New Publishers Join Books at JSTOR

[Marita LaMonica <Marita.LaMonica@ithaka.org>]

Of possible interest:

Research Quality and Breadth Deepen as New Publishers Join Books 
at JSTOR


June 24, 2011 - New York, NY

Thirteen publishers including leading not-for-profit research 
institutes, international organizations, university presses, and 
independent publishers are the latest to join Books at JSTOR, an 
initiative that will add more than 20,000 ebooks to one of the 
most widely used and well-known online academic resources in the 
world.

The publishers announced today include: Boydell & Brewer, 
Brookings Institution Press, Edinburgh University Press, 
University of Illinois Press, Indiana University Press, The 
University of Michigan Press, The National Academies Press, 
Pennsylvania State University Press, RAND Corporation, Russell 
Sage Foundation, University of Texas Press, University of Toronto 
Press, and United Nations Publications.

"We are thrilled that this set of publishers has chosen to work 
with us," said Laura Brown, JSTOR Managing Director. "Delivering 
deeply linked, vital scholarly research to libraries, scholars, 
and students worldwide is our number one goal. With these new 
partners and the nine already on board, we are laying the 
foundation for a collaboration that will offer a transformative 
integration of book and journal literature that can enable new 
models for scholarly communication in the future."

The publishers announced today bring valuable, new dimensions to 
Books at JSTOR. Those focused on public research and policy 
initiatives will contribute books that bridge the divide between 
theory and practice, an addition that will help JSTOR to better 
support the collection development needs of its wide range of 
academic, government, and non-governmental participating 
institutions.

"Discoverability is essential for our books to be read and have 
impact," commented Barbara Kline Pope, Executive Director of the 
National Academies Press. "Books at JSTOR will enhance our 
efforts to achieve this by ensuring that our e-books are found by 
our core audiences of faculty and researchers throughout the 
world who already use JSTOR for their work."

Similarly, Edinburgh University Press and University of Toronto 
Press, as well as Boydell & Brewer and the multi-national United 
Nations, are the first of what JSTOR and its partners hope will 
be a growing set of publishers outside the United States that 
will bring the best thinking and writing of researchers and 
policy makers from around the world to the initiative.

"The unprecedented speed of change in the electronic publishing 
environment presents both challenges and significant 
opportunities for publishers," noted Timothy Wright, Chief 
Executive of Edinburgh University Press "Our partnership with 
JSTOR, with their experience working with a global network of 
libraries and scholars, will enable Edinburgh to continue to 
innovate in how we sell and how users experience our books and 
our journals."

This news comes on the heels of a round of workshops hosted by 
JSTOR and its press partners with nearly 100 librarians in cities 
around the United States.  These sessions brought publishers and 
librarians together to tackle hard issues that both parties have 
faced in the transition from the publication and dissemination of 
books from print to electronic formats, from supporting 
short-term lending of ebooks to making course reserve titles 
available online.  The aim is to build a deeper, shared 
understanding of library and press interests and to craft and 
test new solutions that will work well for both groups.

Greg Raschke, Associate Director for Collections and Scholarly 
Communication for the North Carolina State University Libraries 
and a participant at a workshop noted: "JSTOR's efforts to bring 
librarians and publishers together come at a critical time for 
the future of scholarly publishing. The dialog has been 
productive as we collectively search for sustainable business 
models and attempt to effectively migrate to digital platforms in 
ways that benefit research and teaching."

Books at JSTOR now has twenty-two publisher partners 
<http://about.jstor.org/books> and expects to launch with close 
to 30 presses.  The first books will be available at JSTOR 
beginning in June 2012. All books will be preserved in Portico, 
the leading digital preservation service for the scholarly 
community. For more information, please read about Books at JSTOR

<http://about.jstor.org/news-events/news/research-quality-and-breadth-deepen-new-publishers-join-books-jstor>

[End]

Contact:

JSTOR, a part of ITHAKA
Heidi McGregor
VP, Marketing & Communications
heidi.mcgregor@ithaka.org