The History Cooperative

 

A 'Must-Have' Resource

For Your Library Patrons

 

 

Librarians, we need your help!

The History Cooperative is compiling a database of IP numbers for institutional subscribers to the AHR, the JAH, the William and Mary Quarterly, and the Western Historical Quarterly. If your library is currently receiving these journals, please ask your technical staff to submit your institutional IP using our online IP Registration Form. This will insure that you can continue to offer complete and uninterrupted online journal access to your patrons.

 

Where do I find the History Cooperative?

Go to www.historycooperative.org

 

What's the concept?

Four leaders in historical scholarship and cutting-edge technology have joined forces to create the premier resource for historians on the Web. For the first time, the full text of current issues of the American Historical Review and the Journal of American History will be available electronically to members of the OAH and the AHA, as well as to institutions that subscribe to print versions.

 

Who are the founders of the History Cooperative?

The American Historical Association publishes the American Historical Review, which includes scholarly articles and critical reviews of current publications in all fields of history.

The Organization of American Historians publishes the Journal of American History, the major scholarly journal on American history.

The University of Illinois Press is a leading publisher of historical scholarship, with such notable book series as Blacks in the New World, Women in American History, and the Working Class in American History.

The National Academy Press is the publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. NAP now offers more than 1000 books online.

 

Tell me more about the additional journals: which ones, when?

The founding members of the History Cooperative are working with the owners and editors of other history journals to incorporate them as Associates. Currently, we have 19 Associate journals:

The Cooperative will include both U.S. and international history journals; current limitations in software prevent us from giving priority to research in non-Roman alphabets. The goal is to provide a safe place for smaller history journals (association-based or not) to make the transition to electronic dissemination, as opposed to opting for an arrangement with a commercial provider or aggregator.

 

How will the Cooperative's site expand to offer more online resources?

In addition to fully searchable versions of the "paper" AHR and JAH issues, the site will offer:

  1. Extra material (audio clips, color illustrations) that elaborates on articles.

  2. Additional historical materials digitized from archives, documentary editions, etc.

  3. Additional journals full-text versions.

 

How can my patrons access content?

While many of the journals on www.historycooperative.org remain ungated and freely accessible, the JAH, the AHR, the William and Mary Quarterly, and the Western Historical Quarterly require societal membership or subscription for online journal access. Institutions that subscribe to JAH, AHR, WMQ, or WHQ will be able to offer access to the History Cooperative through their campus networks. This gating mechanism will be based upon IP number ranges so that library users can reach the site from their office computers as well as from library workstations. Individual AHA members will also receive access to the electronic full-text AHR as a benefit of membership. (Likewise, OAH members will receive access to JAH. Those who belong to AHA but not to OAH can nevertheless search JAH tables of contents and article abstracts.)

 

How can the History Cooperative afford to provide this service?

It's a new way of thinking about electronic access. Two key elements differentiate the History Cooperative from many other online resources:

  1. The subject-area focus, and the participation of the two largest and most prestigious learned societies in that subject area, mean that historians will exert a "demand pull" on the site. (Other publishers or aggregators must devote considerable staff time and advertising dollars to "supply push.")

  2. Because each institution that subscribes to AHR, JAH, or both will receive access to the History Cooperative for only a small additional fee, there is no incentive for librarians or the Cooperative to expend effort in negotiating consortial licenses.

 

What about the search engine?

The History Cooperative employs "open source" software, thereby insuring that other organizations can understand (and improve, and tailor) the search engine. Your patrons will be able to select individual terms or sets of words from their chosen article and employ other search engines to broaden the search, not only to other content on the History Cooperative site, but also to other Web sites. In addition to traditional keyword searching, the web site also offers a unique tool called the Search Builder that dynamically builds lists of frequently used words and phrases within a specific article. This list of important or "weighted" words and phrases can be used to conduct further searches across an article, full journal issue, or the complete content of the entire web site.

 

If the Cooperative posts new issues only, how can I search back issues of AHR?

If your library participates in JSTOR (an electronic archive of about 100 "core journals"), you can search full text of all issues of AHR and of JAH, beginning with Volume 1 of each, and going up to five years ago (1997). It is intended that, by 2004, as both the History Cooperative and JSTOR progress in their work, all issues of both journals will be available in searchable electronic form.

 

What will this cost our library?

Full-text access to the electronic journals is a benefit of membership.

 

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