JSTOR
Here at Sir John Lawes, we believe scholastic excellence is achieved in part through access to the best academic materials available. Thus, we have introduced JSTOR to every computer desktop — a peerless academic resource which revolutionizes student wider reading and research whilst complementing our school Library.
JSTOR is a shared digital library created in 1995 to help university and college libraries free up space on their shelves, save costs, and provide greater levels of access to more content than ever before. JSTOR currently includes a vast range of academic journals, dating back to the first volume ever published, along with thousands of other materials relevant for education.
The JSTOR Schools Collection exposes secondary school students to peer-reviewed scholarly research for the first time. It also helps teachers enrich their classrooms with key scholarly literature across more than 50 disciplines.
Aimed at Key Stage 5 and 4 students primarily, the JSTOR Schools Collection takes student research to a new level enabling them to access material in their subjects as well as ones they may be deciding to study at university. Students can use JSTOR for class work, homework, Controlled Assessments, coursework, wider reading outside the curriculum, Extended Project Qualifications (EPQs), UCAS preparation, Oxbridge, and university entrance interviews.
Students log in to the site with a user name and password. They can save JSTOR documents to their accounts and print them. In learning to use such a valuable site, which is hosted by most universities, students are also taught how to include citations from JSTOR and not unwittingly or deliberately fall into plagiarism.
Over 200 UK higher education institutions, and all Russell Group universities, subscribe to JSTOR and it is considered to be a core resource for a broad range of subject areas - from literature and history to biology and mathematics. It was also named "best overall database" by Library Journal in 2013. The JSTOR Secondary Schools Collection offers access to the full text of over 1,800 leading archival journals - a total of over 50 million pages! All four JSTOR primary source collections (including 19th Century British Pamphlets) are also part of the package. These collections include pamphlets, manuscripts, letters, oral histories, government documents, images, 3-D models, spatial data, type specimens, drawings, paintings, and more. Offering a clear and intuitive interface, and a wide range of search and personalisation options, the JSTOR Secondary Schools Collection is also a treasure trove of high quality citations and references.
“The content is so good! There’s a reason why every graduate student and most every undergraduate knows JSTOR if they know any research database, and its content. But now I can also say that the database will become known for its ease of use in searching, finding, and manipulating records.” Library Journal
The following websites give further information:
JSTOR tutorials are widely available on YouTube such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoGx2uxHWD4
We are planning to create our own.
JSTOR Daily - a new online magazine that offers a fresh take on our world. It draws connections between the stories you read about in your favorite news publications and the material housed on JSTOR.
Student testimonials:
“JSTOR has already , in a few weeks of Year 13, proved invaluable in all my subjects.”
“JSTOR is the greatest aid for detailed study and has vastly improved my subject knowledge and understanding.”
“JSTOR has helped me to find a wealth of information freely and conveniently. It has been, and will continue to be, a great aid for all of my subjects.”
