The primary benefits of partnership are cost-effective long-term preservation and access services for digitized content:
- Long-term commitments on digital content facilitate decision-making about digitization efforts and print collections management.
- For institutions with content to deposit, participation enables immediate preservation and access services, including bibliographic and full-text searching of the materials within the larger HathiTrust corpus, reading and download of content where available, and the ability to build public or private collections of materials.
- Whether depositing content or not, partners have full viewing and downloading abilities for public domain materials and materials for which we have received permissions, as well as specialized access to public domain and in-copyright materials for users who have print disabilities.
- We also facilitate other lawful uses of in copyright such as those afforded by US copyright law: Section 108 (print replacement copies, digital access to applicable works) and fair uses of in-copyright materials. Access to in-copyright materials, including for users who have print disabilities, is subject to laws of the country where the user is located. See Access to Out-of-Print and Brittle or Missing Items and Accessibility for more information.
- We encourage participation in initiatives and resources geared toward shared collection development and management (e.g., copyright review work, de-duplication, collaboration withother organizations and initiatives around digitization), participation in governance and partner initiatives, and defining future directions of the shared library.
In general, institutions gain the most from membership that have significant amounts of content to deposit, or where there is significant overlap between the institution's print collections and the digital collections in HathiTrust.
Yale University Library has made available its working group report on the costs and benefits of membership in HathiTrust, which we recommend for detailed analysis.
Our Partnership Checklist lists the items and information required for partnership. In July of 2015, HathiTrust Staff hosted a webcast explaining the benefits of HathiTrust membership. View it here.
Content Storage
HathiTrust is engineered to provide efficient and effective storage for the terabytes of digital materials contributed by partnering libraries. Its robust technological infrastructure facilitates a new means of collaboration and resource-sharing among institutions of scholarly research. Read more about HathiTrust Technology.
Preservation Services
HathiTrust provides secure, reliable, long-term preservation for deposited materials. HathiTrust partners are committed to compliance with current standards and review process for digital preservation. See Preservation for more information.
Access Services
Bibliographic and full text search are available for all volumes in HathiTrust. Public domain volumes are freely accessible to the public and can be downloaded in their entirety with authentication by persons affiliated with partner institutions. See Searching, Reading, and Building Collections and Data Availability and APIs for more information about access to HathiTrust and development APIs. For information about authentication to HathiTrust, please see Shibboleth Login.
Availability of Bibliographic Data
HathiTrust offers a variety of methods for getting repository records into your catalog. See Data Availability and APIs for more information.
Governance
Partnership in HathiTrust offers members institutions the ability to shape the development of new services through participation in HathiTrust working groups and committees, and HathiTrust Governance.