Bloggers vs. JSTOR: Complaints Provoke Interface Tweaks
Kerfuffle resolved in Internet timeBy David Rapp
Capping a controversy that recently became the talk of the blogs, ITHAKA, the not-for-profit organization behind the journal archive JSTOR, has rolled back one feature of JSTOR's recent interface update.
JSTOR's new default settings were set in such a way that searches automatically included results from every journal in the JSTOR collection, instead of only the modules to which a given library subscribes. At small libraries, this meant many results would not provide full text; furthermore, the new interface wouldn't support OpenURL links to direct patrons to free full-text versions.
A few influential library bloggers, including Meredith Farkas on August 24, complained vociferously about the change. The same day, Barbara Fister (a regular LJAN columnist) featured a guest blog post on the Association of College & Research Libraries' blog ACRLog taking JSTOR to task, written by Amy Fry, electronic resources coordinator at Bowling Green State University. Fister commented that the new interface "defaults to searching material your library doesn't have and offers new layers of confusion."
The complaints, however, appeared to work, as JSTOR representatives responded quickly: ITHAKA's Associate Director of Education & Outreach Kristen Garlock reached out and responded in blog comments, and on August 25, Kevin Guthrie, president of ITHAKA, issued a statement that they would be "changing the search default to search only content that is licensed by an institution." (They soon pushed the change up from September 6 to September 2.)
Guthrie also stated that OpenURL support was on their development schedule, though it would take "a significant amount of time for it to be available."
(Check out related posts by LJ bloggers Cheryl LaGuardia and the Annoyed Librarian.)
