HathiTrust and Local Digital Stewardship: A Case Study in How Massive Digital Libraries Affect Local Digital Resources Decisions

Abstract

This article reviews the influence that massive digital libraries like the HathiTrust Digital Library can have on local, smaller institutions’ digitization, preservation, and curation programs. The history of HathiTrust’s digital preservation efforts as a Trusted Repository is reviewed. A case study is presented showing how one academic library made difficult digital stewardship decisions in a modern world of globally federated preservation initiatives. The authors introduce the concept of deselection as part of the digital curation process and discuss how digital collection administrators can refine their local digital preservation efforts to better reflect the realities of constrained human and financial resources.

Keywords

• digital weeding
• digital stewardship
• digital preservation
• digital curation
• trusted repository
• levels of preservation