Northern State University is joining the Tier 3 charter program of JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services and migrating its digital collections from CONTENTdm to JSTOR’s integrated platform.
To support the move, Northern is working with JSTOR’s professional migration services team to relocate a substantial body of digital collections into JSTOR’s modern, cloud-hosted environment for digital asset management, preservation, and discovery. Materials slated for migration include oral histories and other collections documenting the university, the city of Aberdeen, and the broader history of South Dakota. Thousands of items are already openly available on JSTOR.
As a Tier 3 charter participant, Northern will gain access to JSTOR Seeklight to help accelerate collections processing—including metadata creation, transcription, alt text generation, and collection summarization—while keeping library and archives expertise at the center of the process. Northern will also join peer institutions contributing feedback and use cases that help shape the future of Seeklight and shared practices for responsible AI-assisted stewardship. The university will also be eligible for dedicated Mellon-supported digitization funding for collections processed through Seeklight and shared openly on JSTOR.
“The Beulah Williams Library Archives and Special Collections preserves materials that are important to Northern, Aberdeen, and the region,” said Robert Russell, Library Director at Northern. “JSTOR Stewardship gives us a practical path to move these collections forward while supporting long-term access and preservation.”
“Northern’s move to Tier 3 brings together two important priorities: a strategic migration to support their current collections, and a forward-looking interest in tools that will help them make more of their materials digitally available,” said Jess Clemons, Director of Business Development, JSTOR Stewardship. “We’re excited to welcome them into the charter community and support the next stage of their digital collections work.”
About Northern State University
Founded in 1901, Northern State University is a public university in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Northern offers nationally accredited programs in arts and sciences, business, fine arts, and teacher education, and serves students and communities across the region.
About JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services is a seamless, cloud-hosted platform that unites digital asset management, long-term preservation, and expanded discovery pathways—including sharing on JSTOR—with the AI-assisted collections processing tools of JSTOR Seeklight.