Attendees at the 2024 HathiTrust Member Meeting learned about a new strategic project that staff are undertaking to expand modes of lawful access to in-copyright works, a key objective in our strategic vision. Over the past months, we’ve been planning and are now launching the first phase of a multi-year project to develop a resource sharing service (i.e., interlibrary loan, document delivery) using HathiTrust digital content. This exciting initiative has been a long time coming and one that members have frequently requested. We look forward to involving members throughout various stages of the work.
Our vision of a successful HathiTrust resource sharing service revolves around enabling member libraries to retrieve scans of chapters and articles from copyrighted texts in HathiTrust in cases where a member also holds a print copy in their collections. This will reduce the work that many interlibrary loan and document delivery units do to create their own scans for sharing with other libraries or their own patrons, which is an important consideration in a time of shrinking library budgets and reduced staffing.
Project Phases and Timeline
Our project plan and practices are based on service design principles (see callout box) because we want to build a service that meets the needs of both our member libraries and also their patrons.
PHASE 1: Initial phase of research, including interviews with library workers in resource sharing units and a survey to all HathiTrust member libraries. We are currently in this stage and anticipate wrapping up research late in the winter.
PHASE 2: Conduct a pilot service based on research findings, followed by an assessment of the pilot and a round of modifications to the service. We’re hoping to launch the pilot in the spring or early summer of 2025.
PHASE 3: Announcement and launch of the service to all interested HathiTrust members. Ideally, we’ll be able to offer this service in time for the next academic year.
In addition to the above, we’ll work with our legal counsel to ensure we design a service that minimizes risk. We’ll also reach out to other organizations that manage ILL systems or provide ILL services in a similar way to learn from them and avoid redundancy, as well as to ensure we implement our service so members can find HathiTrust content where they expect to find it.
Heather Weltin, our new Collections Strategist, supports the project and envisions the myriad positive impacts such a service could have on member libraries. “Creating a resource-sharing service based on HathiTrust’s collection increases access to more titles and promotes efficiency at our member libraries while also supporting the user experience, research, and education. It’s a natural fit with our mission of preservation, accessibility, and innovation.”
Details of the dates, phases, and services may change as we learn more in our discovery and pilot phases. We’ll communicate with our members as the project proceeds. Please reach out to project manager Ange Zaytsev at azaytsev@hathitrust.org or Member Relationship Specialist Melissa Stewart at mmstewa@hathitrust.org with any questions.
Image credit: Stack of hardbound books in close-up by Scopio from Noun Project (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)