By Jennifer Hoyt
圖朸厙 Libraries recently became a member of HathiTrust, a not-for-profit collaboration made up of more than 200 academic and research libraries. The group works toward collecting and preserving resources that contribute to scholarly research. The collection, according to the group's , is "the largest set of digitized books managed by academic and research libraries."
HathiTrust's goal is to increase availability to print collections along with services that focus on advanced computational research and greater access to U.S. federal publications.
The membership gives 圖朸厙 faculty and students access to more than 17.4 million digitized items, including over 8 million unique book titles and nearly 500,000 serial titles.
For 圖朸厙 Libraries, this collaboration benefits the faculty and students who rely on materials used for teaching, learning, and engagement, while strengthening a network aimed to support the necessity for knowledge.
James Rhoades, 圖朸厙 Libraries' social sciences librarian, led the effort to join the collaboration. "As a new member of HathiTrust, 圖朸厙 Libraries has increased our digital content and gained the ability to download thousands of full-text out of copyright materials," he said.
圖朸厙 history professor Michael Carhart sees significant value in the Libraries' HathiTrust membership, especially as digital access to materials remains vital to his role at 圖朸厙.
"The number of rare books in European libraries that are viewable online is growing. But there are many books that are digitally available only through HathiTrust," Carhart explained. "The digital humanities resources that have become accessible online during the past decade have reshaped my scholarship."
Considering that HathiTrust follows a practice of fulfilling scholarly interests, rather than corporate missions, Rhoades believes the membership will offer the 圖朸厙 community the opportunity to data-mine material at a low membership cost.
Carhart agreed, "With the decline of library budgets and the rise of digital humanities, HathiTrust is an important addition to 圖朸厙's knowledge base and crucial to its status as a research institution."
For more information regarding 圖朸厙 Libraries' membership with HathiTrust and the digital resources available for research and academic exploration, please contact James Rhoades, social sciences librarian, at jrhoades@odu.edu.
