Emergency access to ebooks through HathiTrust ends today

The UC Davis Library can no longer provide emergency temporary access to digital versions of UC-owned books in HathiTrust as of today (Monday, Sept. 13). All print books and other physical materials in the library’s circulating collection are once again available for checkout. (Certain items, like those held in Archives and Special Collections, remain available for in-library use only.)

With students returning to campus next week and all of our library buildings open, we are no longer facing a state of emergency that significantly impedes our community’s ability to use the library’s print books, which was the primary justification for the expanded online access we have provided in partnership with the HathiTrust Digital Library over the last 17 months.

Although we will no longer be providing emergency access to electronic versions of books still held in copyright, members of the UC Davis community can still use HathiTrust to access millions of books in the public domain (generally, those published before 1925) and many federal government documents.

• To access these public domain materials, search hathitrust.org.
• To download a copy, click the gold Login button; select “University of California, Davis” and sign in using your UC Davis Kerberos (CAS) login credentials. A download option will appear in the menu on the left when viewing your selected book or other item.

How to get UC Davis Library books now:

• All books in the UC Davis circulating collection are now eligible to be checked out, as they were pre-pandemic. 
• Self-checkout kiosks are available at Shields Library and Blaisdell Medical Library; books can also be checked out at the circulation desk at any of our library locations.
• Books requested in advance through UC Library Search can be picked up contact-free on the hold shelf in the Shields Library lobby or at the circulation desk at Carlson Health Sciences Library.
• For those who are unable to get to campus, the library is also continuing to offer our shipping service and to scan chapters/articles.

What’s next?

We understand that many library users have found this expanded access to ebooks through HathiTrust valuable over the past year and a half. As such, the UC Davis Library is partnering with the other UC campus libraries to begin investigating the possibility of providing a systemwide replacement for this service in the future. This would be a long-term project, but we will provide updates to the campus community as our exploratory efforts continue.