Copac News

We are pleased to announce that the libraries of the National Trust are now live on Copac. This is the first time that the National Trust's catalogue has been available to search online.

The National Trust owns 140 historic libraries, containing around 230,000 titles, generally preserved in the places where they were originally assembled and read. Many are country house libraries, some collected by wealthy bibliophiles, others containing more practical everyday books, including rare provincial printing. Other collections reflect the interests of middle-class readers; some were assembled by literary figures, such as Kipling and Shaw.

Together these libraries provide an unparalleled resource for the study of the history of private book ownership in Britain and Ireland. The collections will be of interest to researchers from a wide range of disciplines, and include a huge variety of materials, from illuminated manuscripts to picture postcards.

For fuller details please see the National Trust's Books and Manuscripts collection webpages, or contact libraries@nationaltrust.org.uk. You can also see the National Trust's library page on Copac.

We are confident that exposure of these exciting resources will be of great benefit to the education and research communities.

Labels: database updates, libraries

We have now loaded records for the University of Bradford's Special Collections. This is in addition to the records already on Copac for Bradford's Russian and Eastern European Studies (REES) holdings.

Named collections include the Mitrinović Library, the J B Priestley and Jaquetta Hawkes Collections, and the Commonweal Collection. Subject strengths include peace studies; Latin American history and politics; archaeology; history of Bradford and Yorkshire; religion; and the history of science, technology, and medicine. These collections have been added as part of the Challenge Fund.

Digital image of Stari Most copyright the University of Bradford.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

We are currently reloading the Imperial College London catalogue to reflect local catalogue changes. Consequently, c. half of the Imperial catalogue will be unavailable on Copac this week. It should begin to reappear next Monday but the full reload is likely to take a couple of weeks. Apologies for the short-term loss of availability of this material.

Labels: database updates

The reload of the Tate Library (Tate Britain) records is now complete, and up-to-date records are available for searching via Copac.

Labels: database updates

The reload of the Imperial catalogue is now complete, and all records are available for searching via Copac.

Labels: database updates

The library of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow holds a significant collection of books, journals and pamphlets that span several centuries, from historical to modern items. As the only royal medical college for physicians, surgeons and dentists in the United Kingdom, a wide range of subjects is covered, including anatomy, surgery, medicine, botany, dentistry, and the diseases of the eye. The library has also built up, over many years, a good collection of resources relating to Glasgow and the West of Scotland.

The catalogue has been added as part of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

The multimedia library of the Institut français (French Institute) offers wide and varied documentation on France, and especially the works of French and French-speaking authors. With over 60,000 documents it holds one of the largest free-access collections of French material in the UK. From French language and civilization to culture and human sciences, every field of knowledge is covered in various media.

Among the assets of the library are:

• Contemporary French literature and all aspects of contemporary France


• A film collection of over 3,500 DVDs (feature and documentary films)


• A 5,000 strong CD section (music, talking-books)


• A collection of over 2,000 comic books


• Physical and on-line access to a large newspaper and magazine collection


• An Easy French and learning tools section

The Institut français (French Institute) opened in 1910 and is now located in an early 20th century Art Deco style building, also home of the newly-refurbished Ciné-Lumière and a Language Centre. Access to the Library is free and open to all.

The catalogue has been added as part of the work of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

The library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England holds a collection of national significance. Focussing on surgical and medically related literature, the collection contains materials from the late fifteenth century onwards, including many unique historical materials in a variety of formats. Holdings include tracts and pamphlets, and many paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs, as well as extensive monograph and journal collections. The contemporary collections focus on surgery, dentistry, anatomy, physiology and pathology. The library also holds "an extensive collection of books, tracts and journals concerning the history of surgery, dentistry and medicine."

The catalogue is being added as part of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

Chetham's Library was founded in 1653 and is the oldest public library in the English-speaking world. It holds more than 100,000 volumes of printed books, of which 60,000 were published before 1851. These include rich collections of sixteenth and seventeenth-century printed works, periodicals, broadsides and other ephemera, with strong collections in theology, history, law, medicine, and science.

The Library defines its core collection as those works which were acquired from the 1650s up to 1851, but has actually acquired a lot of material since then, including the collection of John Byrom, shorthand writer and linguist; 3,100 broadsides and single-sheet publications; a collection of early maps; a variety of Scrapbooks containing rare ephemera; a significant collection of shorthand material; and c. 7,000 tracts and pamphlets of various dates.

