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Print Holdings Information

HathiTrust requires print holdings information from partner institutions to:

  1. Support analysis of the overlap of institutions' print holdings with digital holdings in HathiTrust, which will form the basis of yearly cost calculations beginning in 2013 (see graphs showing current partner overlap).
  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 in the form described below. We request full updates of the holdings data annually and are willing to accept updates more frequently. Any updates submitted must be full updates of all holdings files (we are not accepting incremental updates at this time).

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

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. The highest valid OCLC number appears on the page at https://www.oclc.org/worldcat/watch-worldcat-grow.en.html 
  4. Please only include OCLC master numbers, not institutional OCLC numbers.
  5. Please do not include any other types of numbers that occur in the 035 field of records.
  6. Multiple OCLC numbers should be delimitted 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:
  1. Expansion of legal uses of materials in HathiTrust by partner institutions. Holdings status information facilitates used of volumes that fall under Section 108 conditions and services to users who have print disabilities.

Values accepted:

CH = current holding

Indication of current or withdrawn status will facilitate collective collection management and development, particularly in relation to the print monograph archive (knowing who has what)

WD = withdrawn

Holding status specifically does not impact services to users who have print disabilities; as long as the volume is reported in the print holdings, users will have access.

LM = lost or missing

Lost or missing status facilitates uses under 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 in-print status, will indicate volumes eligible to be accessed by partner institutions under preservation provisions (Section 108 of US Copyright Law or similar laws in other countries)

5. Item-specific enumeration and chronology

MPM

If available

Used for:

Volume-level overlap analysis for multi-part monographs. Providing enumeration 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.

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 Indicator
SPM
MPM
S
If available

Used for:

Collection analysis, in conjuction with HathiTrust's US federal government documents initiative.

Values accepted:

0 = not a US federal government document

1 = is a US federal government document

Submission Notes

  1. 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. The information above should be provided in tab-separated text format (please use a .tsv file extension). The data can be sent by email or made available for download. Please contact feedback@issues.hathitrust.org when the data is ready to submit.
  3. 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).
  4. Please name the files as follows: <institution URL domain>_<type of file>_<date>.tsv. For example:
    1. Single-part monographs: loc_single-part_20140829.tsv, nypl_single-part_20150415.tsv
    2. Multi-part monographs: loc_multi-part_20140829.tsv, nypl_multi-part_20150415.tsv
    3. Serials: loc_serials_20140829.tsv, nypl_serials_20150415.tsv
  5. Please include all columns in the order listed, including empty columns for NULL values. 
    1. Examples (<TAB> denotes a tab character (\t) for readability):
      1. single part monographs (include data elements 1, 2, 3, 4,7):   
        • ocn000000001<TAB>bib000001<TAB>CH<TAB>BRT<TAB>0
          • All elements are supplied
        • ocn000000001,ocn000000002<TAB>bib000001<TAB>CH<TAB><TAB>1
          • Multiple OCLC numbers, a null condition element
      2. multi-part monographs (include data elements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,7):
        • ocn000000001,ocn000000002<TAB>bib000001<TAB>CH<TAB>BRT<TAB>v.1 1923<TAB>0
          • Multiple OCLC numbers, all elements are supplied.
        • ocn000000001<TAB>bib000001<TAB>CH<TAB><TAB>v.1 1923<TAB>0
          • A null condition element
      3. serials (include data elements 1, 2, 6,7):
        • ocn000000001<TAB>bib000001<TAB>1234-5678<TAB>1
          • All elements are supplied
        • ocn000000001<TAB>bib000001<TAB><TAB>0
          • A null ISSN element
  6. For monographic holdings:
    1. Please include multiple copies of titles that are held. Multiple copies should be included as separate rows in the file (since they can have separate conditions and statuses).
  7. For serial holdings:
    1. Please include one row per title

Sharing with OCLC

In addition to loading your data into the print holdings database, we would like to request your permission to share this data with OCLC. OCLC is strongly committed to providing support to HathiTrust and is currently engaged in research on how they might store, manage, and provide appropriate access to the kind of item-level print holdings data that is needed for the HathiTrust print holding database. OCLC staff are also engaged in research on the potential for developing systems that could aid libraries in making print holdings disposition decisions. Given its position as a central repository for library holdings data, these seem like natural roles for OCLC and, to the extent possible, we would like to support this work. OCLC staff has requested access to the print holdings data that we are collecting for use in their research. We will share your data with OCLC only if you explicitly grant us permission to do so, but we would appreciate receiving your response to this question in either case (whether you choose to grant permission to share your data or not).