JSTOR database enhances
student research possibilities

By Suzanne C. Winter
Staff Writer

Calvin’s Hekman Library has made things a little easier for those Calvin children of the computer era who like and desire speed and convenience. For those who often wade through pages and pages of irrelevant material before finding one small desirable quote, the library has added access to the JSTOR (Journal STORage) program. While this program has only been available to students for about a week, a similar program, called Electronic Collections Online (ECO), has been available since September of lastyear. Like ECO, JSTOR offers an exact replica of the printed material, including illustrations.

JSTOR, however, is more comprehensive than ECO, which offers digitized journals only from about 1996 to the present. What JSTOR has done is select the top scholarly journals and put them into digital form, from their first issue up until about five years ago. The five-year gap will be maintained, due to publishers’ concerns of cancelled journal subscriptions. Currently, the library still subscribes to paper journals, but this may eventually cease as people become more comfortable with the electronic journal system. Electronic journals themselves are not free.

The one-time entrance fee for JSTOR was $20,000, a price which is succeeded by an annual fee of $3,000. With this fascinating new technology, one question that is quick to surface is “How do we use it?” According to Library Director Glenn Remelts, “the library website is the vehicle for anything digital that the library has to offer.” Glenn Remelts estimates that the library homepage gets 4,000 hits a week during the academic year, and a total of 140,000 hits for the calendar year. A number of databases can be accessed from the library website, which in turn can be reached from the Calvin homepage.

To access JSTOR, a student can go the Hekman Library webpage, click on “Databases” and select JSTOR from the list of databases that will be given. After the next screen comes up, “Enter JSTOR,” and “Search JSTOR” should be selected. Eventually this type of program may be accessed through “E-Journals,” but that part of the webpage is not yet quite ready. JSTOR and the other databases on this website can only be used on-campus.