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RR 2011/301
HathiTrust Digital Library
HathiTrust
URL: www.hathitrust.org
Last visited April 2011
Free version with partial full-text; participation cost varies according to institution size and type of contribution
Keywords Digital libraries, Electronic media
Review DOI 10.1108/09504121111168389
HathiTrust started in 2008 from the association of 13 universities with the general goal to digitize, preserve and provide access to international resources from collections held by these institutions. From this original goal, other institutions have joined, making their own collections and resources available to enhance and preserve the Digital Library. There are now more than 50 partners involved with HathiTrust and are always looking to increase the collection and membership.
According to the HathiTrust's own statistics, there are over 8.5 million volumes comprising books, articles and serials. The Digital Library's resources cover a wide range of topics from popular narrative to academic materials, including artifacts like government documents and archival items. There are primary documents stretching through history to modern times. These are collections compiled and digitized by member libraries. Happily, some of the resources fall within the public domain and are available to nonmember institutions or users.
Content is compiled by research libraries, Google Books digitization project, and the internet archive digitization initiative as well as local libraries. A linked list of active libraries and partners can be located on the front page. Participating libraries from the United States and Europe contribute to the cost of the Digital Library. These libraries and consortia have full access to the digitized resources. A library or institution can become a member through a combination of monetary and resource contribution. Guest users not affiliated with a participating institution can create a user name but with have limited access. Creating a user name...