Working Group on Retrospective Bibliographies

• Remit
• Introduction
  
• List of Retrospective Bibliographies in Europe
  
• Conference 2023
  
• Reading List
  
• Members of the RB Working Group

Early in 2022, CERL established a Working Group on Retrospective Bibliographies (RB) in order to:

• Monitor and foster the role and impact of RB in the context of the Heritage of the Printed Book database
• Monitor and define the role and impact of RB as separate databases hosted by CERL (on the model of ISTC, STCN)
• Promote the role of RB in cooperation with IFLA: Register of national bibliographies
• Define the role and impact of CERL in respect to RB, also in relation to the USTC
• Promote the role of RB in the world of linked open data and research infrastructures: Role of identifiers, of linking, of authority records

The members for the RB Working Group are listed below.

The Working Group's main focus is to identify electronic resources with bibliographical descriptions for nations' and regions' print cultures (up to 1850). Our dream is that one day these electronic bibliographies are linked and together offer a comprehensive overview of European prints before 1850. Libraries could then use this as the foundation for Linked Data for early printed books and link their catalogue records to relevant RB records.

In the years of book production to 1850 (and our collecting practices until the modern day), geographical boundaries have been fluid. It is therefore important to determine what geographical region is covered by any given retrospective bibliography project. This selection criterium, and several others (only books printed in the region, or also by people from the region residing elsewhere, coverage only of collections currently in the region, or also regional output now held elswhere, etc.) need to be taken into account.

In the Heritage of the Printed Book database, records for collections and records from retrospective bibliographies currently intermingle. The work of this Working Group will hopefully help CERL on its way to distinguish these two types of records and work with CERL member libraries to enrich catalogue records with references to permanent identifiers employed in Retrospective Bibliographies.

The title of the conference is Retrospective Bibliographies and European Print Cultures to 1830 – Challenges and perspectives in the digital age and it will take place on 29 and 30 June 2023 at the Ossolineum Library in Wrocław.

The programme is available here.

The aim of the conference is to ensure that people who create RBs are aware of work in other countries and that sharing of data is part of the plan from the outset (which means e.g. ensuring there are stable identifiers, that standards are rigorously adhered to). We would also like to start a conversation about how CERL should treat these RBs in its data infrastructure? Currently there are three flavours at CERL, and we would like to explore with the conference partipants what is the best approach going forward:

• hosting as a stand alone db (STCN / ISTC)
• records incorporated in the HPB (the VDs, STCV, several others)
• or both (STCN / ISTC records are both in the HPB and hosted in their stand alone environment)

This list is not comprehensive, but for now primarily has information about bibliographies (national, regional, language-specific) in the east of Europe. The list will gradually be expanded with information from European countries that are not yet listed below.

Albania / Belarus / Bosnia and Herzegovina / Bulgaria / Croatia / Cyprus / Czech Republic / Estonia / Greece / Hungary / Latvia / Lithuania / Moldavia / Montenegro / North Macedonia / Poland / Romania / Serbia / Slovakia / Slovenia / Ukraine

• No electronic RB database
  
• Responsible institution: the National Library of Albania – the Department of the National Bibliography
  
• Covered period: 1555-
  
• Further information, also about several printed bibliographies and catalogues

• Electronic RB database (books to 1850 are included): http://eir.nlb.by (not comprehensive)
  
• Period covered: from 1517 to date. The union electronic information resource (EIR) of the National Bibliography of Belarus provide functioning of universal bibliographic information about the entire repertory of different types of the national documents of Belarus (from 1517 to present day), which are kept in various institutions both in the country and abroad.
  
• Responsible institution: the National Library of Belarus – the National Bibliographic Department
  
• Information on additional electronic resources and printed catalogues
  

• No RB electronic database
• Information about early printed books can be found in the Union Catalogue of B&H. This Catalogue incorporates the holdings of over 50 B&H libraries. The National and University Library catalogue is one of the catalogues that may be searched as part of the union catalogue or individually. Each record in the union catalogue includes links to the institutions that hold the title.
  
• Responsible institution: the National and University Library of B&H – the Bibliographical Department (Odjeljenje bibliografije)
  
• Further information, including printed bibliographies

• Electronic RB database (books to 1850 are included): http://books.unibit.bg/search
• Period covered: 1801-1878
• Information about early printed books from the collection of SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library are available in online library catalogues – “Cobiss”: https://bg.cobiss.net/ (bibliographic records) and Digital Library: http://82.147.128.134/sp/public/ (digital copies of books).
• Responsible institution: SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library – the National Bibliographic Agency Department
• Further information, including printed bibliographies

• Electronic RB database (books printed to 1850 are included): http://bibliografija.nsk.hr/hrb/HRB00/index.html (not comprehensive. The database is searchable by author, title, publisher and keywords, which are arranged alphabetically.
• Period covered: 1500-1834
• Identity number: HRB + catalogue number (Hrvatska Retrospektivna Bibliografia)
• Responsible institution: the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) – Bibliographic Center
• Further information, including printed resources

• No bibliographies or databases with books printed before 1850 as the first printing house was established in 1878
• Responsible institution: Cyprus Library
• Further information

