Isn't Life Great? A Dot Com Delivers Access to the Wealth of Human Knowledge

Welcome to Questia

Welcome to the next advancement for civilization. In the 15th century, Gutenberg changed the world with his printing press. In the 20th century, the world changed with the introduction of the word processor. In the 21st century, Questia plans to change the world again. Questia is a company that will deliver on the true promise of the Internet by providing access to the wealth of human knowledge. Questia is building the first online service to provide unlimited access to the full text of hundreds of thousands of books, journals and periodicals, as well as tools to easily use this information. For millions of college students, the Questia service will enable them to research and compose their papers at any time, from every connected corner of the world.

From Questia's World Wide Web site at <http://www.questia.com> [18 July 2000]. (Questia is a service mark of Questia Media Inc.)

A faculty member read about Questia in a Boston Globe article by Beth Healy. ¹ Such a service, he speculated, would forever alter the manner in which students and faculty use the academic library, if they continue to use it at all. How could a single dot-com seriously offer to provide access to the wealth of human knowledge via a computer monitor?

Questia

Troy Williams founded Questia Media Inc. of Houston in 1998 after he graduated from Harvard Law School. Williams explains that by "digitizing the books most needed by college students, by making them accessible to all students at any time, and by hyperlinking footnotes and references to the precise page cited, Questia is creating a revolutionary research tool that enables users to instantaneously follow a complete train of thought from one book to another. This has never been accomplished in the history of human learning, and it offers the possibly to truly change how people learn." ²

Furthermore, this "service will also break down the disparity between libraries available to students at small junior colleges versus those attending large, well-funded universities," according to Williams. ³ Williams' plan to decrease disparity between large and small academic institutions involves digitizing fifty thousand volumes by 2001, and digitizing more than two hundred fifty thousand volumes within three years. According to one media account, such a collection would be greater than the number of volumes in more than 80 percent of all academic libraries in the United States. ⁴

CEO Williams expects Questia will require some $210 million for this effort through 2002. By April 2000, Williams had already received more than $45 million in venture funding for this effort; his senior management team includes Rod Canion, the co-founder of Compaq. ⁵

The bravado of Questia's statements raises questions. While it may be technically true that Questia will digitize two hundred fifty thousand volumes, its claim of "access to the wealth of human knowledge" is simply self-serving. If the wealth of human knowledge can be found in two hundred fifty thousand volumes, then why do hundreds of libraries shelve more than a million volumes? If a library has one hundred twenty-five thousand volumes, would it then possess half the wealth of human knowledge? Academic library collections are developed to reflect the curriculum and research needs of students and faculty. Dr. Carol Hughes, a research librarian, will lead a team of librarians for Questia in selecting the core titles that have been known to be useful to college students. ⁶

Will the two hundred fifty thousand volumes included actually reflect the resources available through a collection built upon a curriculum? If so, which curriculum? How does the linking of references affect collection development? One volume could have hundreds of references. If the book is included in the Questia collection, will all of the references to cited resources be linked, or...