JSTOR stewardship initiative passes 50-participant milestone
JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services has announced that more than 50 institutions are now participating in its charter program, a milestone for the community-led initiative as it enters its second phase of development.
Launched in March 2025, the charter program brings together libraries, archives and cultural institutions to help shape technologies designed to enhance the discovery, access, impact and long-term stewardship of digital collections.
The cohort now includes institutions from 22 US states and four countries, representing a broad range of organisational types and collection environments. Participants include ten Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members, twelve R1 universities, ten institutions from the Oberlin Group, two campuses of the City University of New York, two community colleges and six nonprofit and cultural heritage organisations.
According to JSTOR, the diversity of the cohort is central to the programme’s objectives. By involving institutions with different levels of staffing, technical capacity and collection profiles, the initiative aims to ensure that stewardship infrastructure is developed in ways that reflect the needs of the wider community.
Participants contribute through working groups, prototype testing, peer-learning activities and regular discussions. Institutions involved in the programme have also shared lessons from the initiative through presentations at events such as the Charleston Conference, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) annual meeting and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), as well as through papers, reports and poster sessions.
“The milestone of reaching over fifty charter participants reflects real demand for a different model of modern infrastructure: nonprofit, community-led, grounded in a sustainable fee structure, and designed for scale, purpose, and long-term stewardship,” said Roger Schonfeld, Managing Director, JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services.
“But what matters more than the number is what this community represents: institutions of different sizes, capacities, and geographies choosing to work together at a critical moment for distinctive collections. AI is changing how research and discovery happen, and, with distinctive collections needed more now than ever, libraries and archives need ways to engage with that change responsibly, thoughtfully, and quickly. The charter program gives our community a way to build the shared infrastructure and practices needed to bring these collections into wider use.”
For participating institutions, the programme is also creating opportunities to explore the role of artificial intelligence in stewardship and discovery while maintaining professional oversight.
“Being part of the charter community has reinforced my belief that meaningful innovation happens best through collaboration,” said Jeehyun Davis, University Librarian at American University.
“At a time when libraries face increasing demands, limited resources, and rapid technological change, this nonprofit, community-driven model provides a valuable space for peer institutions to learn from one another and share practical experiences. Together, we are shaping responsible approaches to AI that strengthen organisational capacity while keeping professional expertise and human judgment at the centre of the work.”
JSTOR said the next phase of the programme will continue to focus on developing shared tools, practices and infrastructure that help libraries and archives make distinctive digital collections more discoverable and usable in an evolving research environment.