Catalogs and Bibliographies
To find books, periodicals, manuscripts, videos, etc., on a topic in HOLLIS, put in likely keywords and choose Library Catalog. Look at pertinent records and find the terms under Subject. For example, searching "Book trade" "Early modern" yields
Thomas Middleton and early modern textual culture : a companion to the collected works, ed. By Gary Taylor and John Lavagnino. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, 1183 p.
Subjects:
Middleton, Thomas, -1627 -- Criticism and interpretation
Middleton, Thomas, -1627 -- Criticism, Textual
English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Criticism, Textual
Transmission of texts -- England -- History -- 16th century
Transmission of texts -- England -- History -- 17th century
Manuscripts, English -- Editing
Book industries and trade -- England -- History
HOLLIS Record https://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990113530820203941/catalog
Under Refine my results: Subject on the right of the results list there are more main terms (Books and reading, Booksellers and bookselling, Publishers and publishing) to try. NOTE: If you hit one of the terms in this Subject list, HOLLIS will find records with the term, say "Booksellers and bookselling", only on records in the set originally formed by searching "Book trade" "Early modern".
Redo your search using the terms that HOLLIS uses. Also, go to Starts with.../Browse (top black band) and put in Transmission of texts, adjusting to Browse by Subject. This is very useful in breaking down a large subject and in giving you more subdivisions (the words after the --), which can be applied to other Subject terms.
Whenever you have a reference to a useful book, look it up in HOLLIS and see what the Subject terms are.
These terms can be searched in combination with the names of wars and other subjects
Any pertinent book published during your era may be a primary source, but certain kinds of primary sources, including originally unpublished sources such as letters and diaries published later, have particular terms attached to their Subject terms in a HOLLIS record. Change Any field to Subject for cleanest results.
- --Archives
- --Correspondence
- --Description and travel
- --Diaries
- --Manuscripts
- --Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
- --Personal narratives (refers to accounts of wars and diseases only)
- --Sources (usually refers to collections of published primary sources)
Example:
Subject contains: "Book industries and trade"
AND
Subject contains" 16th OR 17th
AND
Subject contains: Archives OR Correspondence OR Diaries OR Manuscripts OR Sources OR Narratives
When you find a pertinent book, go to Starts With.../Browse and put in the call number, adjusting the menu to Library of Congress (Wid-LC) or Other. This shows you other books on the same subject, even though they may be in storage or checked out.
Form/genre terms are attached to a HOLLIS catalog record to indicate the material nature of an ítem. Thus Subject: Commonplace books indicated a book about commonplace books, but Form/genre: Commonplace books indicates the ítem is iteself a commonplace book. Not all HOLLIS records have form/genre terms, so thye cannot be used to do an exhaustive search.
Form and Genre Terms Used by the Rare Book Team (Yale University Library)
To find books published in your era, you can limit by year before you search in Advanced Search. This will miss any republications of a work after your data limit. To find these for pre-1800 books, add the phrase “Early works to 1800”.
You can retrieve only works published in a particular city by adjusting the Advanced search menú to Publisher location.
Searching within All (Most) Works Published in a Country
In HOLLIS Library Catalog Advanced Search do searches of the form:
Code: MARC place of publication: ne [Code: MARC place of publication is toward the bottom of the search menu: Ne = Netherlands]
- To limit by date, do NOT use the pre-search Publication Date on the right. Do the search with just the ne, then use Date under Filters on the results page.
- List of country codes
See the Library Research Guide for History and the HOLLIS Help guide for more information on searching HOLLIS.
Theatrum Catalogorum collates library catalogs from every major European country
Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog allows simultaneous searching of the holdings of many major libraries in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, and the UK. It functions as a sort of European Union Catalog, and a counterpart to the mainly US/Canadian WorldCat database. Individual library catalogs may also be searched singly; their availability and coverage of older materials varies. In addition, KVK provides access to the German Union Catalog of Serials and to German book trade catalogs, including German Books in Print.
Catalogue Collectif de France contains:
- Catalogue des Fonds des Bibliothèques Municipales Rétroconvertis
- BnF catalogue général
- Catalogue du Système Universitaire de Documentation/Sudoc
Library Hub Discover is a collective catalog of numerous British libraries.
