Various policies, terms, and conditions — many of which were created by our members — guide the management of the collection on behalf of our member libraries. Other policies, terms, and conditions govern the general use of the library and our services.

Collection Policies and Guidelines

On behalf of our contributing libraries and all our members who steward the 18+ million items, we employ a number of guidelines and tools to ensure the integrity of the repository and our ability to successfully manage it.

Metadata Sharing and Use Policy

This policy documents the terms by which HathiTrust provides open access to HathiTrust-collected, -managed and -generated metadata.

Bibliographic Metadata Correction Policy

By this policy, HathiTrust does not correct nor update the content of contributors’ records, except where necessary.

Takedown Policy

Individuals may contest the rights status of an item in the collection by following these steps.

Copyright and Access

The rights status of items, among other criteria, determine access to the collection and inform rights holders, member contributors, and users.

Deletion from HathiTrust

Under rare circumstances, HathiTrust may delete items from the repository.

Service and Program Terms

Some HathiTrust Programs and Services have additional policies and guidelines that apply to their users.

Emergency Temporary Access Service Terms of Service

This temporary service is allowed under specific terms related to access to a library's print collection, eligible emergency, and affiliation of a user.

Shared Print Program Operating Procedures

The agreement ensures long-term commitment of print items to complement the digital collection, lending of those items, and flexibility for other programs.

Collection Administration Access

Special access to the collection is used by several services including the Copyright Review and Metadata Quality Improvement Programs, and some corrections processes.

Accessible Text Request Service

The agreement for this service outlines specific collection access permissions.

Access & Use Policy

Describes the list of rights status of items in the collection

Non-Consumptive Use Policy

The fundamental policy for the HathiTrust Research Center enabling in-depth text and data mining of the entire collection.

Data Capsule Terms of Use

The special access and research options through this advanced HTRC service may be obtained by request and acceptance of these terms.

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