By Chris Powell, Coordinator, Encoded Text Services, University of Michigan Library I've been building collections since the summer of 2008, when collection building functionality was added to HathiTrust's predecessor, MBooks. What started as a task to demonstrate the functionality and utility of the feature has turned into an ongoing fascination with stumbling onto a topic and seeing if I can locate material on that topic in HathiTrust. If there is intriguing material, I inevitably build a collection – generally a private one for my own use – but if there are enough titles and a reasona ..read more

Passing by Nella Larsen. New York, A. A. Knopf, 1929. (Image credit: IMDB)  With the Netflix release of the 2021 movie based on the book, the novel Passing soared to the top of the list in the HathiTrust collection. Passing by Nella Larsen Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalog. Spring 1922 (no.144) Quicksand by Nella Larsen America is in the heart, a personal history by Carlos Bulosan Sears, Roebuck and Company. Spring 1910 (no.120) American Government by Mirya Holman, and Timothy O. Lenz War is a racket by Smedley D. Butler The Papyrus Ebers by H. Joachim, translated from ..read more

Authored by: Digital Collection Strategy Working Group (DCSWG) During HathiTrust’s inaugural Community Week in October 2020, the Digital Collection Strategy Working Group (DCSWG) hosted two facilitated conversations to explore member perspectives on issues related to the content of the HathiTrust Digital Library (HTDL), including diversity and representation in collections, real and perceived barriers to contributing content to HathiTrust, and potential approaches to identifying and addressing collection gaps in the HTDL. During the sessions, several participants highlighted their library ..read more

May 13, 2021 With the onset of the pandemic, many member librarians found themselves working remotely for the first time. While some work easily translated to a new virtual reality, other work did not, and those teams and individuals found themselves turning to creative solutions to continue the important work of their library. Leigh Billings, Metadata Management Librarian at the University of Michigan Library (HathiTrust member since 2008), discovered a way to continue a project that had previously relied on interaction with physical volumes. She and others at the UM Library used digital acce ..read more

 In anticipation of the National Archives releasing the Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950 on April 1, 2022, we are highlighting a new collection curated from reports available in HathiTrust, the U.S. Census of Population: 1950. We expect that the 2022 release of the head of household primary source records will generate tremendous public interest in the census, and this collection of published census volumes in HathiTrust offers a complementary and equally rich insight on the United States at the beginning of a pivotal decade. Collection Description HathiTrust contains many d ..read more

Contributed by Heather Weltin, Shared Print Program Officer   “We are stronger and better when working together in most things, especially in preserving resources in the future.” - discussion attendee At the end of August 2020, HathiTrust began a process to gather feedback from our then 77 retention libraries regarding their views and opinions about our Shared Print Program. The goal was not only to learn about satisfaction levels, but to also discuss and identify potential new services and enhancements for our program. Our assessment was conducted through a survey of our retention librar ..read more

By HathiTrust Federal Documents Advisory Committee Are you now faced with the difficult path of continuing your scholarly work remotely? Have a research question involving federal government information? Or just looking for interesting reading? During the current health emergency when many libraries are closed, HathiTrust’s U.S. Federal Documents Collection remains open for use, with resources addressing government response to pandemics throughout U.S. history.  What Can You Find in the Collection? The HathiTrust U.S. federal documents collection is a “library at web scale,” digitized vol ..read more

By  Kristina Hall, Copyright Review Program Manager, HathiTrust Greg Cram, Associate Director of Copyright and Information Policy, New York Public Library   Since 2008 the HathiTrust Copyright Review Program has been researching hundreds of thousands of books to find ones that are in the public domain and can be opened for view in the HathiTrust Digital Library. Over the past 11 years, 168 people across North America have worked together for a common goal: the ability to share public domain works from our libraries. As of September 2019, the HathiTrust Copyright Review Program has performed co ..read more

HathiTrust Shared Print Program - From Task Force Recommendations to Today  By Heather Weltin, HathiTrust Shared Print Program Officer Since its start in 2016, the HathiTrust Shared Print Program has stayed true to its goals of ensuring preservation of print and digital collections by linking the two, to reduce overall costs of collection management for HathiTrust members, and to catalyze national/continental collective management of collections, all of which were identified as major goals in the Task Force Report. Today, HathiTrust member libraries have committed to retain almost 18 million m ..read more

Six months into the first year of implementing Strategic Directions 2019-2023, I want to share some highlights and take a look at where we are headed in the next six months. HathiTrust’s Strategic Directions, 2019-2023, reinforces our commitment to digital preservation and access, to our role as stewards of the cultural record, our interdependent success as libraries, and to our collective work to support this mission. The specific investments and actions we are undertaking in 2019 align with the plan’s overarching objectives to Transform, Enhance, and Empower. Between January 2019 and June 2 ..read more