Special Collections Librarian Heads to Scotland

University of St Andrews Courtyard by Jared and Corin [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Next week, Special Collections Librarian Alison Greenlee heads to Scotland for six weeks to join a team of interns working on the Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) project. This project, based at the University of St Andrews, is an online database of all books printed in Europe prior to 1601. Thanks to continued support, the project has expanded to cover the 1600s. This summer’s interns will be working with the University Library’s uncataloged 17th century collections. For more information on the USTC, see the project’s website.

A short title catalog (Brit. catalogue) is a bibliographical resource which lists printed items in an abbreviated fashion, recording the most important words of their titles. The term is commonly encountered in the context of early modern books, which frequently have lengthy, descriptive titles on their title pages.

A selection of 17th century books from McFarlin Library

Greenlee has been cataloging rare materials for four years, but she is looking forward to working with more early modern books. McFarlin Library currently has close to 1500 books printed before 1800, and those with outdated or brief records would benefit from the extra attention that rare materials cataloging requires.

Follow Alison Greenlee’s bibliographical adventures in Scotland on this blog, on the department’s Facebook page, or on Twitter @alisongreenlee.

About Alison M. Greenlee

Special Collections Librarian, McFarlin Library, The University of Tulsa.
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