Clare Jarvis

1

Finding older printed material (pre-1850) in
Oxford

• Clare Jarvis
• English Faculty Library
• Oxford University Library Services
• clare.jarvis_at_ouls.ox.ac.uk

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OxLIP databases

• ESTC English Short Title Catalogue
• HPB Hand Press Book database
• NSTC Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue
• IISTC Illustrated Incunabula Short Title
  Catalogue
• EEBO Early English Books Online
• ECCO Eighteenth Century Collections Online
• ILEJ Internet Library of Early Journals

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Structure of session

• Introductions
• Aims and objectives
• Information sources
• The need to search a variety of sources
• OLIS
• How to find items which are in Oxford but not on
  OLIS
• The need to try different types of search
• 4 different styles of record you may see on OLIS
• Telnet OLIS and web OLIS which version to use
  when
• Compare and contrast bibliographic records and
  holdings information in printed STC and Wing,
  OLIS, ESTC and HPB
• How to search EEBO and ECCO
• Demonstration of relevant search techniques live
  examples
• Concluding remarks
• Exercises to practise searching OLIS, ESTC, HPB,
  EEBO ECCO

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Finding older printed material (pre-1850) in
Oxford

• Aim
• To introduce humanities scholars to effective
  ways of searching for older printed material in
  Oxford
• Objectives
• To introduce the main sources of information for
  finding older printed material
• To demonstrate relevant search techniques
• To promote the importance of searching a variety
  of sources and trying different types of search

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Information sources

• A. Try searching a variety of sources because
• Apart from sources which are out of date, all the
  main catalogues and databases are works in
  progress, e.g.
• OLIS
• ESTC (English Short-Title Catalogue)
• HPB (Hand Press Book database)
• Not all early printed books in Oxford libraries
  are yet on OLIS or the other main databases
• Books which do not appear in one catalogue can
  often be found in one or more other sources

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To find items which are in Oxford

• First try OLIS
• To find items which are not on OLIS, try
• a) Collection level printed resources
• b) Librarians
• c) Printed catalogues
• d) Inter-Collegiate Catalogue (ICC)
• e) English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC)
• f) Early English Books Online (EEBO)
• g) Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
• h) Hand Press Book (HPB) database

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OLIS a catalogue which iswork in progress

• OLIS has evolved from a number of separate
  catalogues which were created
• at different times
• on different systems
• to different standards

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OLIS cont.

• These separate catalogues have been added,
  mostly unchanged, into OLIS, and the records for
  early printed items are gradually being upgraded
  to the current Oxford antiquarian standard and
  merged into a single union catalogue. As work is
  still in progress, you will find some problems
  and inconsistencies when searching for earlier
  material.

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OLIS problems you may encounter when searching
for earlier material

• More than one record for a single bibliographic
  item
• More than one record for an individual copy
• Style, amount of detail and quality of
  information in records vary
• Not all early books in Oxford libraries are yet
  on OLIS
• Some libraries conceal some of their holdings on
  the public version of the catalogue, for security
  reasons
• Library staff can see such holdings, but readers
  cannot
• If the only holding attached to a record is a
  hidden one, the message for readers is There are
  no holdings for this title

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2. For items not on OLIS, try a) Collection
level printed resources

• Walker, Gregory, Clapinson, Mary and Forbes,
  Lesley (ed.) The Bodleian Library a subject
  guide to the collections. Oxford Bodleian
  Library, 2004.
• Morgan, Paul. Oxford libraries outside the
  Bodleian a guide. 2nd ed. Oxford Bodleian
  Library, 1980.

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b) Librarians

• If you think a particular library has collections
  of interest to your readers, do contact the
  librarian as there are often excellent card
  catalogues or handlists, even if the collections
  are not yet entirely on OLIS

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c) Printed catalogues

• For English material the most important are
• Coates Coates, Alan et al. A catalogue of
  books printed in the fifteenth century now in the
  Bodleian Library, Oxford. Oxford University
  Press, 2005.
• Rhodes - Rhodes, Dennis E. A catalogue of
  incunabula in all the libraries of Oxford
  University outside the Bodleian. Oxford
  Clarendon Press, 1982.
• Foxon - Foxon, David F. English verse, 1701-1750
  a catalogue of separately printed poems with
  notes on contemporary collected editions. 2 vols.
  London and New York Cambridge University Press,
  1975.
• STC - Pollard, Alfred W., and G. R. Redgrave. A
  short-title catalogue of books printed in
  England, Scotland, Ireland and of English books
  printed abroad, 1475-1640. London
  Bibliographical Society, 1926. Reprint, 1969.
• STC (2nd ed.) - Pollard, Alfred W., and G. R.
  Redgrave. A short-title catalogue of books
  printed in England, Scotland, Ireland and of
  English books printed abroad, 1475-1640. 2nd ed.,
  rev. enl. London Bibliographical Society,
  1976-91.
• Wing - Wing, Donald Goddard. Short-title
  catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland,
  Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of
  English books printed in other countries,
  1641-1700. 3 vols. New York Index Society,
  1945-51.
• Wing (2nd ed.) - Wing, Donald Goddard.
  Short-title catalogue of books printed in
  England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British
  America, and of English books printed in other
  countries, 1641-1700 2nd ed., rev. and enl. 3
  vols. New York Index Committee of the Modern
  Language Association of America, 1972-88.
• Wing (2nd ed., 1994) - Wing, Donald Goddard.
  Short-title catalogue of books printed in
  England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British
  America, and of English books printed in other
  countries, 1641-1700 2nd ed., newly rev. and enl.
  New York Modern Language Association of America,
  1994.

