Sept. 24, 2003. EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO), a leading producer and distributor of full text and bibliographic databases, has announced the acquisition of Whitston Publishing Company, Inc. (Whitston), a well-respected publisher of reference works for academic and public libraries since 1969. Whitston's flagship database, the American Humanities Index (AHI) has been available through the popular EBSCOhost online research service since January 2003.

Through this acquisition, EBSCO continues its efforts to increase the amount of quality resources available through EBSCOhost. Over the past year EBSCO has purchased research databases covering environmental policy, computer science, hospitality and tourism, communications and textile technology. Tim Collins, vice president and division general manager for EBSCO, commented, "EBSCO owns a number of quality, subject-specific secondary databases, and we are pleased to be able to add American Humanities Index. We are delighted that Whitston will be joining EBSCO to help us expand our secondary database publishing efforts. We see this as an important component of our business that helps us meet our goal of offering the most comprehensive array of databases for our customers via EBSCOhost."

The Whitston editorial operation will remain in its Albany, N.Y. location as a division of EBSCO Publishing. Whitston President & CEO Mike Laddin will remain with EBSCO Publishing as publisher for Whitston's and other reference databases. Laddin, a successful entrepreneur with an extensive business background, acquired Whitston in 1999. According to Laddin, "Joining the EBSCO team will allow Whitston to concentrate on developing high quality reference content while increasing distribution through EBSCO's worldwide sales force and powerful EBSCOhost online service." Laddin, speaking about EBSCO's Academic Search Premier - the leading multi-disciplinary full text database for academic libraries - commented, "Our studies show that users want to link seamlessly from citations to the complete article, so teaming up with EBSCO helps us meet that need."

AHI covers more than 700 literary, scholarly and creative journals published in the United States and Canada, going back to 1975. The database includes many smaller journals and publications unavailable in other reference sources, plus it cites all original creative works: poetry, fiction, photographs and illustrations. In addition to the AHI database, other Whitston reference works include databases in the following areas:

• Substance Abuse - A comprehensive bibliography of world literature surrounding drug, alcohol, and tobacco abuse, beginning in 1970. In addition to referencing thousands of journals and periodicals, the database includes citations from books, monographs, pamphlets and dissertations.
• Early American History and Literature - An extraordinary niche database containing abstracts of published books, literature, and rare works of Americana published in the first century of this country's existence. It is based on Whitston Publishing's update of Joseph Sabin's seminal work which cataloged books and publications relating to America.
• Research on Foreign Education - A unique database with comprehensive abstracts spanning over half a century. These abstracts pertain to research done in the United States relating to education in countries around the world, including Canada, India, Japan, Africa, Scandinavia, China, Mexico, South America, Central America, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Israel, Pacific Islands, Philippines, and Britain.
• British/Commonwealth Literary Journals - Going back to 1968, this database is an author-subject index of a select list of English-language "little magazines" published in Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth countries.
• Whitston Sociological Bibliographies - A collection of bibliographic resources covering research topics on such social issues as: abortion and family planning, venereal disease, AIDS, rape, population and noise.

The searching and linking technology of EBSCOhost will further enhance the value of the Whitston bibliographic records. Sophisticated key word searching options and limiters such as publication name, source type and date range allow researchers to retrieve precise results; or users can choose to search directly from journal and subject authority files. Additionally, full text can be made available through EBSCO SmartLinks, which allow researchers to link seamlessly from a citation to the full text available in other elements of a library's electronic collection such as electronic journals, EBSCO full text databases and more.

About Whitston Publishing

For over 34 years, Whitston Publishing Company has specialized in publishing bibliographic databases, non-fiction books, fiction anthologies, classic reissues, and reference works. Whitston publishes the finest quality products for libraries, academia, and other select niche markets.

For more information visit www.whitston.com.

About EBSCO

EBSCO Publishing, EBSCO Subscription Services and EBSCO Book Services form the EBSCO Information Services group. EBSCO is a worldwide leader in providing information access and management solutions through print and electronic journal subscription services, research database development and production, online access to more than 100 databases and thousands of e-journals, and e-commerce book procurement. EBSCO has specialized products and services for academic, medical, government, public and school libraries as well as for corporations and other organizations. EBSCO maintains a comprehensive database of more than 282,000 serial titles and upholds active relationships with more than 60,000 publishers worldwide. EBSCO has been serving the library and business communities for almost 60 years. For more information, visit www.ebsco.com.