Now that the Google Books project is at a stand-still in adding full text books to the web, there is a group that continues the work of digitizing university library collections: HathiTrust. In light of Judge Chin’s rejection last year of the Google Books Amended Settlement Agreement, Authors Guild et al. v. Google, HathiTrust maintains its commitment to long-term digital preservation of library collections curated by generations of librarians at great research libraries around the world.
HathiTrust, the digital repository for the nation’s great research libraries, reached a major milestone this month, exceeding 10 million volumes in its digital collections. More than 2.7 million of these volumes are in the public domain, with viewing and downloading options available online. Major players include Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Duke, University of Michigan, and the University of California libraries. Cornell has contributed about 400,000 items to the digital collections.
You can search the 10 million plus volumes by keyword (e.g.: presidential AND campaign), by catalog record (e.g.: feminist jurisprudence), or through the unique collections compiled by users (e.g.: japan). Many items will be accessible instantly online. Ask the library for interlibrary loan of any items you identify that are not available in full text through HathiTrust. As always, we are happy to assist!
Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
