, Power worked in two rented rooms from a downtown Ann Arbor funeral parlor, specializing in microphotography to preserve library collections. In his autobiography ''Edition of One'', Power details the development of the company, including how University Microfilms assisted the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) intelligence agency during [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Power |first1=Eugene B. |author2=with Robert Anderson |date=1990 |title=Edition of One: The Autobiography of Eugene B. Power, Founder of University Microfilms |url=https://archive.org/details/editionofoneauto0000powe/ |location=Ann Arbor, Mich. |publisher=University Microfilms International |isbn=9780835708982 |oclc=231087195 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/editionofoneauto0000powe/page/128 128–142]}}</ref> This work mainly involved filming maps and European newspapers so they could be shipped back and forth overseas more cheaply and discreetly.

Power also noticed a [[niche market]] in [[dissertation]]s publishing. Students were often forced to publish their own works in order to finish their [[doctoral degree]]. Dissertations could be published more cheaply as microfilm than as books. ProQuest still publishes so many dissertations that its [[ProQuest Dissertations and Theses|Dissertations and Theses]] collection (formerly called Digital Dissertations) has been declared the official U.S. off-site repository of the [[Library of Congress]].<ref name=LoCpr>{{cite press release |url=https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/1999/99-007.html |title=Library of Congress and Copyright Office Sign Landmark Agreement with UMI |publisher=Library of Congress |date=January 22, 1999 |access-date=2012-03-13 |archive-date=October 24, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024195010/http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/1999/99-007.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The idea of universal adoption of microfilm publication of doctoral dissertations was furthered considerably by two articles researched and written by a then recent recipient of the doctorate in history at [[Stanford University]]. Vaughn Davis Bornet seized on the idea and published "Doctoral Dissertations and the Stream of Scholarship"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bornet |first=Vaughn Davis |date=October 1952 |title=Doctoral Dissertations and the Stream of Scholarship |journal=College and University |volume=28 |pages=17–30 |issn=0010-0889 |oclc=6168802}}</ref> and "Microfilm Publication of Doctoral Dissertations".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bornet |first=Vaughn Davis |date=Autumn 1953 |title=Microfilm Publication of Doctoral Dissertations |journal=[[Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors]] |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=501–513 |jstor=40220982 |doi=10.2307/40220982}}</ref>

As the dissertations market grew, the company expanded into filming newspapers and [[periodical]]s. The company's main newspaper database is ProQuest Newsstand.