The catalogue has been added as part of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

The Society's Library is the major archaeological research library in the UK. The Library's present holdings number more than 100,000 books and around 800 currently received periodical titles.

It holds British county histories, a collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century books on the antiquities of Britain and other countries, and a wide-ranging collection of periodical titles (British and foreign) with runs dating back to the early to mid-nineteenth century.

A wide range of subjects is covered. The focus is on:
• British and European archaeology
• British record publications
• Architectural history
• Decorative arts
• Numismatics, heraldry and genealogy.

The catalogue has been added as part of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

York Minster Library is the largest cathedral library in the UK. It holds over 130,000 books with collections covering topics such as Theology, Art History, Stained Glass, History, Literature and Religious texts.

At the Minster, this collection is housed on the ground floor of the 13th century Archbishops' Chapel and is openly available to the public and can be checked out by registered users.

The catalogue has been added as part of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

We have loaded the catalogue of Guildhall Library, a collection which will be of great benefit to the research community. Guildhall Library, is one of the 5 public libraries operated by the City of London Corporation and is one of the oldest public libraries in the country. The Library has one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of printed works on London history and also outstanding resources on diverse subjects such as food and wine, gardening, law reports, English parliamentary papers, local history, marine history, clock and watch-making and archery.

The catalogue has been added as part of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

We have loaded the catalogue of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The Library and Archives at Kew hold one of the largest collections in the world of printed and original material relating to botany. The Library is the national collection for botanical literature and is international in its coverage In addition to the core collection on botany the collection also covers mycology and economic botany. The Library's particular strengths lie in material on the non-temperate areas of the world. The catalogue includes details of materials held at both Kew and Wakehurst Place.
The catalogue has been added as part of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

The complete catalogue of the Tate Library (Tate Britain) has now been loaded on Copac. The library covers British art since 1500 and international art since 1900. The library holds over 40, 000 books, 140,000 exhibition catalogues and many rare items in its special collections.The collections' strengths are modern and contemporary art.The collections focus on fine art in the Western tradition although coverage is being extended to other regions.

The records have been added as part of the Challenge Fund

Image of Tate Britain by xrrr, made available under a Creative Commons licence

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

The catalogue of the Royal Academy of Music's library has been added to Copac.

The library contains over 125,000 items including considerable collections of early printed and manuscript materials. The holdings include valuable items such as a partly-holograph manuscript of Purcell's Fairy Queen.

The special collections include a Sir Arthur Sullivan archive, a Sir Henry Wood archive, the Robert Spencer collection of early English song and music for lute and guitar and the Foyle Menuhin archive, which contains scores, books, letters, photographs and other items relating to the life of the violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

The records have been added as part of the Challenge Fund.

Photo by Inky Bob http://flickr.com/photos/inkybob/111863565/

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

Records from the Natural History Museum library have been added to Copac.

The library of the Natural History Museum is a reference library for biology, zoology and earth sciences including resources on ecology, biodiversity, molecular biology, taxonomy and the history of science. It provides international coverage with material dating from 1469 (a work entitled 'Plinius secundus nouocomensis equestribus militiis industrie functus').

The catalogue included on Copac contains monographs and serials acquired since 1989 and approximately 80% of earlier items. It does not include records for artworks held by the library.

The records have been loaded as part of the Challenge Fund.

Photo by ★eclaire http://flickr.com/photos/colouredinks/1228827142/

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

We have finished loading the catalogue of the University of Sheffield Library.

This incorporates details of materials in the range of University of Sheffield libraries, including medical libraries. There are also Special Collections of pre-1850 materials, representing documents published during the past 500 years.

Photograph of the Information Commons at the University of Sheffield by artq55: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/415809502_3c837ce5f7.jpg?v=0

Labels: database updates

We have completed loading the catalogue of the University of Manchester onto Copac. Since the merger of the two institutions the University of Manchester catalogue now includes the catalogue of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) Library.

As well as being a major academic library, the University of Manchester also incorporates the John Rylands Library Deansgate which houses one of the most spectacular collections of rare books and manuscripts in the world.


