Maximize the discovery, reach, and impact of your collections

JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services is offered in three tiers to meet the diverse needs of institutions:

• Tier 1: Share collections on JSTOR, making them discoverable alongside scholarly research. Includes audio/video hosting, usage analytics, and indexing in search engines and library discovery services.
• Tier 2: Everything in Tier 1 plus digital asset management with flexible cataloging tools, broader sharing options, and OAIS-compliant preservation.
• Tier 3: Everything in Tiers 1 and 2, plus the AI-powered tools of JSTOR Seeklight for accelerating collections processing—including rapid generation of metadata, transcripts for text-based documents to drive discovery and enable accessibility, and collection level intelligence—while maintaining expert oversight and control.

As a nonprofit, JSTOR operates on a cost-recovery model to sustain and expand our services while keeping them accessible to a broad range of institutions. Pricing varies based on institution type and selected services:

• Tier 1 and Tier 2: To find the most relevant pricing details for your organization, please visit our fees and classifications page.
• Tier 3: Institutions can participate in our charter program, which provides a unique opportunity to help shape AI-assisted digital stewardship while benefiting from:
  • Expanded processing capabilities.
  • Direct collaboration with a mission-driven nonprofit.
  Annual fees for charter program members begin at $6,000. Learn more about the charter program.

For additional questions or customized guidance, reach out to participation@ithaka.org.

Yes. In keeping with our community-driven, continuous learning approach to developing solutions, JSTOR views charter programs as an essential part of our process, providing a structured onramp for institutions that are early adopters of new resources.
 
Institutions opting into Tier 3 of JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services can participate in our charter program, which offers additional support, peer collaboration, and other incentives for those integrating AI-powered collection processing support into their workflows.
 
Charter participants receive expanded processing capabilities and the opportunity to collaborate with JSTOR and peer institutions to shape the evolution of these services.
 
Learn more about the charter program.

Yes, our services are designed for seamless interoperability with a range of library technologies, ensuring broad discovery, preservation, and data portability. Key integrations include:

• Discovery and access: Collections shared on JSTOR are indexed in Google and other major search engines, as well as library discovery services, including EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS), OCLC WorldCat, and ProQuest/Ex Libris Primo/Alma.
• Metadata sharing and harvesting: Support for OAI-PMH enables integration with Omeka, DPLA, library catalogs, and beyond, ensuring metadata can be harvested for broader dissemination.
• Long-term preservation: Portico integration provides trusted long-term digital preservation, safeguarding collections against obsolescence.
• Data portability: Flexible data export allows institutions to use their collections and metadata in other systems as needed.

JSTOR ensures robust, standards-compliant digital preservation through its integration with Portico, a leading digital preservation service. JSTOR and Portico are both nonprofit services of ITHAKA. Key features include:

• Portico-powered preservation: JSTOR leverages Portico’s proven infrastructure to provide secure, long-term digital preservation.
• Active monitoring: Scheduled scans detect format obsolescence and perform necessary format migrations to maintain usability.
• Fixity checks: Regular integrity checks detect and address data corruption.
• Geographically distributed storage: Multiple redundant copies ensure long-term protection.
• Compliance with preservation standards: Adherence to established digital preservation standards, including the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and Preservation Metadata (PREMIS), ensure a trusted preservation environment.

Learn more about our preservation standards and process or explore guidance on best practices for using our services to preserve your content.

Once your collections are shared to JSTOR, your institution benefits from the strengths of the JSTOR platform, including:

• Availability to millions of researchers worldwide.
• The ability to cross-search your collections alongside other scholarly materials on JSTOR.
• Indexing in Google and major search engines (JSTOR is one of the world’s top ranked websites on Google).
• Integration with library discovery services, ensuring seamless academic access.

With Tier 3, JSTOR Seeklight enables the creation of descriptive item-level metadata at-scale, as well as machine-readable transcripts of handwritten and typescript documents that support vastly enhanced discoverability on your platform, and via search engines.
 
Additionally, institutions can enable broad metadata sharing via OAI-PMH, allowing integration with Omeka, DPLA, and library catalogs, expanding discoverability beyond JSTOR’s platform.

Yes, our cloud-based solution provides real-time access from anywhere, enabling unlimited collaboration and improved accessibility. With multi-user support, role-based access, and real-time updates, it seamlessly scales across departments and projects to streamline workflows.

Our services support the management of a wide variety of digital assets, including images, documents, audio, and video. Learn more.

Please note: AI-assisted collection processing tools from JSTOR Seeklight (Tier 3) currently support text-based documents, handwritten materials (PDF), and images (JPG) only. We are exploring future expansions to support additional file types such as audio and video.

We offer a range of education and support resources to help ensure your success:

• Personalized onboarding
  • Included in Tier 3 (up to 3 hours) and Tier 2 (up to 2 hours)
  • Tailored to your institution’s workflows and priorities
  • Flexible format—can be split across multiple sessions
• Self-service resources
  • Unlimited access to a dedicated support site with documentation and tutorials
  • Tier-specific video tutorial playlists for Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3
  • Playlists are easy to embed in your institution’s local guides and documentation
• Ongoing training
  • Regular live training webinars
  • Recordings of open sessions are shared with registrants and posted on JSTOR’s YouTube channel, including captions and transcripts for accessibility

Yes. For institutions moving from a legacy system into JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services, a one-time, fee-based content migration service is available. This add-on service is designed to support a full transition, making it easier to consolidate digital collections into JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services as the primary content management platform. Contact participation@ithaka.org to learn more.

Yes. JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services offers harvesting as an add-on option for institutions that want to keep their collections up to date by regularly transferring content from another system into their JSTOR Stewardship environment.

Harvesting is ideal for institutions that manage collections across multiple platforms and need a reliable, hands-off way to bring new or updated content into JSTOR Stewardship on an ongoing basis. Learn more about what harvesting offers and how it works.

You can request a demo or contact participation@ithaka.org to learn more. We look forward to hearing from you!