All Databases

HathiTrust is a partnership of libraries that works towards the goal of developing a shared digital access, preservation, and storage solution for the materials held in the member libraries.

You have three search options on the HathiTrust Digital Library main search page.

1. Catalog Search: search for materials by author, title, subject headings and source.

Also try the new WorldCat Local Prototype catalog, the first version of a HathiTrust built on OCLC's WorldCat Local interface. From here you have access to the HathiTrust Digital Library AND to OCLC’s database of worldwide library collections. From any record, see the “Find a copy in a library” section to see which libraries hold a print copy of the item. You can also limit your search results to volumes that are only full view or limited view, using the “View” facet on the left hand side of the search results screen.

2. Full Text Search: searches each word in the text, whether or not the full text is available for download, and you will find the pages on which the term(s) appear. You can then locate a library that holds the item, and request it via Materials on Demand.

3. Collections Search: you can search for materials that you or others have grouped into "collections".  Users can create "private" or "public" collections from materials they find in the HathiTrust Digital Library. If a library adds a special collection of digital materials to HathiTrust, this is how the collection can continue to have a separate identify within the whole Digital Library. 

Catalog Search Tips:

• Phrase Searching: Use quotes to search an exact phrase: e.g., "occult fiction"
• Wildcards: Use * or ? to search for alternate forms of a word. Use * to stand for several characters, and ? for a single character: e.g., optim* will find optimal, optimize or optimum; wom?n will find woman and women.
• Boolean Searching: Use AND and OR between words to combine them with Boolean logic: e.g., (heart OR cardiac) AND surgery will find items about heart surgery or cardiac surgery.

Full-text Search:

• Phrase Searching: Use quotes to search an exact phrase: e.g., "occult fiction"
• Multiple Term Searching: When your search terms are not quoted phrases, avoid common words (such as: 'a', 'and', 'of', 'the', etc.) to speed up your search.
• Boolean Searching: Use AND and OR between words to combine them with Boolean logic: e.g., heart OR cardiac will find items containing the word heart or the word cardiac; heart AND cardiac will find items containing both words. Use a minus (-) to remove words from the result e.g., heart  -cardiac will find items containing the word heart that do not include the word cardiac.