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.
Publisher Collections on JSTOR: a new milestone for scholarly ebooks
Publisher Collections are now live on JSTOR, marking a new milestone for scholarly ebooks. Developed collaboratively with libraries and academic publishers, this new model offers perpetual access to a publisher’s current-year output alongside seamless access to backlist titles on JSTOR.
What’s new in JSTOR Stewardship: January 2026
The JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services community continues to grow, bringing together libraries, archives, and cultural heritage organizations committed to responsible, mission-aligned digital collections. This month’s update highlights new community members, recently shared collections, and conversations shaping the future of scalable digital stewardship.
Embedded AI in Practice: How Libraries and Platforms Shape Research and Instruction Together
A new “Against the Grain” article co-authored by JSTOR’s Beth LaPensee explores how libraries and nonprofit platforms can collaborate to develop responsible, transparent AI tools.
Shaping responsible AI in research: new Against the Grain article co-authored by JSTOR’s Beth LaPensee
An article co-authored by Beth LaPensee, Principal Product Manager at JSTOR, has been published in the December issue of Against the Grain. Written with Anne Grant of Clemson University Libraries, the piece examines how libraries and nonprofit research platforms can work together to design and implement embedded AI tools that support ethical, transparent, and inquiry-driven research and instruction.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville expands its involvement in JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services as a charter participant
The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) will join JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services as a Tier 3 charter program participant, expanding its partnership with JSTOR and helping shape the future of responsible, scalable digital collections stewardship.
Path to Open: Communications toolkit for authors
Get ready-to-use messaging, social media assets, and outreach guidance to support authors in promoting their Path to Open participation and showcasing the reach of their open access work.
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services training: Project cataloging
Training for Stewardship participants (Tiers 2-3): catalog records, manage media, use linked fields, and organize work. One of three sessions in a monthly Stewardship training […]
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services training: Project administration
Training for Stewardship participants (Tiers 2-3): create/edit projects, map publishing targets, manage users, and access preservation. One of three sessions in a monthly Stewardship training series.
First 100 path to open books now available open access worldwide on JSTOR
The first 100 Path to Open books are now free to read worldwide on JSTOR—proving a community-funded model can expand access, sustain presses, and amplify scholarly impact.