How does the ETD Initiative relate to ProQuest/UMI and NDLTD?
University Microfilms (later known as UMI) was founded in 1938 to preserve scholarly works. ProQuest Company (then a division of Bell & Howell, now ProQuest Information and Learning) acquired UMI in 1985. ProQuest Information and Learning now provides access to information from periodicals, newspapers, out-of-print books, dissertations, and scholarly collections in various formats. ProQuest functions as an on-demand book publisher that eliminates the editorial process. Dissertations are sent by universities to ProQuest in either paper or electronic form, are microfilmed to preserve them, and are then made available to purchasers for a price in paper, microfilm, or electronic form. ProQuest has been designated by the Library of Congress as the official repository of dissertations in the United States. Like other universities, GW has sent all of its dissertations to ProQuest/UMI in the past and will continue to do so now that it has its own ETD archive. We do this because we want the wor
