Last year, when I was still new to JSTOR, I paid a visit to a California librarian who has been a JSTOR stalwart and thoughtful advocate of digital archiving efforts. As I was leaving, I asked if he had any advice for me in guiding JSTOR into the future. His answer was succinct: "More! Faster!"

This encouragement has been a recurring theme in my encounters with other librarians. Recently, we received further indications - this time from a survey of US faculty - that academics want more content to be digitally archived. This 2003 study follows up on a benchmark study conducted in 2000, enabling us to see how faculty thinking may have changed in the past few years. A majority of our current participants (59%) believe JSTOR needs to expand its holdings in order to serve the community more effectively. And 54% of respondents - up from just 37% in 2000 - reported that "journal articles I need are sometimes not available at my university.", while 34% affirmed that "electronic collections of journals.more often than not" do not have "the article I need."

Given that there is certainly much more content available online today than four years ago, and much broader electronic holdings at most universities, it is curious that faculty are less satisfied with availability today. I take it as an indication of rising expectations, rather than a comment on how much content is really available. In 2000, finding a needed article online was serendipity; today, it is expected.

At JSTOR, we continue to strive for "More! Faster!" We currently have 431 titles online and another 100 in production. Moreover, conversations continue with publishers for additional titles. We have also been working on more frequent releases of participating journals to accelerate their availability.

As always, we would be delighted to hear your thoughts on our efforts. Please contact us anytime.

Michael P. Spinella

Last updated on September 8, 2006