English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC)

The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) is currently in the process of being migrated. The beta launch of the search and display version is expected in January 2025. The editing and export functionality will be added in the course of 2025. As before, it will be freely available.

The ESTC is an essential resource for historians, English language and literature scholars, and all those interested in early printed books, periodicals and ephemera. It aims to provide bibliographic records for all known British printed material before 1801, held by the British Library and over 2,000 other institutions worldwide.

Additionally, CERL’s HPB Database contains a useful amount of early modern English printed material until the middle of the nineteenth century.

Information about the ESTC is (since its website was hacked) no longer availale from the BL website - the archive link is here. The website of ESTC/North America is here.