Rare Books and Manuscripts Department

The geographic file for printed material contains 114,000 bibliographic records on individual catalog cards filed alphabetically by place of creation. While the geographic file contains cards for less than half of the printed items in the BPL Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, it is still a useful entry point into the collections.

In the geographic file, most records are filed by continent, then country, then state/province, then city. Additionally:

• Books published in Ireland or in the U.K. are filed chronologically under Europe-->British Isles-->country-->city
• Books published in the West Indies are filed chronologically under North America-->West Indies-->country-->city

Click on the links below to browse the cards online.

The default view for all digitized catalog cards is in the form of a book reader. With the scroll bar, you can navigate quickly through the whole drawer, or you can click from one card to the next using the "left" and "right" arrows. Limited keyword searching across the entire main entry file is available through the Internet Archive collections page. See the Keyword search tab above for detailed instructions.

The chronological file for printed materials contains approximately 65,000 bibliographic records on individual catalog cards, filed by year of publication. Within each year, records are organized alphabetically by author or, where no author is known, by title.

While the chronological file for printed materials contains records for only a fraction of the collections in the BPL Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, it is still a valuable entry point into the collections.

Click on the links below to browse the cards online.

The default view for all digitized catalog cards is in the form of a book reader. With the scroll bar, you can navigate quickly through the whole drawer, or you can click from one card to the next using the "left" and "right" arrows. Limited keyword searching across the entire main entry file is available through the Internet Archive collections page. See the Keyword search tab above for detailed instructions.

This set of 173,000 cards contains shelf lists for a number of different call number ranges. In general, materials within each range are listed in numerical order. In some cases, sequences are broken out by size (folio, portfolio, broadside); in other cases, books of different sizes are presented within the same sequence.

While many of these files still accurately reflect the collections to which they correspond, others do not. Some lists date to the early 20th century and, over time, books may have been deaccessioned, transferred to other curatorial departments, or reclassified. However, researchers might still find these lists valuable for the comprehensive overview of collections that they can provide.

Additionally, cards in these files often contain brief notes about acquisition of the materials described. In many cases, this acquisition information is not readily available in other sources.

The default view for all digitized catalog cards is in the form of a book reader. With the scroll bar, you can navigate quickly through the whole drawer, or you can click from one card to the next using the "left" and "right" arrows. Limited keyword searching across the entire main entry file is available through the Internet Archive collections page. See the Keyword search tab above for detailed instructions.

Card catalog searching guide

1. Do you know the author's name, or the name of a person who is associated with the item, like the recipient of a letter or the subject of a biography?

• Yes. Go to the digitized card catalog (above) and search by name. If the work is anonymous, search under the title.

• No. If you do not know the name of an author or creator, go to step 2.

2. Do you know the place where the item was created?

• Yes. Go to the geographic file (above) and search by place.

• No. If you do not know the place of creation, go to step 3.

3. Do you know the date when the item was created?

• Yes. Go to the chronological file (above) and search by date.

• No. If you do not know when the item was created, go to step 4.

4. Is the item you’re looking for related to a particular subject, like mathematics or astronomy; or is it a particular kind of book or manuscript, like a diary or a Bible?

• Yes. Search the digitized card catalog (above) by the subject or type of material. Certain special subjects and types of books and manuscripts have their own sections.

• No. If you can't find your item by subject, go to step 5.

5. Can you think of ay keywords associated with the item?

• Yes. Go to the keyword search tab, above.

• No. Contact the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department. Just because something does not appear in our card catalogs, or elsewhere on our website, doesn’t mean we don’t have what you’re looking for!

Reading Catalog Cards

The information found in catalog cards is typically structured in order to be consistent from one card to the next. Information is also formulated to adhere to cataloging standards. So, for example, names are typically recorded last-name-first, certain abbreviations are used regularly, and the extent of an item (how many pages it contains) is recorded in a very particular way. Understanding where these pieces of info typically appear and what they usually look like will make it easier to use the card catalog. See the explanations below.

1. Author name. Allen, Joseph, Bp. of Ely, d. 1845

This is the name of the person primarily responsibly for the creation of the item. In this case, we are looking at a description of a letter written by Joseph Allen, Bishop of Ely (1770-1845).

2. Other associated name. To A[nthony] Panizzi

Anthony Panizzi was the recipient of this letter. Brackets typically enclose words or letters not found in the original manuscript. So in this case, we can assume that the name of the recipient appears in the letter as "A. Panizzi."

3. Date of creation. 1847 May 17

This is the date on which the item was created. The date typically appears in the upper-left portion of the card. If no date is known, cards are sometimes marked "n.d." (for no date). If date and month, but not year, are known, cards are sometimes marked "n.y." (for no year)

4. Place. [Dover St. London]

This is the place where the item was created. Usually this information is taken directly from the item. If it is not found on the item, but has been added to the description by the cataloger, it will usually be enclosed in brackets, as with this example.

5. Summary. Would be glad to purchase the brass bishop for the Cathedral . . .

This is a brief summary of the content of the item. These summaries are sometimes very lengthy, containing direct quotes. At other times, they can be very brief. Often they are omitted entirely.

6. Call number. G.51.7.1 no. 15.

A call number is a unique ID given to every item in the collection. A call number tells librarians where the item is stored. If you end up requesting to see a particular item, remember to always include the call number in your request. If you're not sure where the call number begins or ends, it's always better to include more info than less.

7. Extent and size. 2 pp. 4 1/2 x 7 1/2 cm.

In this area, the extent of an item (how many pages it's made up of) and the full size of the item is recorded. In this particular note, "pp." stands for pages -- the letter is two pages long and it measures 4.5 x 7.5 cm.

BPL's digitized card catalogs are hosted online by Internet Archive. Each card catalog has been digitized along with the geographic and chronological files that go along with it. Limited keyword searching within the card catalogs and their accompanying files is available through the Internet Archive collection page for each:

• Search the main entry catalog
• Search the geographic file
• Search the chronological file
• Search the shelf list

For best results, and to fully understand the significant limitations of keyword searching, please read the guide below.

Guide to keyword searching

To perform a limited keyword search of all cards in any specific catalog, first go to the Internet Archive collection page for the catalog you want to search.

Each collection page will have a search box on the left side of the screen. There are two buttons underneath the search box. Select the "text contents" button, type your query into the search box, then hit "enter." Files that contain matching results will appear. Click on each file to browse any cards that matched your search.

Once you have clicked on the file, you will see one or more blue marks along the scroll bar in the book reader. These marks show the locations of cards that contain text matching your search. You can scroll to the matches, or navigate directly to them using the arrow buttons above the scroll bar.

Limitations of searching

Search results should never be considered complete. The search engine relies on text files that have been automatically generated from digitized images of the cards themselves. The process of generating machine-readable text from images is called optical character recognition (OCR). OCR is far from perfect. Blurry or poorly printed cards, handwritten notes close to text, and even different typefaces can all render text generated via OCR extremely unreliable.

Above, a standard catalog card, with small, slightly blurred text. Below, the searchable text file generated from this image is partially garbled.