University of Florida Libraries Join the HathiTrust Digital Library and Expand Digital Access to Orphan Works

What follows is the second HathiTrust new member announcement this week. The other day we mentioned that Notre Dame had joined the group.

From a UFL Blog Post by Barbara Hood:

The University of Florida (UF) George A. Smathers Libraries joined the HathiTrust Digital Library, a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future. There are more than fifty partners in the HathiTrust, and membership is open to institutions worldwide. Currently, the HathiTrust has 8.9 million digitized volumes.

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The UF Libraries join with the libraries at the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin in an initiative to identify orphan works and attempt to locate the “parents.” The libraries will create a mechanism to publicize bibliographic information about the orphans to give their parents the opportunity to claim them and make informed decisions about the status of their work in the HathiTrust. It is likely that the majority of orphans exist without a surviving person or entity to claim ownership. If owners do not come forward, the digital versions of these scholarly works will be made available through the HathiTrust and each library will provide its users with access to the ones that match its print holdings.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to expand access to our print collections by linking to the digital versions of orphan works available through HathiTrust,” said Dean of University Libraries Judy Russell. “We already offer our users digital access to the out-of-copyright books in HathiTrust, and this initiative allows us to offer access to thousands of in-copyright titles as well.”

Read the Complete Blog Post

Hat Tip/Thanks: Peter Brantley

Filed under: Digital Collections, Interactive Tools, Libraries, Patrons and Users, Publishing, Resources