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c) Printed catalogues cont.

• There is an annotated STC with Bodleian
  shelfmarks in Duke Humfreys.
• There is an annotated Wing with college
  shelfmarks in the Lower Reading Room.
• For other printed catalogues, listed by country
  and by topic, see the bibliography of reference
  works used by antiquarian cataloguers appendix 2
  in
• http//www.lib.ox.ac.uk/icc/antiq/

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d) Inter-Collegiate Catalogue (ICC)

• The ICC is a locally held database of pre-1641
  foreign imprints held in Oxford libraries outside
  the Bodleian
• For information about this database or help with
  college shelfmarks, email the Project Manager of
  the Early Printed Books Project,
• sarah.wheale_at_ouls.ox.ac.uk

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e) English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC)

• The English Short Title Catalogue provides
  extensive descriptions and holdings information
  for letterpress materials printed in Great
  Britain or any of its dependencies in any
  languageas well as for materials printed in
  English anywhere else in the world. Coverage is
  from the beginnings of print to 1800 including
  all recorded English monographs printed between
  1475 and 1700. The English Short Title Catalogue
  is updated daily. OxLIP database

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e) ESTC cont.

• Quirks and oddities
• STC liturgical works printed abroad (usually
  Paris) but for the use of Sarum or, occasionally,
  other dioceses
• Foreign translations of English works
• Foreign items reprinted from ESTC items
• Only partial coverage for engraved, ephemeral and
  musical items, but improving all the time
• Odd cataloguing rules for 18th century material
• e.g. Roman numeral dates are transcribed in
  Arabic numerals

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e) ESTC cont.

• What the letters mean
• S STC items
• R Wing items
• T 18th century items
• N overspill 18th century items
• W American 18th century items
• P periodicals of all periods

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f) Early English Books Online (EEBO)

• Major collection of primary source material
• Access to digital images of around 125,000 works
• Includes works printed in UK and North America,
  and works in English printed elsewhere, 1473-1700
• Includes works listed in STC and Wing
• EEBO Text Creation Partnership is encoding 25,000
  editions to make full text searches possible
• Use the EEBO-TCP link for full text searches

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f) EEBO cont.

• Uses
• As e-book interface
• To look at facsimiles of original texts
• To look at editions not available in Oxford
• For search tips, read introductory matter and
  help pages
• Printing
• Either individual/several images separately
• Or use Download PDF option to download and print
  the whole file

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g) Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)

• Major collection of primary source material
• Access to digital images of around 150,000 works
• Includes English and foreign language titles
  printed in the UK, and many works from the
  Americas, 1701-1800
• Full text searching is possible

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g) ECCO cont.

• Use
• Fuzzy searches to find variant spellings
• Full Citation option for bibliographical
  details about the work, including its location
• eTable of Contents to select a particular
  section of a work
• Mark List to save and email details of the
  records found
• Texts can be viewed and printed, but not emailed

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h) Hand Press Book (HPB) database

• The Hand Press Book file includes records for
  European printing of the hand-press period (c.
  1455-1830) from the Consortium of European
  Research Libraries, whose 48 members represent
  national and university libraries in 25
  countries. OxLIP database

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Information sources

• Try different types of search because
• Within each catalogue, not all records contain
  the same features for you to search on, e.g.
• OLIS antiquarian standard records include
• STC, Wing and ESTC numbers
• Uniform headings for printers names
• But brief OLIS Pre-1920 records lack these
  details
• Different versions of a catalogue, e.g. web OLIS
  and Telnet OLIS, offer different search options
• If your search does not succeed at first, try a
  different approach before concluding the item is
  not there

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OLIS 4 main types of record

• There are 4 main types of record you are likely
  to retrieve when searching for older material on
  OLIS
• 1. Bodleian Pre-1920 catalogue records
• 2. English Faculty Library basic records
• 3. ESTC eighteenth century records
• 4. Oxford antiquarian records
• Beware of duplication!

