History Cooperative Frequently Asked Questions

1. 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 Journal of American History and the American Historical Review will be available electronically to members of the OAH and the AHA, as well as to institutions that subscribe to print versions.
   
   

2. OAH is one founder of the History Cooperative. Who are the others?
   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 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.
   
   

3. How can I access content?
   While many of the journals on www.historycooperative.org remain ungated, the JAH, the AHR, the William and Mary Quarterly, and the Western Historical Quarterly do require membership for electronic access. Individual OAH members receive access to the electronic full-text JAH as a benefit of membership. (Likewise, AHA members and WMQ subscribers receive access to the related electronic journal. Those who belong to OAH but not to AHA or WMQ can nevertheless search AHR tables of contents and article abstracts.) Scholars affiliated with institutions that subscribe to JAH, AHR, WMQ, or WHQ journals can access the History Cooperative through their campus networks.
   
   

4. What will this cost me?
   Full-text electronic access to the JAH and AHR is a benefit of societal membership. Access to the William and Mary Quarterly or the Western Historical Quarterly is a benefit of subscription to the paper journal.
   
   

5. If the Cooperative posts new issues only, how can I search back issues of JAH and AHR?
   If your institutional library participates in JSTOR (an electronic archive of about 100 "core journals"), you can search full text of all issues of JAH, AHR and the William and Mary Quarterly, beginning with Volume 1 of each, and going up to five years ago (1997). Individual users and non-affiliated institutions can still view complete tables of content here. 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.
   
   

6. 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 JAH, AHR, WMQ, or WhQ will receive access to the History Cooperative as a built-in benefit to their existing paper subscription, there is no incentive for librarians or the Cooperative to expend effort in negotiating consortial licenses.
      
      

7. How will the Cooperative's site expand to offer more online resources that are useful to me?
   In addition to fully searchable versions of the "paper" JAH and AHR 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 of more journals will be incorporated as well.
   
   

8. 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, the goal being to incorporate them as Associates. We currently have 21 journals in the collective:
   
   American Historical Review
   Common-place
   Environmental History
   Health and History
   The History Teacher
   Indiana Magazine of History
   Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association
   Journal of American History
   Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
   Journal of Social History
   Journal of World History
   Labour History
   Labour / Le Travail
   Law and History Review
   Massachusetts Historical Review
   Oral History Review
   Oregon Historical Quarterly
   Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
   Western Historical Quarterly
   William and Mary Quarterly
   World History Connected
   
   We expect to add 3-4 new journals in each subsequent year. 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.
   
   

9. 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. As a researcher, you will soon be able to select individual terms or sets of words from your chosen article and employ other search engines (Alta Vista, etc.) to broaden your search, not only to other content on the History Cooperative site, but also to other Web sites.
   
   

10. What if I want to print an article? Or save it to my disk?
    You can employ your chosen Web browser to perform either of these functions.
    
    

11. My brother-in-law is a history buff, but not a professional historian or OAH member. What if he wants to search the site for articles of specific interest?
    Nonsubscribers can purchase a research pass that will allow full access to the journals at the History Cooperative site.
    
    

12. Why have the OAH and AHA decided to work with Illinois and National Academy at this time?
    As Michael Grossberg (AHR editor) has recently observed, "This is a foundational moment, when we are thinking not only about what 'an article' might be, but also about what 'an association' might be. It is difficult to think in new ways by yourself; we hope it will be easier to do via collaboration."