Maryland and LexisNexis Team to Preserve and Digitize Historic U.S. Maps

COLLEGE PARK, MD, and DAYTON, OH - June 27, 2005 - The University of Maryland and LexisNexis U.S., a leading provider of news, business and legal information services, announced an alliance today aimed at preserving images of the U.S. Serial Set Maps while making the maps easily accessible and searchable online.

The U.S. Serial Set is a vast historical resource that contains an ongoing collection of U.S. Government publications compiled under a directive of Congress, and consequently traces virtually all aspects of American history, including trade and commerce, military history, geography, scientific exploration, and anthropology.

Already, LexisNexis® has digitized nearly the entire U.S. Serial Set collection spanning 1789-1969, including 325,000 documents drawn from nearly 13,000 volumes, 52,000 maps, and the American State Papers.

This new project will enhance the quality of the maps section. The University of Maryland is providing the original maps so LexisNexis can rescan the collection into high-resolution digital images in color and black and white. Current scans taken from microfiche cannot provide the color or the same clarity as a scan from the original maps.

"The information in the Serial Set is arguably the most important historical information source in GPO's long history." said Dr. Charles Lowry, University of Maryland Dean of Libraries and Professor of the College of Information Studies. "LexisNexis and The University of Maryland Libraries have a common goal to preserve this information and make it easily accessible and searchable. We are pleased to contribute to a project that reflects the high standards found in CIS® indexes and the cutting-edge technology from LexisNexis."

LexisNexis welcomes the opportunity to work with the University of Maryland on this phase of the Serial Set.

"By having local access to a major repository of maps it will allow us to carefully combine our highly regarded cartobibliography with scanned images of color and grayscale maps," said Tim Fusco, LexisNexis vice president of Publishing Operations. "The end result will be a superior electronic map collection that will greatly enhance the researcher's experience - from viewing maps of westward exploration to Civil War battles."

About the University of Maryland

The University of Maryland, College Park, is the major public research university in the Middle Atlantic Region. Ranked as one of the top 20 public universities in the nation, Maryland is especially noted for its academic and research programs in computer science, electrical engineering and technology business, as well as its critical role in economic development through technology transfer and partnerships with government, business and industry. The University will celebrate its 150th anniversary starting this fall.

About LexisNexis

LexisNexis® is a leader in comprehensive and authoritative legal, news and business information and tailored applications. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc [NYSE: ENL; NYSE: RUK], the company does business in 100 countries with 13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to its flagship Web-based Lexis® and Nexis® research services, the company includes some of the world's most respected legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender®, Butterworths, JurisClasseur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.

LexisNexis provides solutions for organization-wide information needs of corporate, legal, federal, and academic professionals. LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions has been gathering and indexing Congressional information for 35 years and is now a recognized source for locating Congressional information. Through its CIS® imprint, LexisNexis offers deep knowledge and understanding of government information. The CIS® U.S. Serial Set Index provided groundbreaking access to the U.S. Serial Set; LexisNexis continues the tradition by offering full-text searchability coupled with valuable CIS indexing through this new digital collection.

LexisNexis information contact:

Jennifer Aleknavage
(301) 951-4565

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