General Cataloging Sites

• UCSD TPOT
• Cataloger's Reference Shelf--Includes texts of Marc Formats and Code Lists, LC Subject cataloging Manuals and ancillary manuals such as the Conser Editing Manual and DCRB
• Internet Library for Librarians Cataloging page--A number of the following sites can also be accessed from this site.
• MIT Cataloging Oasis
• Princeton Library Cataloging Division Documentation
• Cataloguer's Toolbox--Memorial University Newfoundland
• SUNY Buffalo Cataloging Information (Good list of authority reference sources)
• Cornell Tech Services Procedures and Documentation
• Cornell Voyager Information

Rare Book Cataloging Sites and Resources

• DCRB, 2nd ed., from The Library Corporation.--DCRM(B) is not available freely through the Web.
• DCRM(B)--Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books)
• Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts (AMREMM)
• DCRM(S)--Descriptive Cataloging of Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Serials)
• DCRM(M)--Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Music)
• DCRM(G)--Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Graphics)
• DCRM(MSS)--Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Manuscripts)
• DCRM(C)--Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Cartographic)
• RBMS Controlled Vocabulary (Formerly RBMS Thesauri) Online Version
• Bibliographic Standards Committee List of Relator Terms
• CILIP UK Bibliographic Standards CommitteeIncludes the following sites:
  • Rare Books and Special Collections Group's Guide for the Cataloguing of Rare Books
  • From DCRB to DCRM(B)
• International Standard Bibliographic Description for Older Monographic Publications (ISBD(A))
• Guidelines for Using UNIMARC for Older Monographic Publications (ANTIQUARIAN)--IFLA
• UCSD TPOT Special Collections--Note the link to new policies for the Mandeville Special Collections Library
• Yale University Library Rare Book Team

• Special Topics

  • Descriptive Cataloging of 19th Century Books
  • ARLIS/NA Cataloging Section
  • Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I : Subject Terms
  • Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II : Genre & Physical Characteristic Terms
  • OLAC's Authority Tools for Audiovisual and Music Catalogers
  • Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online
  • Cataloging Biblical Materials

Library of Congress Lists

• Library of Congress Authorities
• MARC Home Page
• Individual USMARC Codes and Formats
  • Country Codes
  • Geographic Area Codes list
  • Language Codes
  • Code List for Relators, Sources, Description Conventions
  • MARC 21 Format for Authority Data
  • MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data
  • MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data
  • Initial Definite and Indefinite Articles
  • LCSH Weekly Lists
  • LCSH Tentative Weekly Lists
  • LC Cutter Tables from MIT
  • LC P-Class Table 40 from MIT
  • LC Individual Biography Cutter Table from MIT
  • LC Translation Cutter Table from MIT
  • Regions and Countries Table
  • Canadian Provinces and U.S. States Table
  • Cataloging Calculator (for Cutters) by Kyle Banerjee
  ALA-LC Romanization Tables

Reference Sources

General Reference Sites
• Refdesk.com

Language Resources

• Your Dictionary.com list of online grammars
• Language Dictionaries and Translators--From Word2Word
• Your Dictionary.com online dictionaries
• Search form for online Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary (Perseus Project)
• Glossary of Common Latin Terms Found in Imprints of Early Printed Books by Robert L. Maxwell
• Guide to Latin Prepositions
• Princeton's list of vernacular designators
• Allen And Greenough's New Latin Grammar
• Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek dictionaries--and also Here
• Liddell & Scott Intermediate Lexicon
• Grimm's Deutsches Woerterbuch