Three electronic databases for publications to 1850

1. Electronic database: Databáze Knihopis and a database description in English
   • Identity number: KPS + database number
   • Responsible institution: the National Library of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Department
2. Electronic database: Bibliografie cizojazyčných bohemikálních tisků do roku 1800 BCBT
   • Identity number: BCBT + database number
   • Responsible institution: Department of Historical Bibliography of the Academy of Sciences Library
3. Electronic database: Knihověda and details about the project in English
   • Responsible institution: Department of Historical Bibliography of Academy of Sciences Library, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Department of National Library of the Czech Republic, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences

• Further information

• Electronic RB database (books printed to 1850 are included): https://www.nlib.ee/en/national-bibliography (not available at this moment)
  • Period covered: 1525-1940
  • Identity number: ERRB (Eesti retrospektiivse rahvusbibliograafia / Estonian retrospective national bibliography)
  • Responsible institution: the National Library of Estonia
• Information about early printed books can be found in the Union Catalogue with Estonian publications, called ESTER
  • Identity number: ESTER
  • Responsible institution: ELNET Consortium
• Further information, including printed bibliographies

• Electronic RB database (books from 15th-18th centuries are also included): http://oldwww.benaki.gr/bibliology/en/19.htm
• Covered period: 15th-18th cent. (in progress), 1801-1900
• Responsible institution: the National Library of Greece
• Further information

• Electronic RB database (books printed to 1850 are included): http://mnb.oszk.hu/index.php
• Period covered: 1473 to date
• Responsible institution: the National Széchényi Library; the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Identification numbers: RMK,RMNY, Petrik (references to various printed catalogues)
• Further information, including details of the printed bibliographies

• Electronic RB database (books to 1850 are included): https://kopkatalogs.lv/F/P1LV6PSAE48ARACYD4FSIXB23SCAK3K8YHHYYFJBSNVKQN7RLH-13833?func=file&file_name=base-list-nb
• Period covered: from 1525 to date
• Responsible institution: National Library of Latvia – the Lettonica and Baltic Centre
• Further information, including links to electronic copies of printed bibliographies

• No electronic RB database, but information about early prints can be found in the Union Catalogue: https://ibiblioteka.lt/metis/
• Period covered: from 1547 to date
• Responsible institution: the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania
• Further information, including printed catalogues and bibliographies

• No electronic database or printed bibliographies / catalogues with books to 1850
• The National Bibliography of Moldavia covers the time period from 1958.
• Responsible institution: the Book Chamber of Moldavia, the National Library of the Republic of Moldavia – Department of the Bibliographic Research
• Further information

• Electronic RB database (books to 1850 are included): Digital Montenegrin Bibliography (see also this description of the database in English)
• Responsible institution: the National Library of Montenegro 'Đurđe Crnojević'
• Period covered: 1494-1994
• Further information

• No electronic RB database of books printed to 1850
• Responsible institution: National and University Library “St. Kliment Ohridski” – Bibliographic Center (Библиографски центар).
• Further information about printed bibliographies

• Electronic RB database (books to 1850 are included): https://www.estreicher.uj.edu.pl/home/ (is being supplemented and continued till today)
• Period covered: 1455-1900
• Identity number: Estreicher + number of the volume + page number, e.g.: Estreicher XXI, 13.
• Responsible institution: Estreicher Research Center of the Polish Bibliography at the Jagiellonian University
• Further information

• Electronic RB database: the Integrated On-line System for the Management of the National Retrospective Bibliography SIMBNR (more information here)
• Period covered: 1508-1918
• Identity numbers: BRV (Bibliografia Românească Veche), BRM (Bibliografia Românească Modernă) and PPR (Publicatiunile periodice romanesti)
• Responsible institution: retrospective bibliography – the Romanian Academy Library (RAL) and current bibliography – the National Library of Romania.
• There is also a database with early printed books
• Further information, also on the Romanian National Bibliograhy structure

• No RB electronic database
• Responsible institution: the National Library of Serbia (NLS) – the Bibliographical Department
• Further information, including printed bibliographies

• No electronic RB database, however Slovak publications issued before 1800 are included in Databáze Knihopis managed by the National Library of the Czech Republic
• Responsible institution: the Slovak National Library – the Department of Processing of Historical Library Funds and Historical Library Documents
• Further information, including printed bibliographies

• Electronic RB database (books to 1850 are not included): http://sb.nuk.uni-lj.si/
• Period covered: from 1907 to date (there are plans to add pre-1850 materials)
• Responsible institution:National and University Library (Narodna in Univerzitetna Knjižnica) – the National Bibliographic Center (Nacionalni Bibliografski Center)
• Further informationslovenia.pdf, including printed bibliographies

• No electronic RB database
• Responsible institutions: the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (NLU) – the Department of the National Bibliography,the Yaroslav Mudryi National Library of Ukraine and the Book Chamber of Ukraine – “legal deposit institution” which provides the retrospective (from 1917) and current bibliography of Ukraine.
• Further information, including printed bibliographies (many of which are available in PDF format)

here we will list publications about RBs and related issues (e.g. Fingerprints)

Claudia Fabian, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München
Marieke van Delft, formerly of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague
Esther van Gelder, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague
Anette Hagan, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
Marian Lefferts, CERL
Matthias Reif, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München
Peter Sjökvist, University Library Uppsala, Uppsala
Olga Tkachuk, Ossolineum Library, Wroclaw