JSTOR was born and bred in a networked world. From the outset, we have known that our success depends on taking a system-wide perspective, listening to and balancing the interests and needs of all the constituencies in the scholarly community. As such, we operate at the hub of a wheel that depends on effective relationships with such diverse entities as publishers, libraries, scholars, students, vendors, university administrators, foundations, government agencies and advocacy groups.

To some degree, then, every issue of JSTORNEWS could choose "collaboration" as its overarching theme. However, two initiatives presented in this issue seem particularly worthy of that emphasis. First, we describe in some detail the next step in our continuing effort to develop a reliable archive of electronic journals. What is novel about this endeavor is that it involves a new form of collaboration for us; that is, the integration of JSTOR's work with that of the Mellon Foundation's e-archiving grant program and its participating grantees. For background, we have provided a brief history of Mellon's program and the outcomes from its first phase. JSTOR has received funding from Mellon to serve as the organizational home for the next phase of that important work.

A second initiative described herein is our attempt to establish convenient links between the archived articles in JSTOR and the more recent articles housed on participating publishers' sites. Successful implementation of this capability involves very close cooperation not only with participating publishers, but also with participating libraries, for the latter are increasingly deploying portal and linking technologies that enable them to take an active role in managing the experience of their local constituents. We are in the initial stage of this activity, but we are already excited about its prospects to serve JSTOR users, libraries and publishers.

Successful collaboration requires that we listen closely to our participants, and that depends on your providing us with comments and advice. We welcome all of it!

Kevin M. Guthrie

Last updated on September 8, 2006