The University recently announced a partnership with HathiTrust, an organization that collects digitally preserved content from university libraries.
Several other schools have already partnered with HathiTrust, including the University of Michigan, which leads the initiative, according to the HathiTrust Web site. John Wilkin, an associate librarian at the University of Michigan and the executive director of HathiTrust, said that though much of the content collected by HathiTrust is derived from the Google Books Library Project, schools such as the University of Virginia are now providing more materials other than those already scanned by Google. All of the schools involved with the HathiTrust project have also partnered with the Google Books Library Project, Wilkin said, but he hopes to see schools not associated with Google involved with the project as well.
Wilkin noted that HathiTrust’s deviation from the Google-scanned material was motivated by a desire within the library community to have its own pool of preserved content.
“For us, it’s about the long-term preservation of this content,” Wilkin said. “There are things that we can do that [Google] can’t do. This gives us a chance as a library community to pool materials together.”
Similarly, Martha Sites, University associate librarian for information technology, said such an initiative guarantees the longevity of vitally important content in the event that something happens to Google and the content preserved through Google Books.
“Let’s say Google goes out of business or decides on a different corporate strategy; someone could do away with content that they see as unimportant, then it wouldn’t exist,” Sites said, adding that the University’s partnership with Michigan and the other schools involved in the HathiProject “provides an excellent opportunity to preserve materials for scholars.”
Assoc. Media Studies Prof. Siva Vaidhyanathan said the University’s involvement with the HathiTrust is a positive step toward the long-term preservation of its materials and does not raise concerns the Google project might raise, such as the potential monitoring of user habits. Wilkin said HathiTrust has no intentions of monitoring any of its users’ reading habits.
“Reading habits are your own, you shouldn’t be scared to let your mind wander,” Vaidhyanathan said. “I totally applaud anything that puts the control of these materials back into the hands of the universities.”
Sites said the University has just entered the preliminary stages of participating in the project.
“The University is committed to the partnership,” Sites said, noting that no further details regarding the University’s involvement are available at this time.
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