Biography Sites

• VIAF = Virtual International Authority File
• CERL Thesaurus Search Form--Names with variants of persons, printers, places, corporate bodies from the hand press era; contributions by a large number of European libraries
• Biography.com
• S9.com Biographical Dictionary--This says it has become a Wikipedia type system, caveat bibliothecarius
• Ancestry's Social Security Death Index--Less freely accessible information than formerly.
• Michaud's Biographie Universelle--Click on Decouverte, then Dictionnaires, then Dictionnaires biographiques, then Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne Change to Click on Advanced Search, the author Michaud, title Biographie Universelle. Each volume has a separate record and access.
• ADB/NDB Deutsche Biographie
• Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon
• Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz
• Complete list of popes
• On-line Calendar of Saints Days--Pre-1500 saints
• Catholic Online Saints Pages--Includes later saints
• Dominican martyrology (from a 1955 edition)
• Paul Halsall's Saints' Lives section from the Internet Medieval Source Book
• Union List of Artist Names Online
• Search form for over 350,000 artists, dealers, etc. From the Netherlands Institute for Art History
• IFLA Names of Persons: National Usages for Entry in Catalogues, 4th ed.

Place Names

• NGA GEOnet Names Server (GNS)
• USGS Geographic Names Information System Query form
• RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee Latin Place Names--This contains AACR2 forms when these have been established.
• Cathedral Library Catalogue Names of Printing Towns
• Graesse's Orbis Latinus (1909 ed.)
• Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online
• Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionaries of England, Scotland, and Wales, 1846-1849
• Geographical Names of Canada--Helpful links to Other Sources
• Mathematical Data for Bibliographic Descriptions of Cartographic Materials and Spatial Data--Includes equivalents of obsolete units of measurements (e.g. leagues of various sorts).

Calendars and Computus

• O. Lieberknecht's Calendar Tools--Converts dates to and from Gregorian and Roman Calendars with indictions and different dates for the New Year.
• Perpetual Calendar for Postal Historians--Detailed information on the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in different parts of Europe
• Khayam A Persian Calendar Program
• English Calendar by Ian MacInnes, Albion College--Gives Old and New Style dates, regnal years, days of the week
• The French Republican Calendar--Includes Conversion Tables from the Republican calendar to Gregorian dates
• Calculation of the Ecclesiastical Calendar--Years, days of the week; by Marcos Montes
• Grotefend's Zeitrechnung des deutschen Mittelalters und der Neuzeit--Includes local calendars and lists saints and their feast days in different places
• Calendoscope-Repertory of Medieval (and early modern) Liturgical Calendars to localize and date materials--Says it is designed for Internet Explorer
• Roman Numeral Date Conversion with Roman Calculator--From Stephen Gibbs
• Roman Numeral Date Conversion Table For the Years A.D. 1400-2000 (years only); by Christopher Handy
• Roman Numeral Year Dates : a Conversion Guide--Also by Christopher Handy
• Roman Gregorian equivalents for every day of the year--From Paul Lewis

Special Collections Sites

• Universitaet Frankfurt Internetquellen zu Handschriften (inkl. Inkunabeln, Nachlaesse, Alte Drucke)--by no means limited to manuscripts.
• Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association home page
• Information Resources for Early Books and Manuscripts--From the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbuettel
• John Carter's ABC for Book Collectors, 2004 edition

History of the Book and Printing

• Bibliopolis: the History of the Printed Book in the Netherlands--Contains articles and databases of persons, images, books, and a glossary
• Il libro antico--Note the section on Il libro antico in Biblioteca
• Rare Books in Astronomy Free Online Resources--From the Library of the Observatory of the University of Palermo
• Antiquarisch Woordenboek in vier talen = Antiquarian Dictionary in four languages (Dutch, English, French, German)--compiled by Jelle Samshuijzen for antiquarian booksellers
• Dan Traister's Resources for the history of books and printing

Special Topics for Rare Books

Incunables

• Incunabula: Dawn of Western Printing--A rich site, the chapter on typefaces and pages GfT types (with some images), the glossary and the page of links are particularly worth examining. exploring.
• Incunabula-General Links--From the Andy Holt Virtual Library by Bob Peckham
• Das fruehe deutsche Buchtitelblatt database.
• The incunable title page by Ursula Rautenberg--Follow the links to the project publications.
• Yale Rare Book Team Signature Pagination Table
• Quire Calculator--By Christopher Handy, for Macintosh

Watermarks

• Piccard Collection of Watermarks in the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart
• Watermark database of incunables printed in the Low Countries--aka WILC
• Watermarks from the Biblioteca da Ajuda
• Thomas L. Gravell Watermark Archive
• Archive of Papers and Watermarks in Greek Manuscripts

