Now Available: 1924 Public Domain Day Collections
Statement of Values and Code of Conduct Task Force Call for Nominations Due January 27
NEW for 2020: Mapping the Elephant: Member-to-Member Webcasts
What You Want to Know: HathiTrust Staff Answer Your Questions
The HTRC Workshop Series Returns for Spring 2020
Top 10 Titles of 2019
ALA Midwinter: Come See Us
Featured Copyright Reviewer: Edward Kip Hannan
Your Perspective: HathiTrust’s Shared Print Program
December Website Updates
Now Available: 1924 Public Domain Day Collections
This month, HathiTrust opened more than 45,000 items in the collection originally published in 1924. All of these are viewable in the U.S., and some globally. A second collection of 27,000+ titles newly opened to the world includes items published before 1899 in Canada or Australia, or before 1879 in other non-U.S. locations.
With thousands of contributions from member libraries, HathiTrust is uniquely positioned to increase public access to these items available in its digital repository and to preserve these items for access long into the future. See the complete 1924 collections:
Newly Opened Worldwide January 2020
Statement of Values and Code of Conduct Task Force Call for Nominations Due January 27
The HathiTrust Board has decided to extend the call for nominations to the HathiTrust Statement of Values and Code of Conduct Task Force (SVCC Task Force) to Monday, January 27. The Task Force will begin work in February 2020 and anticipates work concluding in the fall.
We would like this group of individuals to represent the range of perspectives within the HathiTrust membership at large. Having a diverse group develop the Statement of Values and Code of Conduct underscores HathiTrust's commitment to include many voices and perspectives in our work together. We encourage nominations from people of color; non-traditional leaders; people from traditionally underrepresented groups; and from representatives of small, liberal arts colleges and universities.
Self-nominations are welcome and nominations may also be submitted by Member Representatives, Primary Contacts, or other members of the HathiTrust community.
Please complete the online nomination form by January 27.
NEW for 2020: Mapping the Elephant: Member-to-Member Webcasts
Beginning later this month, HathiTrust members will have an opportunity to hear first-hand how HathiTrust is making a difference in the libraries and academic communities of fellow members, and in the collective collection.
Mapping the Elephant, a webcast series by HathiTrust members, for HathiTrust members, involves member presenters discussing an aspect of HathiTrust that has had an impact on their library, research, teaching, or institutional mission. With efforts spanning the preservation of and access to 17+ million digitized items to managing North America’s largest Shared Print Monograph Program, HathiTrust enables its members to do more and be more than any single academic or research library.
The name, Mapping the Elephant, is inspired by an Indian tale in which six blind men have the task of describing an elephant. Each touches a different part and describes the animal from that reference point: the trunk, a tusk, an ear, a leg, the stomach, and the tail. All parts of the same Elephant.
The Elephant is many things to many people, with each part constituting the whole. Mapping the Elephant allows you to hear what HathiTrust means to individual member libraries and how members use or incorporate HathiTrust into their own institution.
If you have an idea for a topic to present, pass it along to Jessica Rohr, jbelle@hathitrust.org.
Registration for Mapping the Elephant webcast series events is required and is open to both members and non-members. Webcasts will also be recorded and posted to the HathiTrust YouTube Channel.
Wednesday, January 29 at 2:00pm EST / 11:00am PST: Hidden in Plain Sight: The Public Domain of the 20th Century, Greg Cram, Associate Director, Copyright and Information Policy, New York Public Library
Wednesday, February 12 at 2:00pm EST / 11:00am PST: Expanding Access through Collaboration: Stanford, Yale, and Copyright Review, Daniel Dollar, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources, Yale University Library
Tuesday, February 25 at 3:00pm EST / 12:00pm PST: Magnifying Value: A Look At Hathitrust Through A Preservation Lens, Andrew Hart, Preservation Librarian, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Tuesday, March 10 at 3:00pm EST / 12:00pm PST: TRAIL: how a grassroots digitization effort became the Hathi Trust’s 24th largest content contributor, Mel DeSart, Head, Engineering Library and Head, Mathematics Research Library at the University of Washington & current Chair of TRAIL and Sinai Wood, Government Documents Librarian at Baylor University and Coordinator of TRAIL’s Collections Working Group.
Wednesday, March 25 at 2:00pm EST / 11:00am PST: Success with HTRC Workshop at McGill Library, Joseph Hafner, Associate Dean, Collection Services, McGill University Library
Image: The life of an elephant, by S. Eardley-Wilmot; illustrated by Iris Eardley-Wilmot.
London, E. Arnold, 1912.
What You Want to Know: HathiTrust Staff Answer Your Questions
During the registration process for the 2019 Member Meeting, Driving and Supporting Change in the Research Ecosystem, HathiTrust asked future attendees, “Based on the theme, what question would you like answered at the meeting about HathiTrust's work towards "Driving and Supporting Change?" While we addressed many attendees’ questions during the meeting, the range of interests was too broad to allow adequate attention to answers during the meeting.
