JSTOR Open Community Collections are now available through OCLC WorldCat Discovery and ExLibris Primo/Summon, in addition to EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS). OCLC, ExLibris, and EDS participants will gain access to a breadth of freely accessible primary source content including artwork, photographs, publications, recordings, and other artifacts from hundreds of library collections around the world.
Community Collections enables institutions to host their special collections on the JSTOR platform, making unique primary source collections discoverable to a large network of researchers, faculty, and library users worldwide. Universities don’t have to be JSTOR participants to access or contribute to Community Collections. If the library is an OCLC WorldCat Discovery, ExLibris, or EDS user, administrators can easily enable access to JSTOR Open Community Collections. After enabling access, users will benefit from a trove of openly accessible special collections, introducing them to new avenues of research with seamless access to the information they need.
The library can also host its special collections on JSTOR, making the content openly accessible on a platform used by millions of scholars, students, and faculty around the world each year.
Increasing discovery of open library content aligns directly with ITHAKA’s aim to improve access to education and knowledge for people around the world, including making it more affordable. It is particularly important in a post-pandemic world where libraries seek to transition to digital-first collections, and modes of learning are increasingly diverse.
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