Dear colleagues,

The challenges faced by the higher education community due to COVID-19 are deep and lasting. We are all affected and need to respond. At ITHAKA, our not-for-profit mission is to make access to knowledge and education more accessible for all. We have asked ourselves what it means to fulfill that mission during these difficult times and have discussed with our trustees creative ways we can respond. Through these discussions we decided to establish a $4 million fee relief program and to develop a range of expanded access offerings to help schools and universities that have had to rapidly pivot to online instruction.

Our expanded access offerings for JSTOR-participating institutions in response to COVID-19 include access to unlicensed JSTOR Archive and Primary Source collections as well as Artstor at no cost. Participation in these programs has been remarkable; to date this content has been accessed more than 24 million times by users at nearly 12,000 institutions.

With the support of our content contributors, we had initially extended this access to run through December 31, 2020. It is clear, however, that our community will need to rely heavily on online instruction beyond this semester and so the need for this expanded access remains. We have therefore decided, in consultation with our trustees, to extend access to unlicensed JSTOR collections and Artstor through June 30, 2021.

If your institution has already opted in to the JSTOR and/or Artstor access programs, you do not need to take any action. Participating institutions that have not yet opted in may still do so; please log in to your JSTOR library admin account to request expanded access.

In addition to continuing to provide access to unlicensed journal, image, and primary source collections through next June, we are also extending browser pairing through that time in order to make off-campus access easier for students and faculty. Remote access for public libraries will also be extended.

These are singularly challenging times. We hope, in providing complimentary access to these resources for 15 months, that we are helping colleges and universities meet the new demands you are facing in working to support your students and faculty. We welcome your ideas and suggestions for how we can continue to support the community, and we thank you for your ongoing support.

Rebecca Seger
VP, Institutional Participation and Strategic Partnerships

Kevin Guthrie
President