HathiTrust, a partnership of academic and research institutions offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world, announced an Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) this week. The service will allow students, faculty, and staff from eligible member libraries (including Columbia University) to have online reading access to materials that are currently unavailable to them in their library collections.

Because of this service, 40% of Columbia’s print holdings are now temporarily available in digital format.

Columbia affiliates can check out as many digital copies of a given ETAS item as we have in our print collection. Loans are for online use only using a browser based page turner (no downloads). Items are checked out for an hour but will be automatically renewed for as long as they’re in use (if a browser window or tab is closed or inactive the loan will end after an hour). Users can return an item when it is no longer needed which will make it available more quickly to the next user.

For more detailed user documentation about the service see the ETAS: Information for Users.

For example, the following link will scope a search to our physical collections. Many of these items are now available digitally: CLIO Search

After you execute a search, Hathi Trust ETAS items will be listed as “Log in for temporary access” as on the following screenshot:

ETAS links specify a login requirement and indicate that access is temporary. These links will require Columbia UNI authentication but will not check out the item unless you choose to do so once on the item page at Hathi.

As a reminder, although our physical locations are closed until further notice, we are committed to maintaining a vibrant online site of learning at the center of the University’s intellectual activities. Millions of items from our collections can still be accessed online. Our expert staff continue to remain available by chat, phone, email, or Zoom. We will continue to offer workshops and instruction sessions remotely. Most importantly, we are here to help you navigate new challenges in teaching, learning, and research.