It is hard for me to believe that JSTOR celebrated its fifth anniversary during this past year. Like so many things in life, it seems like only yesterday that we started and yet it also feels like forever that we have been here! In some ways we have been surprised by the extraordinary and enthusiastic reception that JSTOR has received in the scholarly community -- nearly 900 institutions around the world are library participants, while 120 publishers have signed on to contribute their content to the archive. We are extremely grateful for the support of so many of you and recognize the tremendous responsibility that places upon us.

Even more surprising than the institutional support for JSTOR has been use of the resource by scholars and students. JSTOR was founded on the notion that centralizing the archiving of older academic journals would reduce system-wide costs, but we never anticipated the scale and range of uses to which the archive would be put. In October 2000, we passed 4 million accesses in a single month, and we conservatively project that close to 3 million articles will be printed this year. The resource is being used for research, for teaching, and for other purposes that we never anticipated, two of which are highlighted in this newsletter. We are proud of the many novel uses of the database and the potential for serving an even wider community.

The more we achieve, the more we are expected to achieve. As we look ahead, we plan to work even harder in an effort to anticipate JSTOR's "unintended benefits" and to play a proactive role in making them reality. Perhaps we are pursuing an unattainable objective in trying to render the unintentional intentional, but it is that kind of effort that keeps an organization vibrant. Your feedback is critical in keeping us "alive" and so, as always, I urge you to share with us your comments and criticisms.

Last updated on September 8, 2006