19th Century Pamphlets
CURL Project to Provide Enhanced Access to 19th Century Pamphlet Collections (1801-1914)
Aims
The purpose of the project is to provide enhanced access to the collections of nineteenth-century pamphlets housed in twenty-one academic libraries across the United Kingdom (nineteen CURL members and two other university libraries) and to raise awareness of this valuable research resource amongst the higher education community. As a result of this project, significant and rare primary resources, many of which have hitherto been untapped, will be unlocked for the benefit of UK researchers from a wide range of disciplines within the humanities and social sciences, including anthropology, archaeology, education, social, economic and political history, law, medicine and theology.
The total cost of the project has been estimated at £863,350. The University of Birmingham has been awarded a £540,000 grant from RSLP to manage the project, the remaining costs being met by the partners, including CURL whose contribution amounts to £45,000.
Methodology
The project comprises two main components:
A programme of targeted retrospective conversion that entails the computerisation of 177,000 records from the card catalogues of the libraries involved.
The cataloguing work, which takes place in the libraries where the collections are held, is co-ordinated by a project manager, based at the University of Birmingham, whose role it is to monitor the partner libraries’ performance against agreed targets and standards. As many records as possible are downloaded from high-quality bibliographic databases, such as CURL and RLIN, in order to reduce in-house cataloguing effort.
A web-based guide mapping the pamphlet collections at collection-level, to be developed by the project manager in collaboration with the partner institutions. The guide, which will also provide links to the institutions’ relevant web pages and online catalogues, will be searchable by institution and by subject.
Deliverables
- Creation of machine-readable bibliographic records for a minimum of 177,000 pamphlets. The records will be available for reuse by other libraries, through the CURL database, under appropriate terms and conditions.
- Provision of networked access (including subject access) to the collections, searchable through a single interface via the web-based COPAC service, which is available to all, free of charge. The records will also be available on the partner libraries’ respective online catalogues.
- A web-based guide containing collection-level descriptions of the partner institutions’ pamphlet holdings, with links to the partner libraries’ relevant web pages and online catalogues.
- A project web site, for regular dissemination of information about the project and updates on its progress.
- Contributions to professional journals, attendance and speaking at relevant events, as and when appropriate, in order to disseminate the outcomes of the project and increase awareness of the pamphlet collections among UK HEI researchers.
Partnership
Twenty-one university libraries are participating in the project:
- University of Birmingham (lead institution)
- University of Bristol
- University of Cambridge, University Library
- University of Cambridge, Haddon Library
- University of Cambridge, Selwyn College
- University of Cambridge, The Whipple Library
- University of Durham
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Glasgow
- University of Leeds
- University of Liverpool
- University of London, School of Advanced Studies, Institute of Commonwealth Studies
- University of London, Senate House
- University of Manchester
- University of Newcastle
- University of Oxford
- University of Reading
- University of Sheffield
- University of Southampton
- King’s College London
- University College London
Contacts
Project Manager
Jackie Hwang
Bibliographic Services
Information Services
The University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT
Tel: 0121 414 5814
Fax: 0121 471 4691
E-mail: j.r.hwang@bham.ac.uk
Project website
http://www.is.bham.ac.uk/rslp/pamphlets.htm
Content: Gill Davenport
Last updated 2 July 2002