In December, HathiTrust staff compiled responses to these questions in a report, which covers everything from international membership and diversification of the collection, to ROI and IIIF, repository infrastructure and HathiTrust relevance to open scholarship.
Read What You Want to Know: HathiTrust Staff Answer Your Questions report online or download a PDF.
P.S. Save the date! The 2020 member meeting will be on Thursday, October 22, at the Marriott Chicago O’Hare. The Board of Governors and Program Steering Committee will each meet on Wednesday, October 21.
The HTRC Workshop Series Returns for Spring 2020
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HTRC wrapped up its fall workshop series with an event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in early December. The series also included workshops at the University of Florida, West Virginia University, and McMaster University. Thank you to all the hosts!
Each training event lasted 1.5 days, with a full day workshop for librarians and a half day workshop for researchers. They covered the tools and data for text data mining from the HathiTrust Research Center. Following one workshop, an attendee provided feedback that, “I had heard of a lot of HTRC resources but didn't really understand what they were. I have a much clearer picture of these now.”
In total, 117 learners participated in the fall series. This includes 24 librarians who opted to join a cohort of HTRC trainers. They will receive ongoing resources as a part of this train-the-trainer program in order to support HTRC-involved research on their campuses.
The instructors are continually working to improve the materials and were happy that one attendee reported, “For someone with little to no previous experience with these tools, the workshop was very helpful and we were guided through the material in a way that made it easy to understand.”
The workshop series will continue in spring 2020 with workshops at the University of Iowa, Southern Methodist University, University of Colorado, and Princeton University. Registration will open in late January.
Learn more about the series here: https://www.hathitrust.org/htrc_workshops
Top 10 Titles of 2019
Early in 2019, many publications began reporting on a storied collection that scholars had long thought was lost. The illustrated manuscript, depicting botanical life in Cuba during the 19th century, had surfaced in the special collections at Cornell University during the digitization process in 2018 (see article in Cornell Chronicle). The three-volume set, Specimens of the plants and fruits of the island of Cuba, by Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft, was the most-viewed item in the HathiTrust collection in 2019.
Specimens of the plants and fruits of the island of Cuba, Vol. 1, by Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft
See the complete 2019 Top Ten List
ALA Midwinter: Come See Us
Heather Weltin, HathiTrust’s Shared Print Program Officer, will be at ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia, January 24 through January 28. She has dedicated time to meet with you and hear your thoughts about HathiTrust and our Programs, and to answer your questions! If you are interested in meeting, please send an email to feedback@issues.hathitrust.org and we will be in touch to schedule a time.
Featured Copyright Reviewer: Edward Kip Hannan
Years working in a library: 5
HathiTrust start date: July 2015
Review statistics: 2,523 total reviews; 1,504 public domain
“Between working the previous 28 years in television production at Hollywood Park Racetrack (where I eventually became a historian, archivist and curator of the racetrack’s film, video and photo archive) and being a music lover, collector, and researcher since the age of 11, I believe I have probably developed plenty of the skills and tenacity required to perform library work and research. My experiences working with HathiTrust and copyright review have been both challenging and rewarding. I love the detective work and ‘the search’ involved. I strive for achieving the highest percentage validation rate possible and enjoy the fact that I’m helping contribute to the great task of getting works into the public domain for future access, research and scholarship. Thank you for the opportunity!”
Your Perspective: HathiTrust’s Shared Print Program
By Kathy A. Parsons, Head, Access Services Department
Iowa State University Library became a HathiTrust member in 2013. One component of our mission and vision statements is providing access to and use of high-quality resources. By being a member of HathiTrust, we are meeting that touchstone for our institution.
Materials in the HathiTrust Digital Library are used by researchers in all disciplines from Engineering to Literature, from Design to Animal Science, and so much more. Librarians make use of materials in HathiTrust when working with students and researchers to locate needed resources that are not available in our collections. Our Extension and Outreach staff, who are located across 99 counties, are able to locate information for Iowans.
Over the past two years, we have participated in the HathiTrust Shared Print Program. We have committed to retain print copies of titles that members have digitized and contributed to HathiTrust. This participation ensures long-term access to the analog version of the digital copy not only for our clientele, but globally.
December Website Updates
In December 2019, we added two new features to the HathiTrust Digital Library. They include:
Labels that describe various buttons in the book reader
“View HathiTrust MARC Record” button added to all catalog records
HathiTrust Staff on the Road
HathiTrust staff will be attending the following events. Please contact us if you wish to meet us at any of these events!
ALA Midwinter, Philadelphia, PA. January 24–28, 2020 — Mike Furlough, Heather Weltin
News or Research to Share?
If you or a patron at your institution has news to share regarding a publication, presentation, grant, or research underway related to HathiTrust, we’d love to hear about it. Please share with Jessica Rohr, member engagement and communications specialist, at jbelle@hathitrust.org.