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HathiTrust Digital Library

Millions of books online.

Searching HathiTrust

Searching HathiTrust

HathiTrust offers two ways of searching their content. 

  • Catalog Search: searches a catalog record that lists basic bibliographic information, like title and publisher, as well as information about a book, such as subject terms.
  • Full-Text Search: search both the catalog record as well as full-text that occurs in a work, such as a name, place, citation, or favorite quote.

Some general search tips are:

  • Use quotation marks to look for an exact phrase: e.g., "Grand Canyon"
  • Use boolean operators (and, or, not) to make your search more specific. "AND" combines search terms ("Grand Canyon" AND rafting), "OR" looks for either search term (rafting OR boating), while "NOT" excludes a search term ("White Russian" NOT "cocktail")
  • Use Advanced catalog search to limit by year, language, & format, or search for descriptive terms within specific fields (author, title, publisher)

Results Page

Refining Your Results Page

Use the tabs located above your results to show all items in the collection or just items with full text

  • All Items: Shows all items in the collection. There will be items that you will not have full-text access to.
  • Full View: Shows all items in the collection that you will have full-text access to.

Use the facets of the left hand of the page to refine your results by subject, author, date, location of the physical item, etc ...

Use the Icons Listed Below Each Search Result to Access the Item

Catalog Record

  • View the record of the item

Full View

  • View the full text of the item

Limited (search-only)

  • No full-text view, but search inside volume