JSTOR, the preservation archive and research platform arm of the not-for-profit ITHAKA, recently released a new interface. One feature of the new interface - the ability for any user to submit a search against all JSTOR content - has reportedly drawn strong reactions from many in the library community. The key concern expressed was that JSTOR users at participating institutions with a subset of JSTOR collections could get search results pointing to content they could not access; and that JSTOR had not yet enabled OpenURL for all articles, making it difficult for libraries to use link resolvers to re-direct users to other copies of the articles that might be available to them.
In response, JSTOR will issue an update to the interface changes released in August. Beginning September 2, the default option for authenticated users on all search forms will be to search licensed content only. Authenticated users include users on campus or users logged in via a remote access option. The reason for taking this step is to reduce any potential frustration for authenticated users until JSTOR extends support for OpenURL linking throughout the platform. At that point, librarians will be able to direct their users to alternative options for accessing content not licensed through JSTOR.
For authorised users at participating institutions, the checkbox for 'Include only content I can access' on the Advanced Search form will be selected by default. Individual users will be able to deselect the checkbox if they wish to search across all content. Other JSTOR search forms - the new basic search box on each page, the Citation Locator, and search within a journal - will also default to searching only licensed content. After receiving search results for any search, any user may still elect to view all results for all content including unlicensed content.
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