The JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services community is expanding—uniting libraries, archives, and cultural heritage organizations to strengthen responsible, mission-aligned digital collections practices. Through AI‑assisted collections processing, integrated digital asset management, long‑term preservation, and sharing unique materials on JSTOR, Stewardship participants are advancing discovery and broadening access in ways that reflect their values and aspirations.
This month’s Stewardship update features new members of our community, notable collections made available by our participants, and updates from the broader community. If you’re looking to scale your digital collections program—or simply curious to see what your peers are doing—we hope these stories provide inspiration.
New to the Stewardship community
We’re excited to welcome new institutions to JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services—each contributing distinctive collections, innovative projects, and unique insights to our growing community. Explore the full participant list.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) – Huntsville, Alabama
UAH joins the JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services Tier 3 charter program, expanding a long-standing partnership and helping shape the future of responsible, scalable digital stewardship. Building on more than 5,000 items already shared on JSTOR across 70+ collections, UAH will gain access to JSTOR Seeklight and participate in the charter cohort through working groups, user testing, and ongoing discussions to refine AI-assisted collections processing.
Read the full UAH announcement
The Evergreen State College – Tacoma, Washington
Evergreen moves to JSTOR Stewardship, joining the Tier 3 charter program to build a unified home for its digital collections. With support from JSTOR’s professional migration services, the team will consolidate materials currently distributed across several Omeka S sites into JSTOR’s integrated digital asset management and preservation environment, with longer-term plans to use JSTOR Stewardship as an institutional repository.
Read the full Evergreen announcement
DePauw University – Greencastle, Indiana
DePauw joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services as a Tier 2 participant, adopting JSTOR’s integrated platform for digital asset management, preservation, and access. With support from JSTOR’s professional migration services, the team has transitioned from CONTENTdm and made more than 125,000 items available through the DePauw University Digital Archives on JSTOR.
Read the full DePauw announcement
Collection spotlight
As stewards of unique materials, our participants make a diverse array of collections available on the JSTOR platform, where they can be discovered alongside scholarly materials by researchers on-campus and worldwide.
Browse thousands of open access collections on JSTOR
Notre Dame University-Louaize: Heinz Gaube Lebanese Architectural Photographs Collection
Explore 3,100 black-and-white images documenting classical Lebanese architecture in nearly 300 locations across the country— rare visual evidence of many buildings that were damaged or destroyed during and after Lebanon’s civil war (1975 to 1990). Enhanced by an open access, searchable map that geolocates Gaube’s photographs, this collection can help students, historians, and local viewers dynamically explore vanished places and a disappearing architecture.
Explore the Heinz Gaube Lebanese Architectural Photographs Collection on JSTOR
Read the JSTOR Daily feature: “Documenting a Disappearing Architecture”
Montana State University: Frank Craighead Grizzly Materials
Adored by tourists and closely studied by scientists, a grizzly mother named Sylvia became an emblem of Yellowstone’s uneasy balance between people and wildlife. Shared on JSTOR by Montana State University, the Frank Craighead Grizzly Materials collection includes field journals, notes, and research documents from brothers Frank and John Craighead, whose long-term study traced how increasing visitation and human food waste shaped grizzly behavior—capturing, in vivid detail, the real-world stakes of coexistence in a modern national park.
Explore the Frank Craighead Grizzly Materials on JSTOR
Read the JSTOR Daily feature: “The Tamest Grizzly of Yellowstone”
Contributions and conversations
Through presentations, written pieces, conference panels, and more, the Stewardship community is committed to sharing back what they do and learn. Visit our events page to catch up on past recorded events, register for new ones, and find opportunities to meet up at an upcoming conference.
Reclaim flexibility: Modern solutions for digital collection stewardship
Many libraries and archives rely on digital collection platforms that once served them well, but now feel misaligned with evolving priorities like adaptable workflows, actionable analytics, and sustainable access. In this webinar, Rachel Walton (Rollins College) and Olivia Inglin (University of Puget Sound) share their transitions from legacy systems to JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services—what drove their decisions, how they guided change, and what’s different today. Their reflections offer practical insights for leaders managing digital collections, metadata, and discovery.
Moving beyond DIY: Scalable digital stewardship solutions for distinctive collections
Institutions have often turned to locally supported systems to manage digital collections, drawn to their flexibility and community-driven roots. Yet as staffing capacity shifts and technical upkeep becomes more demanding, many libraries and archives are rethinking what sustainability looks like at scale. In this webinar, Zachary Johnson (Vanderbilt University) and Michael Fitzgerald (University of the District of Columbia) share how they transitioned from in-house systems to JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services, offering insights into infrastructure, decision-making, and team impact.
Want to learn more about becoming a part of JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services? Get in touch with our team!
