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MIT Libraries Receive Mellon Foundation Grant to Develop Archive for Dynamic E-Journals

Ruth K. Seidman
Communications Coordinator, MIT Libraries
rks@mit.edu, 617-253-5686
May 30, 2001

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $145,000 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries to plan the development of an archive of dynamic electronic journals, those newly emerging scholarly websites that provide a broad range of dynamic content.

Ann J. Wolpert, Director of Libraries at MIT, said: "Digital sustainability is the next great challenge for research libraries. It is especially important to begin resolving the archiving issues that are inherent in these multifaceted, dynamic tools while they are still evolving."

An example of this new species of scholarly publishing is the MIT Press' Cognet, launched in September 2000, to create a community for researchers and scholars in cognitive and brain sciences. Other scholarly publishers, such as Columbia University Press and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), have created similar dynamic publications in an environment that is experimental and evolving.

Working with publisher partners, the MIT Libraries will explore and assess possible strategies and technologies, and will plan a model for a safe repository for this new form of scholarly communication.