HathiTrust began in 2008 as a collaboration of the universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (now the Big Ten Academic Alliance) and the University of California system to establish a repository to archive and share their digitized collections. HathiTrust quickly expanded to include additional members and to provide them with an easy means to archive their digital content.
The initial focus has been on preserving and providing access to digitized book and journal content from the member library collections. This includes both copyrighted and public domain materials digitized by Google, the Internet Archive, and Microsoft, as well as through local initiatives. The member libraries aim to build a comprehensive archive of published literature from around the world and to develop shared strategies for managing and developing their digital and print holdings in a collaborative way.
HathiTrust primarily serves the communities of its member libraries and institutions (faculty, staff, students), but the materials in HathiTrust are available to all to the extent permitted by law and contracts, providing the published record as a public good to users around the world.
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