Aluka was launched in 2003 as one of Ithaka’s first incubated entities. Its mission is to create a digital library of scholarly resources from and about the developing world, as an aid for research and teaching worldwide. Aluka's initial focus is on Africa. An assumption of the Ithaka incubation process is that successful projects will eventually become independent or join larger, existing organizations serving the academic community. In mid-2008, the Ithaka and JSTOR Trustees approved Aluka becoming part of JSTOR.

In pursuit of this mission, Aluka partners with libraries, museums, archives, universities and other educational and cultural institutions around the globe to select and digitize a wide range of high-quality scholarly materials—ranging from archival documents, periodicals, books, reports, and reference works, to maps, oral histories, plant specimens, photographs, and high resolution three-dimensional models of cultural heritage sites. By aggregating these materials online, the Aluka collections link materials that are physically scattered and difficult to access, opening up new possibilities for research and teaching. The process of building and working with the collections also fosters international networks of students and researchers with similar interests, while Aluka’s web-based platform provides powerful tools for collaboration and information sharing. In some cases digitization also preserves materials that are in danger of being lost.