Adding “Free E-Books”: Providing User Access to Public Domain Hathi Trust Resources in the KentLINK and OhioLINK Catalogs

Abstract

At the request of the OhioLINK Database Management and Standards (DMS) committee, Kent State University Libraries began investigating the possibility and feasibility of loading bibliographic records for public domain digital materials held by the Hathi Trust into KentLINK and the OhioLINK central catalogs. This investigation led to the Hathi Trust project where, in 2010, Kent State successfully obtained and loaded over 470,000 bibliographic records for Hathi Trust digital resources into both catalogs. The records were available at no cost, but an investment was made in both time and resources to improve the quality of the records. This made the Hathi Trust resources more discoverable for our patrons. This presentation will cover, in detail, the issues and problems that needed to be addressed and resolved for this project. Libraries working with or managing large files of bibliographic records for e-resources may benefit from Kent State’s experience.