In response to COVID-19 library service disruptions, HathiTrust has taken an important step to open up copyrighted material in their digital library to member institutions with copies of those items in their physical collections. UC faculty, students, and staff at all ten University of California campuses now have access to digitized books in HathiTrust that represent UC’s print holdings. This emergency, temporary service nearly doubles UC’s access, to a total of more than 13 million digital volumes, including the 6.7 million digitized public domain volumes already available via HathiTrust.
To take advantage of this temporary expanded access
- Visit https://www.hathitrust.org and click the yellow “LOG IN” button.
- Select “University of California <your UC campus>” and log in using your campus credentials.
- Search the HathiTrust digital library to locate the item you wish to view.
- Click on the Temporary Access link at the bottom of the record to Check Out the item through the Emergency Temporary Access Service.
You will have 60 minutes of access to an in-copyright book during the session. If you remain active in the book during the session, access time will be extended. You may read the book online in an active session while using HathiTrust, but downloading is not permitted. This access model is intended to address the unique access needs of this moment while still protecting the author’s rights.
It is important to note that this is a temporary service. Emergency access will end when regular access to the UC Libraries’ physical collection is restored.
HathiTrust’s Top Three Tips for Users
- Log-in, Log-in, Log-in! Temporary Access books available from your library’s collection are available only when you log-in to HathiTrust using your normal institutional log-in and password.
- Check out an item only when you plan to use it. Each Temporary Access book has an initial check-out period of 60 minutes. If you remain active in the book during any session, access time will be extended. If you do not remain active, it will be released for use by other users on your campus.
- Use step-by-step instructions for computer/mobile access. Start here: https://www.hathitrust.org/ETAS-How-To
If you have questions or concerns, please submit them to feedback@issues.hathitrust.org.
This article was updated on May 28, 2020 to reflect a change in functionality for the ETAS service: ETAS library users no longer have the option to download pages while using a temporary access title. This change is consistent with HathiTrust’s policy of not enabling download of entire temporary access works. Nothing else has changed about the service, and UC students, faculty, and staff who log in may continue to view and read temporary access titles available via ETAS.
More on HathiTrust’s Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) from UC Libraries
- 4/2/20 Need a book from the UC Berkeley Library while we’re sheltering in place? Check here first
- 4/6/20 HathiTrust to the Rescue
- 4/9/20 UCLA Library Secures Access to Digitized Versions of UC-held Books
- Video 4/10/20: HathiTrust ETAS Introduction for UC Merced Library Users
- 4/10/20 HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service: Read Copyrighted Books for the Duration of the COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place Order
- 4/10/20 Online access to UCR’s books & more during COVID-19 closure