The class will meet on Feb. 25 in the Short Title Catalogue (STC) room on the third floor of Van Pelt Library. There we will look at the resources there, of the some 20,0000 facsimile (photo) copies of early English printed works dating from 1475 to 1640. This room has a handy card catalogue, which contains a chronological listing as well as author, subject, and title indexes. These items are shelved in the numerical order in which they are listed in A. W. Pollard and G.R. Redgrave's Short Title Catalogue (an alphabetical list of more than 37, 000 books from 1475-1640); this book can be found at the Van Pelt Reference desk). The second edition also has a chronological listing.
The library also hold microfilm copies of the books in the STC, with more books than are on the shelves in the STC room. These microfilms can be found in the Microform dept. on the second floor. Microfilms are not, alas, presented in STC number order. Instead, the library listing should tell you the reel number, and the position of the book on the reel (e.,g, 4 or 5). See the reference desk for help. For books published from 1640- 1700, you would need to look at Donald Wing's Short Title Catalogue.
Once we have visited the STC room (and taken a quick look at the Furness Shakespeare Library and Rare Book Room on the sixth floor), you will be asked to do the following exercise. Results are to be written up and handed in by March 4. Your work will be evaluated for its thoughtfulness and completeness.