The Image of the John Rylands University Library is used by the kind permission of Kirk Northrop and is also © Copyright Kirk Northrop. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirknorthrop/96546537/

Labels: database updates

Records from the Institute of Education's online catalogue have been added to Copac.

The Institute of Education has the "largest collection in Europe of learned books and periodicals on educational studies". The library covers all aspects of education both in the UK and internationally. It also covers education-related topics such as psychology, philosophy, sociology and linguistics. The library has 22 special collections (although not all are available on Copac) which are mainly historical but some, such as the Official Publications collection, contain current materials.

The records have been loaded as part of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Photo by stevecadman http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1439/1174289011_e3217f5d33_m.jpg

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

Just over a third of the John Rylands University Library records are now in the Copac database. In total there are almost two million records to be loaded. The remainder of the records will be loaded over the next two weeks.

Labels: database updates

Records for Latin American materials at the University of Essex have been added to Copac. Copac already contains records for the REES (Russian and East European Studies) collection.

The Latin American collection contains materials from and about all countries of Latin America, the greatest number of records covering Argentina, Brazil and Mexico whilst the Uruguayan and Chilean holdings are among the most extensive in the UK. The principal languages are Spanish and Portuguese. The subjects reflect the Latin American teaching a research strengths within the university which cover most of the humanities and social sciences: art history, economic and social history, history, language, literature and politics.

It contains a significant collection of reference works: bibliographies, encyclopaedias, dictionaries and atlases. Minor specialities have been developed in:

• Latin American cinema
• Brazilian chapbooks (literatura de cordel)
• Mexican codices in facsimile

University of Essex's Latin American records have been added as part of the Challenge Fund.

Photo of the University library by access.denied: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/117/302940735_e78686b370_m.jpg

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

The Cathedral Libraries catalogue has been loaded onto Copac. This catalogue includes details of materials printed on the continent of Europe before 1701 and held in the libraries of 37 Anglican Cathedrals of England and Wales. Records for Cathedral Libraries books printed in the British Isles and British America and English books printed elsewhere are included in the English Short Title Catalogue.

The Cathedral Libraries catalogue is a "historic" catalogue representing the holdings of the cathedrals during the mid to late twentieth century when it was first created, so there is no guarantee that all the books in the catalogue are still in their original location, notably the library of Ely Cathedral was sold in 1972. For access to materials recorded on the catalogue it is important to contact the relevant cathedral library to ensure the document is available and to check access arrangements.

Further details of the Cathedral Libraries catalogue.

Labels: database updates

The Women's Library printed collections catalogue is now available on Copac.

The collections cover subjects such as women's rights, suffrage, sexuality, health, education, employment, reproductive rights, the family, and the home. The material mainly focuses on women in Britain but there is also some international material. The collections are a resource for women's history researchers, social and medical historians, sociologists, social policy researchers, journalists and biographers.

The catalogue includes records from a number of special collections. The Josephine Butler Society Library a fantastic resource for researching sexuality and public morality from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century. The society was established in the campaigns against the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864-1869. The Acts were put in place in an attempt to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in the armed forces. Police were given the power to identify and register prostitutes who were then forced to undergo medical examinations and if they refused they could be arrested and put before a magistrate. The campaigns were eventually successful and the Contagious Diseases Acts were suspended in 1883 and repealed in 1886.

The library was created to support the work of the society. The collection includes the Society's Library and also it's campaigning literature and business papers. As well as items on prostitution there are also works on slavery and trafficking of women.

The Cavendish- Bentinck collection contains mainly pre-1850 items, the earliest book An abstract of all the penall statutes ... is dated 1592. The collection as a whole shows women's contribution to literature and learning and records the position of women throughout history.

The Sadd Brown collection contains books and periodicals by and about women from the Commonwealth countries.

The Women's Library has been added as part of the Copac Challenge Fund.

Photo of archway above Women's Library: lewishamdreamer: http://flickr.com/photos/lewishamdreamer/31421368/

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

University of Leicester's Special Collections and English Local History Collection are now available on Copac.

The Special Collections include primary materials from local authors such as Sue Townsend and Joe Orton, extensive medieval manuscripts and 19th century periodicals. One of the highlights of the collections is the Robjohn's collection which contains most of the university's medieval manuscripts and the library's oldest book, a 12th century commentary on the Psalms by Gilbert de la Porée (Gilbertus Porretanus) , Bishop of Tours (d. 1154).