Bindings

• American Bookbinders Museum--Note Bookbinders and Endpapers tabs
• British Library Database of Bookbindings--Images and Descriptions
• German Database of 15th and 16th Bindings
• Publishers' Bindings Online, 1815-1930: The Art of Books--From the University of Alabama. Note the Research Links
• Some Interesting Bindings--A Bookseller's catalog with some excellent illustrations

Printing and Publishing Information

• SHARP Listing of Publishers' Records sites
• Gallery of Book Trade Labels--From Greg Kindal. Continued here.
• Major American Publishers--From the Hyde Park Bookstore
• Index of Modern Paperback Publishers--From the Hyde Park Bookstore
• Publishers' Trade List Annual Index of Contributors and Advertisers 1873-1947--Under construction but has summary indices 1873-1910
• 19th Century American Children's Book Trade Directory--American Antiquarian Society
• Exeter Working Papers in British Book Trade History--Digitized list of book trade personnel 1775-1800 and other documents
• British Fiction 1800-1829 : a Database of Production, Circulation & Reception
• British Book Trade Index
• Scottish Book Trade Index
• Historical Directories--19th century British commercial, trade and municipal directories
• R.I.E.C.H, Repertoire des imprimeurs et editeurs suisses actifs avant 1800
• Passe-Partout, International Bank of Printers' Ornaments
• BCU Lausanne Banques de données d'ornements d'imprimerie de la Réserve précieuse--This site includes the following sites among others
• Fleuron-Contains digitized version of many ornaments used by 18th century Swiss printers, arranged by size
• Printers's Marks from the University of Barcelona Library
• The printer/publisher database at the Herzog August Bibliothek
• Printers' Marks from the Biblioteca da Ajuda
• List of Printers from the Utrecht University Library
• Bibliopolis--Persons, Biographical Information on the Dutch Book Trade

Auxiliary Sites

• Paul Dijstelberger's Collection on Type and Typography--A larger number of initials and illustrations from 16th century and earlier printers. Includes Haebler's European Specimen Collection.
• American Antiquarian Society's Guide to Dating American Tract Society Publications
• CERL Provenance page--Note the list of online sources, arranged by geographical area
• Home Page for the Lucille Project by Sid Huttner
• Robert's and Etherington's Bookbinding and the Conservation of books : A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology
• Melbourne Museum of Printing Glossary of Printing and Typography
• Uncorrected Proofs/Advance Copies Glossary
• The POP-UP World of Ann Montanaro--Exhibit with some useful information and wonderful images
• Heraldica--An introductory site

Paleography, Scribal Contractions and Abbreviations

• Web Access for Manuscript-based Textual Scholarship--Note the sections on Paleography & diplomatics, Codicology, Single authors & works, and Manuscript collections
• 17th and 18th century paleographic (and other) resources online--Another gift from the Yale Rare Book Cataloging Team that contains some wonderful sites
• Palaeography, reading old handwriting, 1500-1800--An online tutorial
• Medieval and Early Modern Palaeography Courses--By David Postles, University of Leicester
• Cours de Paleographie: Archive de course d'Arisitum--The 13 units and three exams of a course in early modern French ms. hands.
• Scribal abbreviations--Explanation of the system by Stephen Reimer
• Paleography: punctuation--By Reimer as well
• Old German Handwritten Scripts
• Read Suetterlin/Read Blackletter--German cursive alphabets and lessons on reading them
• Fraktur Alphabet
• Greek ligatures
• Greek abbreviations

