AA goes E.

As of this past May, back issues of African Arts up to 2001 are available on the electronic archiving service JSTOR. Many of you are probably affiliated with an institution that subscribes to JSTOR and have access to the archive through your library. (If you do not, our distributor MIT Press will be making individual access to the African Arts back issues possible for an additional $25 to your annual print subscription to African Arts; see the MIT Press website for details, www.mitpressjournals.org.) We are extremely pleased to be part of JSTOR's offerings; it is both an indication of the high scholarly regard in which African Arts is held--for JSTOR only archives the journals that its research shows to be the leaders in their fields--and an invaluable resource to scholars around the world.

As of May 2006, JSTOR includes the complete runs of 765 journals--more than 3 million articles in 47 disciplines, dating back to, in some cases, the mid-seventeenth century. A total of 2,818 institutions in 104 countries subscribe to JSTOR, 1,517 of them in the US. There are more than 112 million accesses to JSTOR annually. African Arts is part of JSTOR's Arts and Sciences Complement collection. Their research shows that most people who use the archive do broad keyword searches, trawling for material not limited to a specific discipline. This means that researchers who may not even be aware of African Arts' existence may come upon articles relevant to their work through its archiving on JSTOR, thereby increasing the visibility of the journal and its authors. And once material is deposited in JSTOR, it becomes available for external linking through indexing on services such as ProQuest, Google, and crossref.org.

When JSTOR first approached us last summer, we took a look at their electronic reproduction of similar art history journals, as well as that of the online aggregators who already supply electronic access to African Arts for libraries. JSTOR's material was of far and away higher quality than that of any other service we checked. The technology JSTOR uses to create its pdfs binds the images to the page of text, so that it is difficult for images to be appropriated for someone else's use, safeguarding the photographer's rights. The high-resolution images, on a decent computer monitor, are almost as good as looking at the printed page; on a high-definition screen, they are amazing.

Our contract with JSTOR specifies a five-year "moving wall" for back issues, so that each year another volume of back issues will become available. JSTOR is committed to providing this archive in perpetuity, updating technology as necessary and preserving an archive of the print version as well, in case of some catastrophic failure. (Yes, it is nice to know that if electronic civilization as we know it ceases to function, the entire print run of African Arts will be preserved to inspire those tasked with rebuilding society from the ground up.) Since libraries that subscribe to JSTOR acquire packages of electronic archives, rather than individual journals, back issues of African Arts will become available to students and scholars at many more universities than before, not only in North America and Europe but also in the developing world.

JSTOR makes available to its journals the digital files they have made of the back issues, making it very easy to put together anthologies or readers of journal articles. The Society of American Archaeology has used this service to create readers for classroom use that retail for $25-40, significantly less expensive than many textbooks. African Arts is considering the possibility of creating such readers from our archives (the main problem at the moment is how to market and distribute such books). This could be extremely useful for professors who teach African art classes beyond broad surveys.

I recently attended a meeting of JSTOR-affiliated journals in New York City, where a wide range of topics relating to electronic publication of journals was discussed. JSTOR is one of several affiliated programs intended to foster the preservation of and access to scholarly work worldwide. As part of their mission, JSTOR waives its fees for access to its archives for universities in Africa as well as working with these institutions to ensure that they have adequate equipment and infrastructure to use the archive.

Its sister organization ARTstor, a database of images comparable to JSTOR's archive of journals, is in the process of establishing a program whereby sets of high-resolution images will be available for use in scholarly publications for writers affiliated with a subscribing library, for no charge and without the necessity of tracking down copyright holders to get permission to reproduce. Even though this program is not yet up and running, you might want to take a look at the material already on the site at www.ARTstor.org.

Yet another organization, Aluka, is engaged in a variety of projects in the developing world to ensure that their own archives and cultural material is preserved; their efforts have begun with a series of projects in Africa. One of these, the African Cultural Heritage and Landscapes project, will be the subject of an upcoming First Word. This project includes, among other tasks, laser scanning entire buildings to produce incredibly detailed, three-dimensional visual models of archaeological and architectural sites. Again, while all of this is technologically cutting-edge, they are also planning to provide a low-bandwidth version of their material so that scholars with less cutting-edge computers and Internet connections will still be able to use it.

JSTOR will ensure that African Arts' past is preserved electronically. What about its future? We are told from all fronts that the days of print journals in the libraries of academe are numbered. There is simply not enough room to store them all (thus, the founding of JSTOR). Libraries, which comprise about 50% of our subscribers, want electronic journals rather than printed magazines. Yet one of the delights of African Arts is its existence as a physical object, something that can be picked up and browsed through, its images appreciated for their own artistic quality as well as their usefulness for scholarly study. This is one way in which African Arts differs from the vast majority of scholarly journals. Nonetheless, there will probably come a day, we hope in the distant future, when African Arts will have to go completely electronic.

In the mean time, we are in discussion with MIT Press to provide an electronic version of the journal alongside the print version. We hope that we will be able to do this starting with the Spring 2007 issue: vol. 40, no. 1. Initially, the electronic version will be the same as the print, but we hope that as we grow accustomed to the new format, we will be able to offer enhanced electronic content. Rather than describing a mask being danced, with an accompanying still picture, an author can provide an actual video or audio clip. Certain kinds of new media art can be presented more effectively online than on a static page.

The electronic format may require some design changes in the print version, to make it easier to reformat the files that are used to print the journal for online presentation. We'd like to take this opportunity to make some other changes in the journal. For instance, several readers have suggested that we include authors' e-mail addresses so that they can contact them directly. Therefore, beginning in vol. 40, no. 1, we will include authors' e-mails unless they request otherwise. We also plan to flip the order of the book reviews and exhibition reviews so that more of the exhibition photos appear in the color section of the issue. We would like to begin featuring thumbnail pictures of the covers of books reviewed; our book review editor, Victoria Rovine, plans to assign review essays of several books together, which will allow the reviewer to develop and comment upon themes that cross volumes.

To complement the First Word column, we will introduce a Last Word feature, which will run on (take a wild guess) the last page of the issue. This column will be devoted to short personal experience narratives of life with African art: reminiscences of unusual or amusing occurrences in the field, the museum, the gallery, the class room; interactions with non-Africanists inside and outside the academy; moments of absurdity or emotion; in short, good little stories. The column can carry one, or at the most two photos, and we welcome submissions.

We are also interested in hearing from readers who have ideas for other changes to the journal. Things that could take advantage of electronic format would be especially appreciated, including thoughts about topics for anthologies/readers. As we progress into the Land of E-Publishing, we especially rely on your feedback to let us know how the process is going, the pluses and minuses of both the new issues available electronically on the MIT Press site and the back issues available through JSTOR. Send your thoughts and suggestions to [e-mail].