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1. Bodleian Pre-1920 catalogue records

• Unrevised records from the Bodleians Pre-1920
  catalogue
• Very short records
• Only have Bodleian holdings

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1. Bodleian Pre-1920 catalogue

• Does not represent all BOD holdings of books
  published before 1920
• Only contains books catalogued before 1989
• On OLIS, the Pre-1920 catalogue does not contain
  all BOD books published before 1920 and
  catalogued before 1989 because work is in
  progress
• As the records are upgraded or replaced by ones
  of better quality, the original records are
  gradually being deleted or transferred to the
  main database
• When other libraries create fuller records, they
  notify BOD of any duplication, the BOD holdings
  are transferred to the fuller records, and the
  original Pre-1920 records are deleted
• So the number of Pre-1920 records on OLIS is
  diminishing

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2. English Faculty Library basic records

• Basic records from an early retrospective
  conversion project
• Most EFL rare books have this type of record
• Many errors because information was not checked
  against the books before being loaded onto OLIS
• Usually only have EFL holdings
• If an item with an EFL basic record is also held
  by other Oxford libraries, there will be a
  separate record on OLIS for the other libraries
  holdings, if they are on OLIS

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3. ESTC eighteenth century records

• ESTC records for eighteenth-century material with
  Oxford holdings.
• Often detailed and reliable
• Lack some information included in the Oxford
  antiquarian standard
• e.g. standardised forms of printers names
• Different punctuation conventions from Oxford
  antiquarian standard

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4. Oxford antiquarian records

• Oxford antiquarian standard is used for all books
  published up to 1820 and for many up to 1850
• When any of the earlier, more basic records are
  revised
• When any new records are created
• More information is included than for modern
  books
• Copy-specific notes are given about, e.g.
• Binding
• Provenance
• Imperfections of individual copies

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4. Oxford antiquarian records

• The extra information included in Oxford
  antiquarian records and the special searches
  which can be used to retrieve it are described in
  the 2006 revision to the yellow leaflet
• OLIS searching for older printed material
  (pre-1850)
• Available on the web as a link from
• English Faculty Library web site
• http//www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/english/books
• WebLearn, under M.St. in English Studies,
  1550-1780
• http//www.weblearn.ox.ac.uk/site/human/english/ma
  terials/grad/mstpages/mst/
• The Early Modern Web at Oxford (EMWO)
• http//users.ox.ac.uk/lina0897/emwo/oxford_resour
  ces.shtml

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Telnet OLIS and web OLISwhich version to use
when/searching tips

• Telnet
• To place stack requests at the Bodleian for
  certain periodical parts
• To limit your search to a particular library
• Offers greater and more flexible search options
  than are currently available on the web OPAC, so
  better suited to the more complex searches
  sometimes necessary for antiquarian material
• See the OLIS Second Search Screen for further
  options
• highlight Further search options (second screen)
  from the 'Welcome to OLIS screen and press
  Return
• For additional search options which are not
  listed on the Telnet screens, see section 4 of
  the yellow leaflet and the revised handout
• When you have retrieved a record, highlight Full
  display and press Return in order to see the
  fullest version of the record

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Telnet OLIS and web OLISwhich version to use
when/searching tips

• Web OPAC
• At the Choose Database screen, click on Both
  Oxford OLIS and Bodleian Pre-1920 Catalogues to
  avoid missing items.
• If you have a long list of results, you can sort
  them by date (provided there are not more than
  500 results) and then use the Jump to option to
  move quickly to the early editions towards the
  end of the list.
• Once you have located a record, click on the Full
  Display and, if necessary, scroll up and down, to
  see the whole bibliographic record and the copy
  specific notes (lacking in the Normal Display)
  for each library with holdings.
• If an OLIS record has a link to an electronic
  resource, e.g. EEBO, you can click directly into
  the resource from the web OPAC version of OLIS.

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Demonstration of relevant search techniques live
examples

• How to find early editions of
• Apuleius Metamorphoses
• Spensers The faerie queene
• Shakespeare criticism
• Jonsons Timber or, Discoveries
• Marvells A collection of poems on affairs of
  state
• Popes The Dunciad
• Anne Finch
• Compare and contrast the records and the holdings
  information in printed STC Wing, and in OLIS,
  ESTC, HPB, EEBO ECCO

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Demonstration of relevant search techniques live
examples

• Specific searching tips for Telnet OLIS and web
  OLIS
• See 2006 revision to the yellow leaflet
• OLIS searching for older printed material
  (pre-1850)
• Available on the web in a pdf version for
  printing at
• http//www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/english/books

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Conclusion

• It is important not to rely on a single approach
• Particularly while the catalogues are in such a
  state of flux
• Try different ways of searching OLIS, ESTC, etc.
• A single source will not necessarily produce a
  comprehensive result
• Contact the libraries that have relevant
  collections

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Further sources of help

• Library staff
• Especially Duke Humfrey staff,
• who can provide expertise
• not only on the Bodleians holdings,
• but also on Oxford libraries in general
• ESTC and HPB directly via the online feedback
  facilities
• If you have a particular question about ESTC,
• Sarah Wheale, sarah.wheale_at_ouls.ox.ac.uk
• can pass it on to a member of ESTC

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Bibliography

• Reference works used by cataloguers
• See appendix 2 in
• http//www.lib.ox.ac.uk/icc/antiq/

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Exercises

• To practise searching the OxLIP databases
• ESTC
• HPB,
• try the exercises on the pink sheets
• Answers and searching tips are given on the blue
  sheets
• Try searching for the same titles on OLIS
• If you have any questions, please contact
  clare.jarvis_at_efl.ox.ac.uk