These online reference works may be useful to students and researchers using our collections. The list is continually reviewed and updated by our curators. Contact a Curator if you need help or would like to suggest a new resource.
(Note: some of these resources may be restricted to University of Illinois users.)
American Book Prices Current
American Book Prices Current is an annual record of books, manuscripts, autographs, maps and broadsides sold at auction. Regions covered include North America and the UK, and sales from select countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Monaco, Holland, Australia. It is the standard tool used by dealers, appraisers, auction houses, scholars and tax authorities. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
The Atlas of Early Printing
The Atlas of Early Printing is an interactive site designed to be used as a tool for teaching the early history of printing in Europe during the second half of the fifteenth century.
Bibliography of American Literature
The BAL provides nearly 40,000 records of the literary works of approximately 300 American writers from the period of the Revolution to 1930. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Bibliographical Society of America
The Bibliographical Society of America’s BibSite functions as a service to bibliographers by offering a means for scholars to provide public access to accumulated bibliographical research materials that may be useful to other researchers.
BP16: Bibliographie des éditions parisiennes du 16e siècle
BP16 provides bibliographic information about books printed in Paris between 1501 and 1540, as well as links to digitized copies and library holdings where possible.
The British Book Trade Index (BBTI) is hosted by the Bodleian Library at Oxford University and aims to include brief biographical and trade details of all those who worked in the English and Welsh book trades up to 1851. (The National Library of Scotland maintains a separate Scottish Book Trade Index.) BBTI includes not only printers, publishers and booksellers but also other related trades, such as stationers, papermakers, engravers, auctioneers, ink-makers and sellers of medicines, so that the book trade can be studied in the context of allied trades. BBTI is, however, an index to other sources of information, and is not a biographical dictionary.
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks allows scholars and students to investigate the publishing, printing, and marketing of English Renaissance drama in ways not possible using any other print or electronic resource. An easy-to-use and highly customizable search engine of every playbook produced in England, Scotland, and Ireland from the beginning of printing through 1660, DEEP provides a wealth of information about the original playbooks, their title-pages, paratextual matter, advertising features, bibliographic details, and theatrical backgrounds.
Early American Imprints, Series 1
Full-text-searchable photographic reproductions of early American imprints, (1639-1800), keyed to Charles Evans’ American Bibliography. The definitive resource for every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America. Upon completion, Evans Digital will consist of more than 36,000 works and 2,400,000 images. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Early American Imprints, Series 2
Covering every aspect of American life during the early decades of the United States, this rich primary source collection provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published from 1801-1819. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Early American Newspapers
Early American Newspapers features cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of historic newspapers, providing more than one million pages as fully text-searchable facsimile images, keyed largely to Clarence Brigham’s History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Early English Books Online
EEBO provides access to some 125,000 titles published before 1700, based on microfilms series of Early English Books listed in Pollard Redgrave’s Short-Title Catalogue (1465-1640) and Wing’s Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700). EEBO includes the Thomason Tracts, a collection of broadsides and pamphlets printed between 1640 and 1661. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Early English Prose Fiction
The Early English Prose Fiction collection contains over 200 works of prose fiction dating from 1500-1700. It includes Elizabethan fiction, Jest Books, collections of short pieces and novellas, Restoration fiction and works of popular fiction. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Eighteenth-Century Collections Online provides access to the digital images of every page of 150,000 books published during the 18th Century. Once all modules are in place, ECCO will allow full-text searching of approximately 33 million pages, the product allows researchers new methods of access to critical information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more. Current modules are: History and Geography, Fine Arts and Social Sciences; Medicine, Science and Technology; Literature and Language. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Eighteenth Century Fiction
Eighteenth Century Fiction includes 96 complete works in English prose from the period 1700-1780, by writers from the British Isles. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
English Short-Title Catalogue
The English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC) is a bibliographic database which, when complete, will contain a record for every letterpress item printed in England or any of its dependencies, in any language, from 1473-1800, or in English anywhere else in the world during that period. In order to increase access to these items, each record includes a list of all libraries known to hold copies of the item, as well as references to microfilm and other facsimile versions.