Images of Rare Books

• Zentrales Verzeichnis Digitalisierter Drucke-Sponsored by Hochschulbibliothekszentrum des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen and others, including the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• DigiMisc, Digitalisierung und Digitalisierte Bestände - Miscellanea und Register--List of sites
• Consultation of Incunabula Online--From the Andy Holt Virtual Library by Bob Peckham
• Muenchener Digitalisierungszentrum Digitale Bibliothek
• Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Digital collections
• Emblem Related Websites--From the University of Glasgow's Centre for Emblem Studies
• German Emblem Books : a digital imaging project--University of Illinois Library. Contains links to other emblem projects, will eventually include a database
• University of Pennsylvania Library's Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image--Digital facsimiles of books, manuscripts and visual materials
• Online Emblem books from Pennsylvania State University
• Emblem Project Utrecht
• AlteDruckeDigital, List of pre-1800 books digitized by German Libraries and Institutions
• University of Bielefeld Library's Digital reproductions of early and rare books
• Bayerische Staatsbibliothek's digitization of prints from incunables
• Bayerische Staatsbibliothek's CodIcon Online--Early modern illustrated codices. Look at the descriptions to get the ms number and then click on Blaettern to see the images
• Fondo Digitales of the University of Seville's Digitized Collections
• Links to Portuguese Digital Libraries
• Bibliotheque Interuniversitaire de Medecine--Numerous early books in this collection of digitized books
• Botanicus: Digitization of early botanical books--From the Missouri Botanical Garden Library.
• List of early western books digitized by Japanese Libraries
• European Illustrated Book and Manuscripts, ca. 1400-1700--From Takami Matsuda, Keio University
• The Super-Enlightenment-Texts--From Stanford University
• Ohio Imprints Digital Library, 1797-1850
• Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls--From Stanford, mostly covers
• Street and Smith Project--Syracuse University
• Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature, University of Florida--Over 2500 digitized children's books
• 19th Century American Schoolbooks--The Nietz Collection at the University of Pittsburgh
• American Sunday School Books--American Memory
• Early modern newssheets at the Biblioteca Universitaria de Sevilla--Facsimiles and catalog
• American broadsides and printed ephemera--American Memory
• Crime Broadsides Collection of the Harvard Law Library
• Historic American Sheet Music--Duke University
• America Singing: 19th Century American Song Sheets--American Memory
• The Spectator Project, a Hypermedia archive of 18th century periodicals
• Princeton Seminary Digital Library, 17th-20th century works
• Bibles from Sources Chretiennes--Includes facsimiles of mss., various translations, concordances, etc.
• Gutenberg Bible--British Library copies
• Gutenberg Bible Goettingen Copy
• Gutenberg Bible--University of Texas Ransom Center copy

Catalogs which can be useful for Special Collections Cataloging

• Incunabula Catalogs--From the Andy Holt Virtual Library by Bob Peckham
• Incunabula Short Title Catalog--Search Form Here
• COPAC--Union Catalogue of 24 British research libraries plus the British Library and the National Library of Scotland
• Il libro antico--Catalogazione e cataloghi di libri antichi--A large and growing list
• LIBDEX Library Index by Countries
• LIBDEX list of Libraries and Web catalogs by State
• English Short-Title Catalog 1473-1800
• American Antiquarian Society Catalogs
• Morgan Library of Ohio Imprints, 1796-1850
• Corsair, the Online Catalog of the Pierpont Morgan Library--Includes descriptions and images of medieval and renaissance mss.
• Glasgow University Library Special Collections Catalogues and Indexes
• Catalogue collectif de France, CCFR--Click on Base patrimoine
• Inkunabel-Katalog deutscher Bibliotheken (INKA)
• Inkunabelkatalog der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek
• Inkunabelkatalog der UB Graz / Hans Zotter
• Inkuknablzensus Oesterreich
• Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke--Requires downloading a client
• VD-16 -- Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts
• VD-17 -- Das Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts
• Catalogues and Databases of the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbuettel
• Catalogo colectivo del patrimonio bibliografico espanol
• Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico --You can limit the search to "Libro antico"
• The Census of Italian 16th Century Editions: EDIT 16--Also from the ICCU
• Cataleg del fons antic of the University of Barcelona Library--Go to cerca anvancada and select "Fons antic" in dropdown menu for "Subcatelegs"
• Database of Nordic Neo-Latin Literature --Not limited to books printed in Scandinavia
• Biblioteca digital Dioscorides--Includes catalog and browse list by title and images of illustrations
• Il Seicento : Le Edizioni del Seicento possedute dall'Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti--Over 600 17th century titles
• Empoli Public Library "Renato Fucini" Catalogue of Sixteenth Century Editions--Search by author, bookseller/printer, owner. Descriptions plus digitized title pages and printer's marks
• Renaissance Liturgical Imprints : a Census--Includes search interface and bibliographies
• Flemish Short Title Catalogue 1601-1700--Click on Access then on the language in which you which to search
• Biblia Sacra, bibles printed in the Netherlands and Belgium, 1477-1600--With detailed descriptions and some reproductions
• John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera at the Bodleian Library
• University of Glasgow Emblem Site--Includes a short-title catalogue

