Since the suspension of on-campus academic activities in March 2020, the Libraries have been providing students and faculty with increased access to millions of online resources, emergency digital access to in-copyright materials, and online assistance in support of teaching and research. We put in place several emergency services that will be discontinued for Fall 2021, including HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS), which required a non-circulation policy for physical items available in the emergency digital service. While our library locations were fully or partially closed and we were unable to circulate physical books and other materials, HathiTrust ETAS made more than 40% of our print titles available in digital form. As we resume providing access to our print collection in the usual ways, the conditions for the fair use of digital copies of these materials end and so does our access to this service.
On August 17th, Library stacks and circulation desks reopened in some locations, enabling students, faculty and staff to once again browse physical materials in pre-pandemic ways. On that date, HathiTrust ETAS ended. Beginning September 9, all library stacks and circulation desks will reopen for all students, faculty, and staff. We are thrilled that our libraries will fully reopen this fall, though we acknowledge the significance of the discontinuation of emergency online access to collections.
The importance of increased electronic access to collections for teaching and research has never been more clear, and we want to work with you to acquire or make otherwise available the materials you’ve been using throughout the pandemic. We performed an initial analysis of the most heavily used ETAS items and will acquire as many of those materials as possible. Additionally, we encourage you to submit individual requests for the acquisition of materials by using this form. As always, we look forward to working with you.
Please continue to check our Status Updates page and subscribe to our newsletter for reopening details.