English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), 1473-1800, has over 470,000 catalog (no full text) entries listing books, periodicals, newspapers and some ephemera printed before 1801. Works published in Britain, Ireland, British colonies, and the US are included, together with items printed elsewhere which contain significant text in English, Welsh, Irish or Gaelic. Books falsely claiming London publication are included. Many of the included works are available full text in Early English Books Online (EEBO) and Eighteenth Century Collections Online. More information on EEBO and ECCO.
Istituto Centrale per il catalogo Unico: Indice SBN
Heritage of the Printed Book (formerly Hand Press Books Database) includes almost 3 million records for European books of the hand-press period (c. 1455 to 1830) from the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL).
Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalog (1801-1919) offers citations of major research library holdings on all print materials published in the U. S. and British Empire, all books in English wherever published, and translations from English.
Alte und Seltene Drucke offers links to several German catalogs of early printing.
Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) is a comprehensive database of books published from the invention of printing to the end of the sixteenth century. Includes detailed information about each work, including locations and shelfmarks for individual copies, cross-references to other early book catalogs, and links to digitized copies where available. Near-complete coverage for books published in Europe, and extensive and actively growing coverage for books published elsewhere. The USTC is notable for its extremely broad coverage and intuitive interface. It may offer less detail than more specialized short title catalogs, such as the Hand Press Book Database (including the Incunabula Short Title Catalog) or the English Short Title Catalogue.
Offers bibliographic information, book locations and, where available, links to digitized copies.
Searchable by author, title, imprint, colophon, printer, year, format, language, country, region, and USTC Classification (by subject, e.g., Economics, and format, e.g., Academic dissertations). Includes lost books. Can be searched by region or country without search terms. [“Limit search” option allows you to explore all books in a specific category, without having to enter keywords.] Lists holding libraries and citations in bibliographies and other works. Search results can be limited to digital full text available, female authors or publishers, lost books, and contemporary references. Overlaps with the HPB Database (Hand Press Book Database) which includes the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue.
English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), 1473-1800, has over 470,000 catalog (no full text) entries listing books, periodicals, newspapers and some ephemera printed before 1801. Works published in Britain, Ireland, British colonies, and the US are included, together with items printed elsewhere which contain significant text in English, Welsh, Irish or Gaelic. Books falsely claiming London publication are included. Many of the included works are available full text in Early English Books Online (EEBO) and Eighteenth Century Collections Online. More information on EEBO and ECCO.
Incunabula Short Title Catalogue is an international database of 15th-century European printing
Verzeichnis der im Deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts
Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts
Besterman, Theodore. Early Printed Books to the End of the Sixteenth Century; a Bibliography of Bibliographies. 2d ed.
Geneve: Societas Bibliographica, 1961.
Widener | RR330.2
National Bibliographies
National Bibliographic Register (IFLA). List of national bibliographies.
World Bibliography of National Bibliographies. Stuttgart: A. Hiersemann, 1987.
Widener: RR 1.6.5
Houghton: Reading Room HRR 2.1.5
Describes catalogs from all time periods arranged by country.
Retrospective National Bibliographies, an International Directory. München New York: K.G. Saur, 1986.
Widener: RR 5.23
Provides brief introduction to the publishing and bibliographic activities of individual countries, followed by a chronological listing of national bibliographies.
An Annotated Guide to Current National Bibliographies 2nd ed. Munchen: K.G. Saur, 1998
Widener | RR 5.7
Print Retrospective National Library Catalogs
France
Bibliothèque Nationale, et al. Catalogue Général Des Livres Imprimés De La Bibliothèque Nationale. Auteurs. Paris: Imprimerie nationale. 231 vols.
Widener: Level 3-West, Far end
Germany
Gesamtverzeichnis Des Deutschsprachigen Schrifttums (Gv) : 1700-1910. 161 vols.
Muenchen; New York; London ; Paris: Saur, 1979.
Widener: Level 3-West, Far end
Great Britain
The British Library General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975. 360 vols.
London; New York: Bingley; Saur, 1979.
Widener: Level 3-West, Far end
Italy
Bibliografia Nazionale Italiana.
Firenze: [s.n.], 1958. 43 vols.
Widener: B 2303.31F
United States
National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints; a Cumulative Author List Representing Library of Congress Printed Cards and Titles Reported by Other American Libraries.
London,: Mansell, 1968.
Widener: Room 180 (1st floor: Behind the main staircase)