Computer and Library Learning (Archived)

JSTOR (or Journal Storage) is a database archive that offers access through full-text searches to more than one thousand digitized back issues of academic journals in the arts, sciences, and the humanities and more than one million images, letters and other examples of primary sources. JSTOR, a non-profit organization, was conceived in 1995 partly to address the issue of access to growing numbers of academic journals. Toronto Public Library offers its customers with valid library cards access to JSTOR’s content through the Toronto Public Library website or in-branch at all Toronto Public Library branch locations.

JSTOR provides access to content on the basis of a “moving wall” whereby JSTOR and the journal publishers agree to exclude the most current 3-5 years of content, depending on the agreement with a specific publisher.

When I attended university many years ago, I had to rely on paper-based subject indexes (available in both academic and some public libraries) to track down relevant articles for research papers. Users of JSTOR can employ keyword searching either through the search box or the advanced search box (with options to limit by date range, discipline, journal title, accessible and/or external content only) as well as the option of browsing journal titles by discipline. I enjoyed using JSTOR to reconstruct a research trail on an esoteric topic that I had undertaken for a fourth-year undergraduate geography course over 20 years ago on the “Anuchin controversy” and the resulting debates that occurred amongst Soviet geography academicians in the 1960s over whether geography was either a divided or a unified discipline. Oh, I wish that I had had access to JSTOR back then!

In January 2012, JSTOR announced a pending beta “Register and Read” program that will provide free, limited access for individuals, researchers and scholars (not affiliated with any local participating organizations such as Toronto Public Library and the various post-secondary institutions) to all articles in 70 journals from more than 30 publishers. Those registering personally for a MyJSTOR account will be able to read (but not download) 3 articles every 2 weeks.