Electronic resources: Library of Congress Quarterly Journal available online

The full archive of the Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress is now accessible electronically through JSTOR (Journal Storage), a not-for-profit shared digital library.

Established by Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish (1939-1944), the Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress includes scholarly articles about special collections and new collections acquired by the Library from 1943 through 1983.

In his introduction to the first issue, dated July-September 1943, Librarian MacLeish described the new journal as "a work of cooperative scholarship" aimed primarily at bringing the collections and programs of the Library to the attention of Congress, the government and the American people. American poet and critic Allen Tate served as the Quarterly Journal’s first editor during his tenure as Consultant in Poetry.

MacLeish appointed Robert Penn Warren to be poetry consultant and editor of the Quarterly Journal on July 23, 1944. At the end of Warren’s term in 1945, the editorship transferred to Library of Congress staff, with oversight by the Publishing Office. For 40 years the journal systematically emphasized new acquisitions in all of the Library’s departments. Many of the journal’s descriptions of individual items and collections are unsurpassed. The Quarterly Journal ceased publication in 1983.

Established in 1995, JSTOR provides access to archival and current issues of more than 1,400 scholarly journals across more than 50 academic disciplines. To date, the service is accessible to more than 7,000 institutions—universities, secondary schools, libraries, museums, government and nonprofit research groups—in more than 150 countries.