JSTOR Daily is new online publication (free) launched in beta today. We think this is an exciting concept to not only promote JSTOR services to both a target audience but also to reach out to those who have little idea that JSTOR and the material it contains is available online or exists at all. It can also help the scholarly publishing community demonstrate that just because material appears in an “scholarly” journal or book automatically means it’s not relevant to those outside of academia, boring, or intimidating to read.
Also, resources like JSTOR Daily could be helpful as a gateway to K-12 librarians and educators to introduce scholarly material to students BEFORE they head into an academic library for the first time. As we’ve said many times, the school librarian community (especially librarians working with high school students) and academic library community should more to work together. Today’s high school senior is tomorrow’s college freshman and awareness of academic library resources, both how the work and the type of material they contain can only make the adjustment to college easier and more productive.
By the way, each JSTOR Daily article contains a direct link to the full text of scholarly article being discussed. You don’t need to be JSTOR subscriber to access the article.
From JSTOR’s Official Announcement
Edited by Catherine Halley, JSTOR Daily is tapping journalists and academics alike to provide insight, commentary, and analysis of ideas, studies, and current events using the rich scholarship on JSTOR as both a source of deeper knowledge and as inspiration. JSTOR is home to more than 2,000 full runs of the leading academic journals (some of them dating back as far as the 18th century), along with tens of thousands of books and other material in the social sciences, humanities, and non-medical sciences. References to works on JSTOR are linked from magazine articles and are freely available for magazine readers, encouraging the public to delve into the academic literature firsthand. Once at the JSTOR library, readers can explore even further through JSTOR’s free reading program.
Initial JSTOR Daily stories explore the affordable housing plans taking shape in New York City, internet addiction and its effects, and the resurgence of coyotes and other carnivores in our urban environments. There is also a retrospective look at Lunch Poems, Frank O’Hara’s groundbreaking publication, and a mock interview with Godzilla pulled from Cinéaste. Interviews with scholars and profiles of their work are also expected to permeate the site.
JSTOR Daily is published at daily.jstor.org. Readers can sign up online for bi-weekly emails of top stories and follow the magazine on Twitter at @JSTOR_Daily. The magazine is designated “beta” as it will continue to evolve with reader feedback and engagement.
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