Limitations of the Study

These data represent a snapshot of faculty response to JSTOR at an extremely early stage in the evolution of the JSTOR system. In the spring of 1996, JSTOR had been available to the five-college faculty for less than six months, while at Michigan, the system had not yet been officially announced to faculty. Therefore, the results probably underestimate eventual use of the mature JSTOR system. Further, as a survey study, self-reports of use were crude compared to measures that could have been derived from actual behavior. For example, it was intended to match use reports with automated usage statistics from the JSTOR Web servers, but the usage statistics proved too unreliable. Another problem was that the survey contained no items on the frequency of traditional journal use. Therefore, it is unknown whether the low use of JSTOR reported by the faculty reflected dissatisfaction with the technology or simply a low base rate for journal use. Finally, the faculty at Michigan and at the five colleges were atypical in the extent of their access to the Internet and in the modernity of their computing equipment. Faculty with older computers and slower network links would probably be even less likely to use JSTOR.