SCELC JSTOR Shared Collections Digital Cooperative

SCELC and JSTOR first began collaborating in 2021 on consortial development of digital collections in JSTOR's Open Community Collections initiative. With assistance from its Scholarly Communications Committee, SCELC organized a cohort of member libraries to begin publishing digital collections on JSTOR's platform. The success and growth of this group led to an extension of the initial pilot phase through June 2023.

2020

• JSTOR launches Open Community Collections (OCC) initiative to explore the feasibility and usability of a JSTOR digital collections platform
  • Ease of uploading / managing digital collections
  • Can be used alongside other existing digital collections tools, or as as the only one for a library
• Libraries were invited to add their openly-available digital collections to JSTOR for no fee during a Charter period
• SCELC Scholarly Communications Committee recommends that:
  • a cohort of SCELC libraries participate early on
  • the broader SCELC community joins at a later time
• Two early adopters add collections to OCC right away:
  • University of the Pacific
  • University of San Diego

2021

• More SCELC libraries begin publishing on OCC platform
• 30 SCELC libraries attend a member-hosted JSTOR OCC webinar
• SCELC & JSTOR issue a joint community survey to invite 62 additional SCELC libraries to participate in OCC
• 16 more SCELC libraries begin publishing on the platform
• Rapid growth in items and collections being published on OCC platform

2022

• JSTOR extends the Charter period pilot program for SCELC libraries for an additional year
• JSTOR & SCELC study usage of dual-hosted collections in SCELC libraries

2023

• At the end of the Charter period:
  • SCELC and JSTOR agree to a multi-year consortial fee structure / pricing model for platform services
  • SCELC Board of Directors votes to partially subsidize Member libraries which choose to continue on the JSTOR platform
• 16 of 24 libraries in the SCELC OCC cohort agree to continue on beyond the Charter period

27 SCELC libraries signed on to the JSTOR Open Community Collections pilot, which was extended through June 30, 2023.

The links below go to each institution's JSTOR OCC landing page and published collections.

For more information on the program, please contact jason@scelc.org