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University of Nebraska–Lincoln

UNL Libraries

Nebraska's Comprehensive Research Library

The Eighteenth Century Collection

and Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue (ESTC)

The Eighteenth Century collection contains 5,425 reels of microfilm - reels published and produced through 1993 - comprising many of the available books, pamphlets, and single sheets published in Britain, British colonies and English-speaking countries during the 18th century.

LOCATION
The Eighteenth Century collection is stored in the Media Services area of Love Library in Love South 201.
  • Love MFilm B 1906
INDEX
The Eighteenth Century has a companion index in paper, which is shelved in the Reference area of Love Library. The index is divided into reel groupings, and each have a main-entry index, a title listing, and a subject index.
  • Love Ref PR 1134 E433x
The collection is based upon the Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue: the British Library Collections (ESTC), a catalog which Love Library owns on microfiche.
  • Love Mfiche S 202
Eighteenth Century
 

ESTC entries are listed under the main entry, which is usually the author, if known, and also under the title under certain circumstances. Since the ESTC was completed before the microfilm collection was produced, ESTC entries do not refer to specific locations of pieces within the microfilm collection. The ESTC can provide a specific reference to a title, author, date, or place of publication. Some items, though listed in the ESTC, can not be reproduced in the Eighteenth Century collection, as they are only known through advertisements or references in other works.

Additional ESTC indexing is organized in several ways:

  • Date of publication
  • Place of publication
  • Advertisements
  • Almanacs
  • Directories
  • Prospectuses
  • Songs

The National Union Catalog (Love Ref Folio Z 881 A1N28), a cumulative author list representing Library of Congress holdings and other titles reported by American libraries, and the British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books (Love Ref Folio Z 921 B87 1955) are other good resources for tracking English-language publications.

OTHER INFORMATION
Additionally, the microforms collection also owns Early English Books, 1475-1640 (Love Mfilm B 212), which contains every book printed in England between 1475 and 1640 and was based upon Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (Love Ref Z 2002 U58), and Early English books, 1641-1700 (Love Mfilm Z 2002 E3), which was based upon Donald Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (Love Ref Z 2002 W52).

Bibliographic references to early American works, which may be included in the Eighteenth Century, can be found in Charles Evans' American Bibliography 1639-1800 (Love Ref Z 1215 E92), Ralph Shaw and Richard Shoemaker's American Bibliography 1801-1823 (Love Ref Z1215 S48). Works mentioned in these bibliographies are reproduced on microprint in Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 (Love Mprint B 1) and Early American Imprints, second series, 1801-1819 (Love Mprint B 2), and also may be found in the Eighteenth Century.

Media Services also owns early English newspapers and periodicals, as well as early Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, Scandinavian, Hispanic and American works.