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.
The University of North Dakota joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services to advance access to collections
The University of North Dakota joins JSTOR Stewardship, expanding discovery and access to its distinctive digital collections through JSTOR.
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 series.
Eastern Michigan University expands partnership with JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services by joining Tier 3 charter program
Eastern Michigan University joins JSTOR Stewardship’s Tier 3 charter program, building on its role as an early JSTOR Seeklight beta partner to advance responsible, AI-assisted stewardship.
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services charter program surpasses 50 participating institutions
More than 50 institutions now participate in JSTOR Stewardship’s charter program, collaborating to advance responsible, AI-assisted digital collections stewardship.
Brandeis University becomes 50th institution to join JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services charter program
Brandeis University joins JSTOR Stewardship’s Tier 3 charter program as the community’s 50th institution, helping shape responsible, AI-assisted stewardship through JSTOR Seeklight and peer collaboration.
Discover Ion Bitzan on Artstor on JSTOR
Read an authorized excerpt from Cǎlin Dan’s “Ion Bitzan: The Prisoners of the Avant-Garde” and explore installation views from the retrospective exhibition alongside the Ion Bitzan Foundation collection in Artstor on JSTOR.
What’s new in JSTOR Stewardship: June 2026
The JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services community continues to grow, welcoming new institutions, highlighting innovative uses of AI-assisted collections processing, and showcasing unique open access collections now available on JSTOR.
Ferris State University joins JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services to manage, preserve, and share digital collections
Ferris State University joins JSTOR Stewardship as a Tier 2 participant, migrating from Islandora to support digital collections management, preservation, and expanded discovery on JSTOR.
Colgate University builds on JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services partnership by joining charter program
Colgate joins JSTOR Stewardship’s Tier 3 charter program, migrating from Islandora to an integrated platform for preservation, discovery, and AI-assisted collections processing with JSTOR Seeklight.