From: Kevin Guthrie <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, January 28, 2016

To our creators, partners, and users:

We are writing to you as a valued member of our community to share the
good news that Artstor, the nonprofit provider of the Artstor Digital
Library of images and the Shared Shelf platform for cataloguing and
digital asset management, will now operate under the umbrella of its
fellow nonprofit ITHAKA, the organization that currently operates
three other services: JSTOR, Portico and Ithaka S+R.  As you may know,
Artstor, ITHAKA and JSTOR were all created as mission-driven nonprofit
organizations with the initial support of The Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation and with similar aims. This strategic alignment is a
natural fit for us all.

Artstor and JSTOR both work with libraries and museums, content
partners and researchers to build and preserve shared academic
resources. Now, with Artstor and JSTOR both under the umbrella of
ITHAKA, a recognized leader in advancing technologies that strengthen
the work of educational institutions while lowering their costs, the
two will be better able to collaborate in developing new tools and
sharing resources.

Where JSTOR has emphasized textual materials, Artstor has supported
the visual. Where JSTOR has had its greatest impact as a resource for
research, Artstor has served the field primarily as a teaching and
learning resource. Together, we have wonderful opportunities for
combining our capabilities and collections, so they can be discovered,
contextualized, and advanced in ways that further empower researchers,
teachers, and students.

Moreover, the relationships that are central to Artstor's work as a
trusted third party, bridging the interests of those who create images
and those who use images, will remain intact in this new strategic
alliance with ITHAKA, which shares Artstor’s focus and history of
balancing the needs of various constituents.

In this time of great change for educational and cultural
institutions, we have a duty to make the most of our resources to
benefit research and learning everywhere. The strategic alliance of
Artstor with ITHAKA allows us to do just that, strengthening our
organizations while benefiting the thousands of institutions we serve.
We look forward to continuing to work with you as we have done to
date—only better.

Sincerely,

James and Kevin

James Shulman
President, Artstor

Kevin Guthrie
President, ITHAKA