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Print Holdings Information

COVID-19 UPDATE (March 31, 2020): Members wishing to update their print holdings for the Emergency Temporary Access Service may do so at any time.  

For ease of processing, please ensure that your files conform to the specification below, and submit them to us in the usual manner.

Please contact feedback@issues.hathitrust.org with any questions.  We are here to help.

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HathiTrust requires print holdings information from partner institutions in order to:

  1. Support analysis of the overlap of institutions' print holdings with digital holdings in HathiTrust.  These calculations are used to generate annual member fees.
  2. Provide a foundation for the expansion of legal uses of materials in HathiTrust by partner institutions, including special access to materials under Section 108 of U.S. copyright law, and access to in-copyright works for users who have print disabilities.
  3. Facilitate collaborative collection development and management operations.

These data are required at the time of joining HathiTrust, in the format described below. Files should contain full print holdings information for your institution (we are not able to accept incremental updates at this time).

Fee estimates: For institutions considering membership, we can optionally provide fee estimates using a slightly streamlined version of the data, including only a list of OCLC numbers for all print materials, provided in two plain text files: one for monographs and one for serials. Please contact feedback@issues.hathitrust.org with any questions.

Please also see our Print Holdings FAQ page.

Data Elements

SPM = Single-Part Monographs
MPM = Multi-Part Monographs
S = Serials

Data element

Material types

Required or optional

Use and notes

1. OCLC #

SPM
MPM
S

Required

Used for:

  1. Partner fee calculations - overlap analysis of print holdings with HathiTrust digital holdings.
  2. Access services for in-copyright materials in HathiTrust are dependent on volumes being held (currently or previously) by partner institutions.
  3. Collection analysis, collection management, collection development.

Requirements:

  1. Each OCLC number should be a continuous string of digits with no intervening spaces.
  2. The list of accepted prefixes is as follows:
    1. 'ocl7' for 7-digit numbers (e.g., ocl71234567)
    2. 'ocm' for 8-digit numbers (e.g., ocm12345678)
    3. 'ocn'  for 9-digit numbers (e.g., ocn123456789)
    4. 'on' for 10- or more digit numbers (e.g., on1234567890)
    5. ‘(OCoLC)’, which is frequently used to prefix oclc numbers in 035 fields, with or without stripping the other prefix (e.g., (OCoLC)12345678, OCoLC123456789, (OCoLC)ocm12345678, (OCoLC)ocn123456789)
    6. numbers without prefixes are also accepted.
  3. Please include only OCLC master numbers, not institutional OCLC numbers.
  4. Please do not include any other types of numbers that occur in the 035 field of records.
  5. Multiple OCLC numbers should be delimited with a comma. Here is an example row for a single-part monograph, using a comma to delimit two OCLC numbers, and a tab to delimit fields in general: "ocn000000001,ocn000000002\tbib000001\tCH\tBRT".

2. Partner’s Local System ID

SPM
MPM
S

Required

Used for:

  • Tracking updated holdings submissions over time.

Requirements:

  • Either the bibliographic system ID or holdings ID is acceptable, as long as it is used consistently in submissions over time.

3. Holding status

SPM
MPM

If available

Used for:

  • Expansion of legal uses of materials in HathiTrust by partner institutions. Holdings status information facilitates use of volumes that fall under U.S. Copyright Law, Section 108 conditions.

Values accepted:

CH = current holding
WD = withdrawn

Indication of current or withdrawn status will facilitate collective collection management and development of the HathiTrust Shared Print Program, as well as access through U.S. Copyright Law, Section 108, when other conditions are met.

LM = lost or missing

Lost or missing status facilitates uses under U.S. Copyright Law, Section 108.

4. Condition

SPM
MPM

If available

Used for:

  • Expansion of legal uses of materials in HathiTrust by partner institution (specifically Section 108 uses).

Value accepted:

BRT = brittle, damaged and/or deteriorating.

In conjunction with out-of-print status, will indicate volumes eligible to be accessed by partner institutions under preservation provisions (Section 108 of U.S. Copyright Law).

5. Item-specific enumeration and chronology

MPM

If available

Used for:

  • Volume-level overlap analysis for multi-part monographs. Providing enumeration and chronology information will enable more precise matching for multi-part items, likely reducing calculated fees. It will also increase precision for possible holdings-based services.

Requirements:

  • There is no standard format requirement for enumeration and chronology. When providing this data, please draw from item-level enumeration and chronology fields rather than unrelated fields, e.g. sudoc or call number.

6. ISSN

S

If available

Used for:

  • May be used in the future as a secondary check on overlap analysis for serials. Multiple ISSNs should be separated by a comma.

7. Government Documents IndicatorSPM 
MPM 
S		If available

Used for:

  • Collection analysis, in conjunction with HathiTrust's U.S. Federal Government Documents Program and the HathiTrust Shared Print Program.

Values accepted:

0 = not a U.S. federal government document
1 = is a U.S. federal government document

Submission Guidelines

Prepare Print Holdings Files

  1. Record export: We would like holdings information for book or book-like materials (e.g., pamphlets, bound newspapers or manuscripts) in print that have OCLC numbers and are cataloged as a single unit. We do not want holdings records either for analyzed articles, or for microform, eBooks, or other non-print materials.
  2. Record type: Single-part monographic holdings, multi-part monographic holdings, and serial holdings should each be submitted in separate files (one file for each, 3 files total).
    1. For monographic holdings: Please include separate records for all print holdings, including multiple copies of the same title. Each record should appear as a separate row in the file (since they can have separate conditions and statuses).
    2. For serial holdings: Please include a single title-level record for each holding.
  3. Format: The information in the above table should be provided in tab-delimited text format (please use a .tsv or .txt file extension). Each field value should be delimited with a tab, and each record should appear on a new line. 
  4. Filenaming: Please name the files as follows: <institution URL domain>_<type of file>_<date>.[tsv or .txt]. For example:
    1. Single-part monographs: loc_single-part_20140829.tsv or nypl_single-part_20150415.txt
    2. Multi-part monographs: loc_multi-part_20140829.txt or nypl_multi-part_20150415.tsv
    3. Serials: loc_serials_20140829.tsv or nypl_serials_20150415.txt
  5. Contents: Please include all data elements in the order listed, including empty elements for NULL values.

Examples of record rows (<TAB> denotes a tab character (\t) for readability):

  • Single-part monographs (include data elements 1, 2, 3, 4, 7):
    • All elements are supplied:
      • ocn000000001<TAB>bib000001<TAB>CH<TAB>BRT<TAB>0
    • Multiple OCLC numbers, a null condition element, and a U.S. federal documents indicator:
      • ocn000000001,ocn000000002<TAB>bib000001<TAB>CH<TAB><TAB>1
  • Multi-part monographs (include data elements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7):
    • Multiple OCLC numbers, all elements are supplied:
      • ocn000000001,ocn000000002<TAB>bib000001<TAB>CH<TAB>BRT<TAB>v.1 1923<TAB>0
    • A null condition element:
      • ocn000000001<TAB>bib000001<TAB>CH<TAB><TAB>v.1 1923<TAB>0
  • Serials (include data elements 1, 2, 6, 7):
    • All elements are supplied:
      • ocn000000001<TAB>bib000001<TAB>1234-5678<TAB>1
    • A null ISSN element:
      • ocn000000001<TAB>bib000001<TAB><TAB>0

Submit Print Holdings

Files should be uploaded to the Box.com folder previously created for your institution. Please contact feedback@issues.hathitrust.org if you have questions about accessing Box.com.