University Libraries at the University of Nevada, Reno has become the newest member of HathiTrust, a partnership of major academic and research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future.

The mission of HathiTrust is to contribute to research, scholarship, and the common good by collaboratively collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating, and sharing the record of human knowledge.

"This is a wonderful development for the research community at Nevada," University Libraries Assistant Dean Steven Harris said. "Becoming a member of HathiTrust provides a very powerful tool to faculty and students. This digital platform, which includes millions of books, allows member libraries to collaborate, curate digital collections and share resources, which ensures access to and the preservation of the digital record."

Launched in 2008, HathiTrust is an international community of research libraries committed to the long-term curation and availability of the cultural record. It has a growing membership currently comprised of more than 140 partners. Members include: Cornell University, Stanford University, the New York Public Library, Northwestern University, and Princeton to name a few. Through their common efforts and deep commitment to the public good, member libraries support the teaching and learning activities of the faculty, students or researchers at their home institutions, and the scholarly needs of the broader public as well.

"The beauty of Nevada's new HathiTrust membership demonstrates that the strength of the collective is greater than the sum of its parts," Harris said. "By logging-in with your University NetID and password the Nevada community can browse online collections, read millions of titles online, and take the library's books anywhere thanks to HathiTrust's mobile website."

Over the last ten years, HathiTrust members have contributed more than 16 million volumes to the digital library, digitized from their library collections through a number of means including Google and Internet Archive digitization and in-house initiatives. More than six million of the contributed volumes are in the public domain and freely available on the Web.

HathiTrust serves a dual role.

First, as a trusted repository it guarantees the long-term preservation of the materials it holds, providing the expert curation and consistent access long associated with research libraries. Second, as a service for members and the public good, HathiTrust offers persistent access to the digital collections. This includes viewing, downloading, and searching access to public domain volumes, and searching access to copyrighted works. Specialized features are also available which facilitate access by persons with print disabilities, and allow users to gather subsets of the digital library into "collections" that can be searched and browsed.

HathiTrust was named for the Hindi word for elephant, hathi, symbolic of the qualities of memory, wisdom, and strength evoked by elephants, as well as the huge undertaking of consolidating the digital collections of libraries in the United States and beyond. HathiTrust is funded by member libraries and governed by members of the libraries through its Board of Governors. More information on HathiTrust is available online.

About University Libraries:
University Libraries is a traditional academic library that fully embraces the digital culture of the world we live in. University Libraries embrace intellectual inquiry and innovation, nurture the production of new knowledge, and foster excellence in learning, teaching and research through scholarly resources, creative learning spaces, cutting-edge technology, and exceptional service.