Medieval Manuscripts

Cataloging of Medieval MSS

• Digital Scriptorium --Search Form
• Lou Burnard's Report on the Studley Priory Conference on Ms. Encoding
• MASTER Project Cataloguing Home Page--Link for Rules does not lead to a document
• Latest version of the Reference Manual TEI Manuscript Description
• Encoded Archival Description Home Page--At the Library of Congress
• Vatican Film Library, St. Louis University
• "Handschriftenkatalogisierung und Internet" by Alois Haidinger--A 1999 lecture with many links
• Handschriften, Inkunabeln, und fruehe Drucke--Mediaevum.de, Das altgermanistische Internetportal Medievalia--Formerly Handschriften-Forum of the Universitaet Marburg
• British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, Glossary--From Michelle P. Brown, Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms, 1994
• WZMA, Wasserzeichen des Mittalters--Medieval watermarks
• Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania--Includes records of auction sales and provenance records for over 75,000 mss
• Greek Paleography Sites

Images of Medieval MSS

• Delicious Recent Manuscripts Tag
• Manuscripts, Paleography, Codicology from Georgetown's Labyrinth--Includes links to many images
• Manuscripta Medievalia's Digitized Mss.
• List of digitized manuscripts from Mediaevum.de
• Large Digital Libraries of Western MSS--By Klaus Graf
• Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections
• Irish Scripts on Screen--Facsimiles of mss in many places
• The Parker Library on the Web
• Early Manuscripts at Oxford University
• Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum--A large collection of images arranged by Iconclass
• Digitized Manuscripts in the Danish Royal Library
• Images from the Pierpont Morgan Library's Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts
• New York Public Library Digital Gallery Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from Western Europe
• Bibliotheque municipal de Lyon. Manuscrits merovingiens et carolingiens
• Codices Electronici Ecclesiae Coloniensis (CEEC)
• Codices Electronici Sangallenses--Currently over 144 manuscripts from Saint Gall
• Digital MSS collection of the Research Library in Olomouc

Catalogs of Medieval MSS

• Latin Manuscript Books before 1600 by Paul Kristeller
• UCLA Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts
• British Library Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
• Beinecke Library Medieval and Renaissance Mss.
• Handschriftendatenbank for Manuscripta Mediaevalia--International selection, mostly German, of digitized mss. and catalog entries
• E-versions of Mss. catalogs for the Austrian National Library
• Manuscripta Medievalia's online index to the Mss. catalogs sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• University of Glasgow Manuscripts Catalogue
• Danish Royal Library catalogs and databases of manuscripts
• On-Line Inventory-Catalogue of the Ambrosiana Drawings
• Adam McLean's Database of Alchemical Manuscripts
• Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine Catalogue
• Inventory of U. of Penn. Medieval MSS Microfilm Collection

This page was prepared for a workshop on Electronic Resources for the Rare Book Cataloger held at the 1997 RBMS Preconference in Claremont, California which was presented by Eric Holzenberg, Director and Librarian of the Grolier Club, and Larry Creider, Special Collections Librarian at the New Mexico State University Library , and previously Head of the Original Cataloging Department in the Information Processing Center in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. The program was originally sponsored by the Bibliographic Standards Committee of the Rare Books and Manuscript Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries of the American Library Association, which has continued to sponsor this page. Thanks are also due to Carol Boyse, Systems Librarian at New Mexico State University Library.