RE: going online only... (and JSTOR)

[Kevin Guthrie <KG@jstor.org>]

Hello again,

In a message posted Thursday night, Paul Gherman asks about JSTOR's
governance structure, and more particularly how JSTOR trustees are
elected. For those of you who are interested, I have attached a list of
current and past JSTOR board members to the bottom of this message.

When JSTOR was founded, we considered a variety of possible organizational
and governance models.  We decided that the membership organization
structure was not the best approach for addressing the kind of system-wide
problems on which JSTOR is focused, and which involve multiple
constituencies across multiple sectors (libraries, publishers, scholars,
U.S., international, etc.).

JSTOR Trustees serve one-year terms and are elected annually.  New
trustees are nominated by other members of the board and are elected by
vote at the Annual Meeting.  If you look at the list of board members, you
will see that the group is broadly representative of the major
constituents in the scholarly community.  That said, individual trustees
do not "represent" any particular group; they provide their broad
experience and counsel in support of JSTOR's balanced mission to serve
libraries, publishers, scholars, students and researchers.

During my time here at JSTOR I have been amazed by the depth of commitment
demonstrated by our Trustees.  Their understanding of JSTOR's mission is
complete, and their passionate support of the organization has been
unwavering.  It is truly an extraordinary group working hard for the
benefit of the community.

Sincerely,

Kevin
    

The current and past members of our Board of Trustees are
(http://www.jstor.org/about/board.html):


William G. Bowen                    Dr. James Carmichael Renick
  Chairman, JSTOR Board of            Chancellor, North Carolina
  Trustees                            Agricultural and Technical State
  President, The Andrew W. Mellon     University - Greensboro, NC
  Foundation
  Former President, Princeton       W. Taylor Reveley, III
  University                          Dean, The Marshall-Wythe School of
                                      Law - The College of William and
Laura N. Brown                        Mary
  President
  Oxford University Press           Stephen M. Stigler
                                      Professor of Statistics
Nancy M. Cline                        University of Chicago
  Roy E. Larsen Librarian
  Harvard College, Harvard          R. Elton White
  University                           Former President, NCR Corporation

Ira H. Fuchs                        Trustees Emeriti			 
  Chief Scientist, JSTOR            ----------------			 
  Vice President for Research in
  Information Technology, The	    Richard De Gennaro			 
  Andrew W. Mellon Foundation         Roy E. Larsen Librarian, Emeritus	 
  Former Vice President for           Harvard College, Harvard
University			 
  Computing and Information         					 
  Technology, Princeton University  Charles R. Ellis			 
                                      Former President and Chief 	 
Kevin M. Guthrie                      Executive Officer			 
  President, JSTOR                    John Wiley & Sons, Inc.		 

Richard C. Levin		    Cathleen Morawetz			 
  President, Yale University          Professor Emeritus		 
                                      New York University		 
Mary Patterson McPherson
  Vice President, The Andrew W.	    Gilbert R. Whitaker, Jr.		 
  Mellon Foundation                   Dean and Professor of Business	 
  Former President, Bryn Mawr         Economics, Rice University         
  College                           

Michele Tolela Myers
  President, Sarah Lawrence College


-----Original Message-----
From: Paul M. Gherman [mailto:Gherman@LIBRARY.Vanderbilt.edu]
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 6:34 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: going online only... (and JSTOR)


I am glad Kevin raised the issue of governance of JSTOR. The board
includes the names of some very impressive individuals in a variety of
roles in higher education. But I am completely in the dark about how these
individuals are appointed to the board. I think that before the library
community can have total faith in the long-term direction and permanence
of JSTOR, the governance of this organization needs to be more transparent
and modeled more along the lines of OCLC or CRL. I am not aware that there
are any elected members of the board, or who the electorate might be.

Paul M. Gherman
University Librarian
611B General Library
419 21st Avenue South
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37240
Office: (615) 322-7120
Fax: (615) 343-8279
gherman@library.vanderbilt.edu