Plans for the HathiTrust Research Center
October 10, 2024
Executive Director, Mike Furlough, recently shared the following message with the HathiTrust membership. The message outlines a plan to transition the large-scale data analysis services and infrastructure of the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) to operate under HathiTrust to integrate advanced and emerging computational methods into its work and offerings and to do so in ways that can improve HathiTrust for the benefit of all users. The plans include changes for the HathiTrust Research Center in the coming years, though in the near term, there are no changes to existing HTRC services and existing users can continue their work.
“HTRC has enhanced the field of digital scholarship and laid a strong foundation for our future work and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead.”
— Mike Furlough
Message to HathiTrust Member Representatives & Library Directors, October 10, 2024
Hello Member Representatives and Library Directors,
In our new Strategic Vision, HathiTrust has committed to increasing our capacity to assess, develop, and integrate advanced and emerging computational methods into our work and offerings, and to do so in ways that can improve HathiTrust for the benefit of all of our users. It specifically calls for us to direct these investments toward large-scale enhancements to the content we steward and the services that make it accessible. Many of the technologies that have emerged over the last couple of years show promise to help us get to that future.
During our strategic visioning process, we recognized the need to explore emerging technologies and their potential applications to the HathiTrust collection. Feedback from this process highlighted the importance of focusing our resources on services—current or potential—that would have a broader impact on our users. After consulting with the HathiTrust Research Center and the Board of Governors, we decided to restructure our efforts in this area.
HathiTrust will suspend funding for the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) at the end of 2026 to allocate resources toward new programs that leverage emerging technologies to enhance our services and collection. We have begun working on transition plans with HTRC leadership and staff, including an evaluation of existing services and activities. While we aim to maintain researcher access to the corpus for analysis, the specifics of these services will be determined during the transition.
This was not an easy decision: the Research Center has been an important part of our overall strategy and services for over a decade. HTRC staff and researchers have, all along, been at the leading edge of large-scale computing and textual data analysis, and advanced new models for secure and lawful analysis of copyrighted materials. For this and other work HTRC is highly regarded and I am proud that it has enhanced the field of digital scholarship and laid a strong foundation for our future work.
HathiTrust has financially supported the Research Center, yet many of our members have rarely utilized HTRC’s services. Although some researchers have extensively used the collection for textual analysis, our investments have not benefited all members as intended. We now realize that the original funding and operational model for HTRC—consisting of researcher-led activities funded by external, in-kind, and HathiTrust support—is no longer suitable. Moving forward, we believe that integrating the development of scalable, production-level services and enhancements of our text and metadata into HathiTrust’s core operations will better meet our goals.
We are still developing our longer term plans, but we expect to:
- Establish a new organizational structure under HathiTrust leadership and direction to integrate the expertise and operations that have been largely external to our core organization. The 2025 budget, recently approved by the membership, includes funding for new HathiTrust staff to plan and carry out more of this work.
- Fund HTRC — including its staff — at current levels through the end of 2026 as we work through the transition.
- Evaluate HTRC’s existing services and functions to inform service planning. This evaluation has just begun, so we do not yet know which services will continue, though we expect to have more information soon.
- Minimize disruption for researchers. In the near term, current HTRC services will continue with no change for users. We will communicate anticipated changes to users with ample time to respond and to offer resources to support ongoing research when necessary.
- Collaborate with partners and other organizations as we develop and offer computational services for users. It is too early to specify what these services will be or what collaboration structures will be appropriate.
We’ve developed this FAQ to help answer some questions that you, your colleagues, or users may have about these changes.
This is an ambitious program of work that will require thoughtful planning, as well as new HathiTrust staffing and partnerships to accomplish our goals. Associate Director, Jennifer Vinopal, will lead the initial planning and is beginning work with HathiTrust and HTRC staff. I am confident that through these changes HathiTrust can better steward the collection that you have entrusted to us. In the coming months, I anticipate more opportunities to share additional information with you and to listen to your ideas for the program’s success. Please reach out to me in the meantime with any questions.
Mike