The Hathi Trust Digital library is a worldwide collective of academic and research institutions that offers a diverse collection of millions of titles digitized from participating libraries. Penn State has closed its library stacks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through surface contamination but, HathiTrust has granted Penn State Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) to the digital library. This special agreement authorizes access to many titles that would not otherwise be available. Hathi Trust portal offers researchers full-text searching including materials in the public domain and in copyrighted works.

When searching for a title in the library catalog the record may indicate that a print copy of the title is not available. These items are easy to identify by the appearance of the Hathi Trust logo on the record.

Click on view availability and under the name of the library, a notice will indicate that the “physical (print) copy cannot be checked out”. Above the “view availability” button and next to the Hathi Trust logo, is the link to the digital book.

Click on the link to access the digital item. On the left side of the next screen will be information about the book. Located in the gold band, is the checkout button for this book. 

After the item is checked out, the gold box to the left indicates when it is due. The digital copy circulates as a print book and has a loan period of one hour. The book will automatically renew unless another researcher needs it. If the material is needed for less than one hour, please return it promptly so another researcher may borrow it. Remember to click on return early when finished.

Other user tips:

• If there is the message all copies in use and the book cannot be accessed that means that all copies of that book are checked out. After it is returned by the current user, it may be borrowed.
• Books may be checked out for 1 hour and it will be renewed automatically at the end of that time. Exception: Unless another user has requested the book after your hour is up.
• A researcher may borrow more than one book at the same time.
• It is not possible to place a “hold” or “I want it” on a HathiTrust digital book.
• Any “Temporary Access (ETAS)” books may only be read online and downloading ETAS titles is not permitted.

HathiTrust has additional  helpful information for composing searches for resources. If you require further assistance with your research, please Ask a Law Librarian or contact our Law Librarians directly.