As of August 16, Hopkins students, faculty, and staff will again be able to browse library stacks and check out books.
With the expectation that the university will be substantially back to normal this fall, the Johns Hopkins Libraries will turn off the HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) on Monday, August 16, 2021. This change is required to ensure compliance with U.S. copyright laws.
Copyrighted items still will be available for full-text search in the Hathitrust Digital Library and may be helpful in the creation of a bibliography. You may continue to access HathiTrust items that are in the public domain or available through Creative Commons licensing.
For the best way to gain access to Johns Hopkins library collections and the latest information on available library services, please refer to these individual library websites:
What is HathiTrust ETAS?
The HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) is an emergency program that Johns Hopkins joined in Spring 2020 when campus libraries closed. The program provides “special access for HathiTrust member libraries located in the U.S. that suffer an unexpected or involuntary, temporary disruption to normal operations, such as closure for a public health emergency, requiring the library to be closed it its patrons, or otherwise restrict print collection access services.” Due to copyright laws, when Hathi ETAS access is turned on, we cannot lend our copies of print books that match digital versions available in Hathi.
What will happen when we turn off HathiTrust ETAS?
Members of the Hopkins community will be able to check out print books that match those records we had access to in Hathi ETAS. We must remove links to the HathiTrust digital versions from Catalyst. We will no longer have access to the digital copies of those in-copyright books through the HathiTrust platform. These digital books were marked “temporary access” when signed in to HathiTrust.
Because Johns Hopkins is a HathiTrust member, you will continue to have our regular member benefits: “full view” access to materials in the public domain or available through Creative Commons licenses, and “limited (search only)” access to copyrighted books in the HathiTrust collection.
I have a HathiTrust ETAS book linked from Catalyst, what should I do?
If the book is required reading for your course, we will try to purchase an e-book copy of the book, or we may be able to scan portions of the book for you. For more information or help, please email a liaison librarian at asklib@jhu.edu.
What options for check-out do I have?
The Johns Hopkins Libraries are working hard to provide a safe and easy check-out experience and have developed the following alternatives for users who cannot visit the libraries in person:
- Book Pickup Service will continue with requested print items pre-checked out for you.
- Print books can be requested via Borrow Direct and many of the Johns Hopkins Libraries have plans to resume borrowing of books in the fall through Interlibrary Loan.
- For those faculty and students who are not able to come to the Johns Hopkins Libraries in person because they are fully remote, online access continues to be prioritized in the library catalog search results. Please consult the E-book library guide or search for online books in Catalyst.