Content of the HPB Database

The Heritage of the Printed Book Database now contains just under three million records of books from the beginning of printing to the middle of the 19th century. Searches are across the files provided by the 22 institutions listed below. Every year further files are added, while others are updated. Most files consist of high-level bibliographical records, created by book-in-hand cataloguing. Some of the files are created in retroconversion projects, and gradually replaced by sections with improved records.

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München

Over 526,900 records, 1500-1850
c. 98,600 records from Das Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts

Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid

c. 78,700 records of their holdings

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

c. 28,000 records, 1455-, Catalogue anonymes

British Library, London

c. 29,400 records, Incunable Short-Title Catalogue
c. 24,700 records, Books printed in the German-speaking countries and of German books printed in other countries (1601-1700) now in the BL / [comp. David Paisey]

Cathedral Libraries Catalogue

c. 25,700 records (volume 2, foreign imprints), Books printed on the Continent of Europe before 1701 in libraries of the Anglican Cathedrals of England and Wales / [Ed. David Shaw]

Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico (ICCU), Rome

c. 140,300 records contributed by c. 175 Italian libraries

Kongelige Biblioteket, Copenhagen

c. 75,000 of their holdings

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague

c. 131,200 records, 1540-1800, Short-Title Catalogue, Netherlands

Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm

c. 50,000 records, Swedish National Bibliography, 18th century (SB17)
c. 6,000 records, Swedish National Bibliography, 17th century (SB16)

National Library of Finland, Helsinki

c. 19,400 records of their holdings (c. 4,950 MARC21 records for pre-1700 material, and c. 14,450 records for publication years 1700-1827)

National Library of Lithuania, Vilnius

c. 2,000 records covering 18th-century Polish books issued in Lithuania, Hebrew books issued in Lithuania between 1799 and 1830, and Lithuanian books from the period 1547 to 1830

National Library of Russia, St Petersburg

c. 28,500 records of their holdings

National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh

c. 24,100 records, 1500-1830, Catalogue of collections

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

c. 13,150 records of their holdings

National Széchényi Library, Budapest

c. 11,000 records derived from the Catalogus librorum sedecimo saeculo impressorum, qui in Bibliotheca Nationali Hungariae Széchényiana asservantur. Editiones non Hungarice et extra Hungariam impressae, E. Soltész, C. Velenczei and A.W. Salgó (comp.) (Budapest – Szeged: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár / Scriptum Kft., 1990)

National and University Library, Ljubljana

c. 18,800 records of their holdings

National and University Library, Zagreb

c. 8,200 records of their holdings

Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen

c. 1,004,650 records from the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and a number of German Cluster libraries

Oxford University Libraries

c. 76,000 records from Oxford libraries, including the Bodleian, Taylorian, Ashmolean, as well as College and Departmental libraries

Regione Toscana

c. 13,500 records from various libraries in the Regione Toscana

Szeged University Library

c. 9,000 records of their holdings

Academic Library of Tallinn University

c. 9,700 records of their holdings

Universidad Complutense, Madrid

c.25,700 records of their holdings

University of London Libraries

c. 45,200 records of their holdings

Warsaw University Library

c. 3,000 records of their holdings beginning with A - C

Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, London

c. 52,000 records of their holdings

Yale University Library

c. 270,700 of their holdings

Projected file loads

CERL is continually preparing new files for addition to the HPB database and would welcome suggestions of suitable collections to widen its scope and coverage (please contact the CERL Executive Manager: Marian.Lefferts@cerl.org.

For more information on CERL’s file loading procedures click here.

File loads in 2007-2008

The Heritage of the Printed Book Database now contains over 2.75 million records. In 2007 the following have been added to the Heritage of the Printed Book Database:

19,402 National Library of Finland (Kansalliskirjasto, Helsinki) (FIHG) records loaded in April 2007
24,115 National Library of Scotland (STNG) records loaded in May 2007 (replacing 14,284 records that had been part of the HPB since it went live in 1997)
Just over 6,000 Szeged University Library (SZTE Egyetemi Könyvtár, Szeged) (HUSG) records loaded in May 2007

All HPB Database file loading and file updating ceased during the migration of the database to OCLC‘s servers in the summer of 2007. It was resumed after the HPB Database had been migrated to the OCLC environment in September 2007.

Future file updates

Records from the National Library of Russia, St Petersburg, the National Library of the Netherlands (pre-Brinkman file); the records for microfilmed German materials held in four Polish libraries; Yale University Library, the National Library of Croatia, Zagreb; the University Library of Warsaw; the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico (ICCU), Rome; the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; the Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid; the Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels as well as the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen are all in preparation.