JSTOR extends FREE access in countries beyond Africa

JSTOR extends FREE access in countries beyond Africa.

In the communication below, Bruce Heterick, Director, Library Relations at JSTOR describes this new initiative and also the success of the initial African Access Initiative in which not-for-profit institutions across the continent of Africa received free access to JSTOR.

JSTOR are now offering the Developing Nations Access Initiative.

This is a commendable initiative and my librarian colleagues whose countries are in the Eligible Country List, you should start accessing JSTOR and alerting your users about this.

JSTOR is deeply committed to extending access to scholarly materials as broadly as possible in all parts of the world. In 2006, we announced the African Access Initiative in which not-for-profit institutions across the continent of Africa receive free access to the archive. Since the launch of this initiative, nearly 400 institutions are participating in 37 African countries.

"Today, we are launching the Developing Nations Access Initiative, extending our efforts well beyond Africa. Under this initiative, not-for-profit institutions in 41 additional countries may gain access to the archive free of charge or at very low costs. This new initiative further complements JSTOR's Developing Nations Fee Model - in place since 2005 - and eliminates or further reduces fees for institutions in many nations. As a result, all of the collections in JSTOR and Aluka, an initiative uniting with JSTOR, are now free in 64 countries and available at low cost in 30 others.

We are pleased to be able to take this very important next step in ensuring sustainable access to scholarship around the world. The African Access Initiative has helped us understand the diverse needs of students, faculty, and researchers and the prominent issues that bandwidth, electricity, and economic conditions play in how technology has been able to penetrate the research community in developing countries. We will continue to engage with leaders and foundations working in these countries to understand these issues, and to further our close relationships with participating institutions, working with them to provide training opportunities and seeking other ways to maximize the impact of access to the archive for their communities.

Librarians, faculty members, researchers and students play a critical role in communicating to their colleagues in developing nations that access to the archive is available to them under these programs; therefore we ask that our colleagues around the world help us spread the word about these initiatives.

Please visit JSTOR's Developing Nations Access Initiative and African Access Initiative for further information."

With regards,

Bruce Heterick
Director, Library Relations
JSTOR