Working Groups and Committees

HathiTrust employs a number of committees, working groups, and task forces. Some of these are standing committees and have long-term appointments, while working groups and task forces are typically devoted to finite tasks with a specific timeline. In general, working groups are established either by the Executive Director, or by the Program Steering Committee. View past working groups and committees.

Established by Board of Governors

• Statement of Values and Code of Conduct Task Force (December 2019) This group will develop a Statement of Values and Code of Conduct based on intentions set forth in Strategic Directions 2019-2023 to guide activities and behaviors in HathiTrust-sponsored activities.

Established by Executive Director

• Federal Documents Advisory Committee (August 2016): 
  Makes recommendations regarding implementation of the U.S. Federal Documents Program. Preceded by the earlier Government Documents Initiative Planning and Advisory Group.
• Shared Print Advisory Committee (July 2016):
  Recommends policies and procedures to establish and sustain the HathiTrust Shared Print Program. Preceded by the earlier HathiTrust Print Monographs Archive Planning Task Force.
• User Support Team (March 2011): 
  Responds to inquiries of all kinds received through HathiTrust's public email address at support@hathitrust.org and "Feedback" links on user interfaces. 

Established by Program Steering Committee

• Community Metadata Strategy Task Force (November 2019 - June 2021):
  Develops strategy for member-contributed metadata in light of the broader community metadata ecosystem.
• Digital Collection Strategy Working Group (September 2019):
  Advances the strategic work of the Program Steering Committee and HathiTrust’s operations around the digital collection. Preceded by the earlier Collections Committee. 
• Metadata Sharing Policy Task Force (August 2019):
  Continues the work of the Metadata Policy, Strategy, Use and Sharing Advisory Group (MUSAG) on developing the HathiTrust Policy on Metadata Sharing and Use, which was approved by the HathiTrust Board of Governors in June 2019, to create a sharing policy to address each type of HathiTrust metadata.
• User Engagement Task Force (October 2019):
  Considers ways that HathiTrust can better understand user needs; considers issues related to users’ engagement with HathiTrust collections and services; and makes recommendations to improve HathiTrust support for member libraries in engaging users.