Our history
In 1994, the Internet was in its early days, and William G. Bowen—then president of the Mellon Foundation—conceived of JSTOR to solve a growing problem: university and college libraries were running out of space for expanding scholarly collections.
His idea was transformative: convert printed journals into digital form and store them in a shared online archive. This innovation helped reduce storage costs, free up physical space, and vastly improve access to research.
Decades later, JSTOR is a thriving nonprofit working with more than 14,000 libraries, museums, and publishers worldwide. Through our products and services, JSTOR has transformed access to scholarly materials—including journals, books, images and other primary sources—to reach more than 100 million users each year.
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What will the next 30 years bring?
Explore more about JSTOR’s evolution and impact.
What’s new in JSTOR Stewardship: February 2026
The JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services community continues to grow, welcoming new institutions and expanding access to distinctive collections. This month’s update highlights recent participants, collection spotlights, and how JSTOR Seeklight supports AI-assisted, human-reviewed description and responsible digital stewardship.
Newly opened Path to Open titles surpass 2025 usage in just five weeks
Five weeks after becoming openly available, the first 100 Path to Open titles have already surpassed their total 2025 usage—when access was limited to participating institutions. With usage up more than 580%, readership has expanded from six to 113 countries, underscoring the immediate global impact of open access for scholarly books.
Improving accessibility on JSTOR: what libraries and users can expect
With upcoming ADA Title II requirements taking effect in April 2026, institutions are closely evaluating how well their digital resources support access for everyone. At JSTOR, accessibility is an ongoing commitment, supported by new on-demand remediation tools to help ensure users can access the content they need, when they need it.
Assumption University selects JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services to manage, preserve, and share digital collections
Assumption University has selected JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services to preserve, manage, and share digital collections, strengthening long-term stewardship, discovery, and access for teaching and research.
The University of Wyoming moves to JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services to manage, preserve, and share digital collections
The University of Wyoming joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services as a Tier 2 participant, migrating key collections from DSpace to JSTOR for integrated management, Portico preservation, and expanded discovery.
“AI drafts, people decide”: How Goldey-Beacom College scales archival access and enriches student learning with JSTOR Seeklight
Goldey-Beacom College used JSTOR Seeklight to scale archival metadata creation with AI and human oversight—unlocking hidden collections while building student AI literacy.
The Disciples of Christ Historical Society will move to JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services and join charter community
The Disciples of Christ Historical Society will adopt JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services as a unified home for its digital collections and join the Tier 3 charter community.
The purpose of stewarding distinctive collections: discovery and impact
Preserving distinctive collections is essential—but preservation alone doesn’t guarantee impact. In today’s digital research environment, discovery determines whether primary sources are found, used, and meaningfully integrated into scholarship and teaching. This post explores why platform choice now plays a central role in turning stewardship into impact.
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services training: Advanced features
Webinar time is based in EST. Training for Stewardship participants (Tiers 2-3): use Collection Builder, organize related content, and use lists. One of three sessions in a monthly Stewardship training series.