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A Note on our Catalogues

Modern cataloguing of the collection began in 1997, but was interrupted by the death in office of the Librarian-in-Charge. Since the appointment of his successor in 2004, updated software has been installed as part of a programme of renewal linking the present website to the catalogue’s evolution. The principal stages of this process are as follows.  

1) The 1730 Catalogue: This is the only version of the complete catalogue available. It includes only the basic bibliographical information.

2) The Modern Catalogue: This is a partial catalogue which presently includes c 33% of the collection, covering the areas of  History, Medicine and pre-1733 Reference. This catalogue is to modern specification and is constantly being updated.

3) Eighteenth-century Booksellers’ Catalogues. The complete catalogue is available.

4) Nineteenth-century parliamentary publications (mainly of a historical character) deposited by order of parliament. A prototype catalogue is currently available.

5) The recently established Reference collection. As this is constantly expanding it remains a work in progress.

6) The Incunables collection – at present this includes only the basic bibliographical information taken from the 1730 catalogue but this will shortly be augmented by a comprehensive treatment by Professor Jean Paul Pittion.

The incorporation of data relating to (first) collational formulae and (later) watermarks will proceed as resources permit. It is likewise intended that extensive digital images of bindings and other visual material will be attached to the Catalogue in conjunction, it is hoped, with international shared ventures.