Copying and pasting text from a HathiTrust volume is useful for note taking, quoting, or using Google Translate--and it’s easy to do! The ability to capture text depends on the existence and quality of its Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which may vary from volume to volume. While a small number of works in the HathiTrust collection have no OCR, (e.g. handwritten manuscripts, visual materials, or books in certain languages), the majority do.
The steps below detail how to capture text snippets:
1. Go to the full view HathiTrust volume you wish to copy/paste from.
2. From the bottom of the Book Reader select “VIEW” and then select “Plain Text” from the list of options:
3. Use your cursor to select the text in the volume you want to copy, and then copy and paste the text.
4. If you are quoting the text in a paper, be sure to carefully read through the text you pasted, correct any issues that you see, and appropriately cite the volume.
Now you know how to copy and paste text from a HathiTrust volume!