Monday Muse: Notable JSTOR Initiatives

The digital library JSTOR is a nonprofit service offering content from well over 1,000 academic journals and  some one million primary sources. It licenses content from more than 800 publishers, including university presses, commercial publishers, independent journals, libraries, museums, and scholarly and professional societies. Approximately 850 journals make single articles or issues available for sale through JSTOR. It is a marvelous resource for scholars, researchers, and students.

This year JSTOR implemented several noteworthy initiatives that should be of interest to anyone who does research online: 

✭ JSTOR is testing a program, set in motion earlier this year, called Register and Read. More than five dozen publishers are involved in the effort, which is designed to give free, read-only access to JSTOR content to scholars and researchers who set up a MyJSTOR account. Individuals who register may select content and add it to a virtual "reading shelf" where the full text may be read online over a 14-day period (the amount of time may change as use and user needs are assessed); alternatively, they may purchase and download the content (if the articles' publishers participate in Publisher Sales Services). If purchased, articles are stored as PDFs in accounts of users, who have unlimited access to the content thereafter.

Individuals who do not register with JSTOR but who purchase articles are limited to five PDF downloads; access expires after 14 days. See the video or FAQs about Register and Read for additional information.

✭ Books at JSTOR launched this month. More than 20 academic presses and scholarly publishers, including those of Columbia University, Princeton University, University of California, and Yale University, are participating in the program. Content from the more than 15,000 scholarly books,  journal articles, and reviews ranges across technology, business and law, political science, history, music, performing arts, mathematics, and education; it is cross-searchable and linked.

Books are available for purchase under two plans — the single-user and unlimited user models — and pricing is tiered; volume discounts are available. Under the single-user plan, purchasers are limited to 30 downloads per year but have the ability to make additional purchases; they may upgrade to the multi-user model. Under the latter, an unlimited number of concurrent users enjoys unlimited downloads of many of the books participating presses are offering. Libraries will have the option under a "demand-driven acquisition" model to purchase only those titles they select that reach a certain user threshold. 

For additional information about Books at JSTOR, go here or watch the JSTOR video.

A Webinar for librarians about Books at JSTOR is scheduled for November 16; details are here. 

JSTOR Factsheet

JSTOR for Individuals, Publishers, Librarians

JSTOR Access for Alumni (Graduates of more than 40 highed education institutions have ongoing access to JSTOR holdings; full access is the same as or current students and faculty. Check the list frequently as institutions continue to be added.)

JSTOR Early Journal Content

JSTOR on FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube