HathiTrust provides a baseline of access tools for content in the repository and works with participating libraries to define, prioritize, and develop other tools and services. HathiTrust has also elaborated open service definitions (APIs) to make it possible for participating libraries to develop other secure access mechanisms.
Visit the Using the Digital Library Help Page for frequently asked questions about accessing and using HathiTrust.
See our Resources and Guides page for guides on using the digital library.
Bibliographic Search
Bibliographic searching (title, author, subject, ISBN, publisher, and year of publication) of the HathiTrust Digital Library is available through the primary catalog search box on the home page.
Global searching
HathiTrust offers full-text search across all items in the repository (including public domain and in copyright works) The portal to full-text search can be reached at http://www.hathitrust.org. More information about our efforts in this area can be found at http://www.hathitrust.org/large_scale_search and on the Large-Scale Search Blog.
PageTurner
Individual volumes (when confirmed to be in the public domain) can be viewed and searched through a page turner mechanism. Pages are rendered as native browser files, PDFs, and OCR text. Technical details about how the PageTurner functions are available at HathiTrust PageTurner.
Collection builder
The Collection Builder provides the ability for end-users and collection development staff to create and “publish” virtual collections of volumes held in the repository. See the Using the Digital Library help page for more information.
Access mechanisms for users with print disabilities
The University of Michigan has developed a mechanism to support additional access for users with print disabilities. HathiTrust will work with participating libraries to design and implement a generalized version (i.e., a version that works with multiple institutions). See HathiTrust Accessibility for more information.
APIs
Please see Data Availability and APIs.
Additional Searching Options
We have made it possible for institutions to load bibliographic records for HathiTrust materials into their own catalogs. Libraries are thus able to make full-text volumes from HathiTrust available through their local catalogs. Several institutions that have already done this are listed below. Instructions on how to load bibliographic records are available on the Data Availability and APIs page.
- The University of Michigan loads all records for HathiTrust into Mirlyn, its library catalog. It is possible to restrict a search in Mirlyn to materials in HathiTrust using the HathiTrust facet in the catalog.
- The University of Chicago Library adds records for public domain materials into their discovery system, Lens.
- Johns Hopkins University has embedded links to books from several sources, including HathiTrust, Google Book Search, and the Internet Archive, into their online catalog. See http://bibwild.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/umlaut-digital-book/ for an explanation of how it works.
- Records from HathiTrust and Project Gutenberg are available through the catalog of The National Library of Australia. HathiTrust records are also searchable through the National Library of Australia's Trove service.
- Indiana University Libraries links to all HathiTrust content through the HathiTrust API. You can find HathiTrust content by searching their online catalog, IUCat.
- Public Domain HathiTrust volumes are now available through the Prospector Union Catalog, serving 23 academic, public, and special libraries in Colorado and Wyoming.
- As of October 2009, HathiTrust records are available in the Ball State University Catalog.
- Public Domain records can be found in the catalog of the TriUniveristy Group of Libraries (TUG), a collaborative initiative of the University of Guelph, the University of Waterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier University.
- Boston College loads public domain records from HathiTrust's OAI feed into its Holmes discovery system.
- Project Bamboo is using the HathiTrust Data API as part of the infrastructure, tools, and services it is building to support digital scholarship across multiple large-scale digital collections of text. For more information contact Bill Parod (bill-parod@northwestern.edu) or Tim Cole (t-cole3@illinois.edu).
In addition, the following are examples of tools others are creating using the HathiTrust API and HathiTrust metadata files (described on the Data Availability and APIs page.
- Experimental Search: http://infomotions.com/mbooks/
- Experimental Search: http://roytennant.com/proto/hathi/
- Experimental Search: http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/db/hathi/
- OCLC Search in a Library feature support for HathiTrust: http://worldcat.org/devnet/blog/2008/12/support_hathitrustorg_in_xoclc.html