English Folk Dance and Song Society: The Full English
The Full English contains over 44,000 records and over 58,000 digitised images from the archives of 19 of the most important and influential collectors in the UK.
Fifteenth-Century Book Trade
Books printed between 1450 (the year of Gutenberg’s invention of modern printing) and 1500 (conventional cut-off date in scholarship) are known as incunabula. Some 30,000 editions are known today, in some 450,000 surviving copies, located in about 4,000 different public libraries, mostly in Europe and North America. The 15cBOOKTRADE Project uses the material evidence from these thousands of surviving books to address five fundamental questions regarding distribution, contemporary value, transmission, circulation, and visualization.
Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke
The Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke is an ongoing project of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin to publish a union catalog of incunabula.
Grand corpus des dictionnaires
Dictionnaires, grammaires et encyclopédies, avec Grand Corpus des dictionnaires [du 9e au 20e siècle].
Harper’s Weekly
Complete issues of Harper’s Weekly from 1857-1889. Visitors can browse Harper’s Weekly pages by date, search its index, browse by genre, and find people by their occupation or role in society. Issues are stored as high-quality page-by-page image files. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Note: The link at left will bring you to an interim page. Open the Harpweek home page, then press the “I Accept” button to get to this resource.
The Hymn Tune Index
The Hymn Tune Index is a comprehensive census of tunes associated with English-language hymns found in sources printed on or before 1820.
The Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
The Incunabula Short Title Catalogue is the international database of 15th-century European printing created by the British Library with contributions from institutions worldwide.
The Making of the Modern World
American/Caribbean studies, social history, gender and more. This exclusive resource combines the strengths of two pre-eminent collections: the Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature at the University of London and the Kress Library of Business and Economics at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration. Supplementary materials are included from the Seligman Collection in the Butler Library at Columbia University and the libraries of Yale University.
Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The Oxford DNB – 55,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2003. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Philosophical Transactions, 1665-1678
A full-text, browsable edition of the journal of The Royal Society, London (Volumes 1-12) via JSTOR. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Philosophical Transactions, 1683-1775
A full-text, browsable edition of the journal of The Royal Society, London (Volumes 13-65) via JSTOR. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Rarebooks.info
Rarebooks.stanford.edu is a resource for scholars, students, librarians, book professionals, and collectors. Here you can search across and within the full text of over 100 rare book bibliographies, library catalogs and sales catalogs. Subjects cover early printing, world literature, natural history, science, medicine, theology, cultural and area studies, Judaica, music, theology, art and architecture, among others.
Rare Book Hub
The Rare Book Hub is a resource for information pertaining to rare, antiquarian, and collectible books and related ephemeral material – manuscripts, letters, maps, posters, broadsides, photographs, and prints (works on paper). The website is designed to assist collectors, booksellers, libraries, auction houses, appraisers, educators, researchers, prospective collectors, and the curious.
Sabin Americana
Based on Joseph Sabin’s landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900’s. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more. With over 6 million pages from 29,000 works, this collection is a cornerstone in the study of the western hemisphere. Restricted to University of Illinois users.
Short Title Catalogue Netherlands
The Short Title Catalogue Netherlands is the Dutch retrospective bibliography for the period 1540-1800. For books printed in Flanders you can search the corresponding Flemish database, the Short Title Catalogue Vlaanderen.
VD 16
Das Verzeichneis der im deutschen Sprachraum ershienenen Drucke des 16 Jahrhunderts (VD16), is the standard bibliography of 16th–century German imprints. The search interface (in German), provides access to some 100,000 entries included in the printed bibliography and its supplements.
VD 17
Das Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts (VD17), intends to establish a German National Bibliography of 17th century imprints. All German titles and all titles which have been printed or published in former German-speaking countries will be catalogued. Only printed music and maps are excluded. To improve bibliographic information, digitized images of keypages are added to the catalog records. In March 2004, the database contained about 200,000 entries. It is updated several times per day.