The Local History collection covers English topography, social and political history. The collection began with the Hatton collecton which was donated in 1920-21 to coincide with the opening of the University (then the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland College). It was donated by Thomas Hatton a local boot manufacturer and includes his topographical library and major county histories.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

The online printed books catalogue of Lambeth Palace Library is now available on Copac.

"Lambeth Palace Library is the historic library of the Archbishops of Canterbury and the principal library and record office for the history of the Church of England. The Library focuses on ecclesiastical history, but its rich collections are important for an immense variety of topics from the history of art and architecture to colonial and Commonwealth history, and for innumerable aspects of English social, political and economic history. It is also a significant resource for local history and genealogy."

"The core of the collection of early printed books was bequeathed by the Library's founder, Archbishop Bancroft, in 1610 and includes books belonging to some of his predecessors, namely Cranmer, Grindal and Whitgift. The collections have been enlarged by gifts from successive archbishops, especially Abbot, Sheldon, Tenison, Secker, and Davidson, by the acquisition of the libraries of the Dutch Church and Church House, and by a judicious policy of purchase by recent librarians."

Lambeth Palace is the second of the Challenge Fund libraries to be loaded. Ten other libraries will be added as a result of the Challenge Fund by Spring 2008.

Photo: stevecadman, http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman/411807975/

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

We have now finished loading records from the University of Birmingham Library catalogue. The one million records took us about two weeks to merge into the existing records on Copac. The overall size of the Copac database stayed pretty much the same — around 30 million records.

Labels: consolidation, database updates

Records from the University of Exeter's Middle East, Arab World Document Unit and Special Collections are now available on Copac.

The Middle East Collection is strong in most areas of Islamic studies, especially religion, philosophy, history, Arabic literature and all the social sciences. The AWDU covers all aspects of life (except literature and religion) in the Arabian countries plus Iran. The major strengths of the Special Collections include medieval and early modern history, nineteenth century studies and history of popular culture, and twentieth century literary and historical studies.

Exeter is the first library to be loaded as part of the Challenge fund - 11 others will be added as part of the project by Spring 2008. To see more information about the libraries to be loaded visit the forthcoming libraries page.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

The Copac Challenge Fund (an initiative jointly funded by CURL, RIN and the British Library to extend the coverage of Copac) has received the first files of data from the University of Essex and the University of Exeter. The data will now be processed and loaded into the CURL and Copac databases.

Twelve libraries have been selected by the Challenge fund panel to have their catalogues wholly or partially added to Copac:

• City of London Libraries
• Institute of Education
• Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
• Lambeth Palace Library
• Natural History Museum
• Royal Academy of Music
• St. Andrews University
• Tate Gallery
• University of Essex
• University of Exeter
• University of Leicester
• Women's Library, London Metropolitan University

The data from the libraries will be added to Copac by Spring 2008. Further information about the collections to be added can be found on the Copac website.

Labels: challenge fund, database updates

The final tranche of records from Cardiff University Library made it into the Copac database this morning. Altogether, we loaded 700,000 Cardiff records (in between applying updates from the other contributing libraries) in about 10 days. The de-duplication process slows down the loading rate — if we had loaded the records without the de-duplication they would have loaded in a single day.

Labels: consolidation, database updates

We have introduced RSS 1.0 feeds into the search interface (currently only our v3 interface.) After you have performed a search you will see the feed icon next to the search terms at the top of the search results page. The feed icon points to an RSS 1.0 feed for the search you have just performed. Depending on the software you are using, you may be able to drag and drop the icon into your RSS feed reader to setup the feed.

The Copac RSS feeds only show records loaded into our database within the last fortnight. Hence when initially setting up the feed you may not see all the records that your search found.

We see the RSS service as a type of saved search feature for Copac. The feed should alert you to new material as it is loaded into Copac. A downside to this may become apparent when one of our contributing libraries decides to change library system. The usual effect of this is that we have to delete and reload all of their records — hence that libraries records will re-appear in the RSS feed. Libraries also update records from time-to-time and this may result in records re-appearing in the RSS feed.

Let us know if you use the RSS feeds and whether or not they have been useful to you. (The RSS feeds should be appearing in the main Copac interface at the end of March 2007. Until then they are only in our v3 interface.)

Labels: database updates, rss, saved searches