Seattle.internet.com has learned that USA TODAY will be the first publisher to implement the combined Qpass and Proquest Archiver's electronic archive service.

Bell & Howell's Information and Learning Division has selected Seattle's Qpass Digital Commerce Service to provide the content commerce solution for the company's ProQuest Archiver electronic archive service.

The agreement will enable Bell & Howell to offer publishers services for the archiving and sale of content online.

The first publisher implementing the Qpass/Proquest Archiver service to sell content online is USA TODAY, the nation's second-largest daily newspaper, which went live Friday, June 16. Through Qpass, USA TODAY is now charging for access to archived content at their site.

The Proquest Archiver publishing service creates a digital archive of a publishers content, provides a search engine, supplies technical support, and hosts and maintains the data center. The partnership with Qpass provides the Archiver with a commerce infrastructure.