University Libraries Participate In Electronic Journal Project

5-19-97
University Park, PA -- Penn State's University Libraries have begun addressing new digital technologies and collections as a charter participant in the Journal Storage Project (JSTOR). Through this venture, library patrons will now be able to access past issues of scholarly journals in electronic format through the World Wide Web (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/pubinfo/collect.html).

"Penn State University Libraries are delighted to be a charter member of this project," said Interim Dean Gloriana St. Clair. "Such electronic resources are especially useful to a university of our type because they allow us to enhance access to information for Penn State students around the Commonwealth."

The first phase of JSTOR will allow participating members to offer access to a minimum of 100 journals in areas such as ecology, economics, history, mathematics, philosophy, political science, and sociology. Users are able to view and print articles using standard PC equipment at any time and from any networked location. Issues of the journals are never "out;" they are always available, and in good condition. In addition, powerful searching capabilities allow users to limit their searches based on the information being sought.

About 750,000 pages of journal literature have been converted from paper into an electronic database that resides at the University of Michigan. High-resolution bit-mapped images of each page are linked to a text file generated with optical character recognition (OCR) software that permits complete search and retrieval of the journal material.

Sponsored by a grant from the Mellon Foundation, JSTOR began as a pilot project in 1994 to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in information technologies. This includes improving access to core journal literature, reducing storage costs for libraries, and preserving materials for archival purposes. JSTOR was established as an independent not-for-profit organization in August 1995.

Penn State joins other institutions such Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, Michigan State, and the University of Pennsylvania as JSTOR participants. For more information on the JSTOR Protect, see http://www.jstor.org/.

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Contact: Bonnie MacEwan at (814) 863-8158; or Pamela T. Peterson at 814-865-0401.