ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 12, 2009 - The GradShare^™ service creates a national forum where graduate students can share their challenges to both get advice from peers and find solutions offered by their library or graduate school. Since its launch at the American Libraries Association Midwinter conference, GradShare^™, this free online question and answer community is growing with new users, Expert Advice columns, and enrolled partner schools.

“ProQuest has long been a technology focused company,” said ProQuest Innovation Officer Samir Singh.  “Our innovation strategy is to develop and adapt technologies for our products in a way that will really make a difference for users.  GradShare™ provides a social networking community service in a space that we deeply know – graduate research – which will help students have a more successful academic experience.”

GradShare has seen rapid growth and adoption since its launch.  On average the site has had 100 visitors daily.   In the last 30 days, it has also had visitors from every state in the United States, and 51 different countries.   These new visitors have generated dozens of new questions and answers regarding graduate life and work.

In addition to new visitors,  27 universities have joined GradShare including: Florida State University, Wake Forest, University of Maine, Truman State University, College of Charleston, University of North Dakota, University of Central Florida, Montana State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Memorial University of Newfoundland.   By joining GradShare, these participating institutions are helping extend students’ peer networks and raise awareness of the quality solutions offered by the library and graduate school.

ProQuest also continues to add Expert Advice columns like those from Sarah Starr - Director, Funding and Research Development, The Ohio State University Office of Research.   For example, her article, “How to find help for writing a proposal”, identifies the best sources of help including sponsor's program officers, awards databases, Grant writing workshops, and others.   Expert Advice provides explanations and insights relating to graduate school topics from experienced professionals such as faculty members and administrators. 

ProQuest invites graduate students to sign-up at www.gradshare.com.  ProQuest also invites academic deans, Librarians, and Graduate School Administrators to enroll in the service to allow their graduate students to discover resources available at their institutions.  Academic institutions that wish to enroll or obtain more information should visit http://www.gradshare.com/school_signup.html.