The University of Missouri Libraries are creating the library of the future as a partner in the HathiTrust, an international community of research libraries committed to the preservation and availability of the cultural record. By digitizing and curating rare, fragile, and valuable scholarly materials, the University Libraries are helping to build an open access digital library available to scholars all over the world. The HathiTrust Digital Library is online at https://www.hathitrust.org/.
Among the University of Missouri’s contributions to the project are seven volumes of the Vetusta Monumenta, a landmark publication held in fewer than twenty libraries worldwide. Vetusta Monumenta provides important historical and cultural documentation of British antiquities, including the first published accounts of important single artifacts such as the Rosetta Stone, as well as visual evidence of monuments that have since been damaged or lost. The Libraries’ high-resolution scans of this lavishly illustrated, large-format work reveal the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century copperplate engravings in minute detail. Dr. Noah Heringman, a professor of English, collaborated with the Libraries on this project and is currently using the scans as the basis for a new scholarly edition of the work.
