College and Research Libraries


By R U T H S H A W L E O N A R D 

Bibliographical Importance of 
Copyright Records' 

THE Rare Book Collection of the Library of Congress includes approximately 615 
volumes which contain the existing records 
of copyright in the United States from 
M a y 31, 1790, the date of the first federal 
copyright law, to July 8, 1870, the date at 
which the Librarian of Congress became the 
Register and Custodian of Copyrights. 
These records are of five kinds: ( 1 ) the 
original registers kept by the clerks of 
the United States district courts; ( 2 ) the 
clerks' certified lists of titles, or duplicate 
title-entry records, which were transmitted 
to the Department of State from 1831 to 
Feb. 4, 1859, and to the Patent Office from 
Feb. 5, 1859 to 1870; ( 3 ) the records of 
the Department of State and the Patent 
Office; ( 4 ) the records of the other deposi-
tory libraries, Smithsonian Institution, and 
Library of Congress; and ( 5 ) miscellaneous 
records pertaining to copyright before 
1870.2 

T h e late M a r t i n A. Roberts, formerly 
chief assistant librarian, Library of Con-
gress, in a paper delivered before the joint 
session of the American Historical Associa-
tion and the Bibliographical Society of 
America held in Philadelphia, Dec. 30, 
1937, stated: 

T h a t these records contain a wealth of in-
formation fundamental to the bibliography of 

1 Based on the a u t h o r ' s master's essay entitled " A 
B i b l i o g r a p h i c a l E v a l u a t i o n of the C o p y r i g h t R e c o r d s 
f o r the U n i t e d S t a t e s D i s t r i c t C o u r t of M a s s a c h u s e t t s , 
1800-1809," School of L i b r a r y S e r v i c e , C o l u m b i a Uni-
v e r s i t y , 1944. 

2 T h e " R e c o r d s of C o p y r i g h t in the U n i t e d S t a t e s " 
w e r e located in the C o p y r i g h t Office f r o m 1870 to 
1939, w h e n t h e y w e r e t r a n s f e r r e d to the R a r e Book 
C o l l e c t i o n of the L i b r a r y of C o n g r e s s . T h e y will 
h e r e a f t e r be r e f e r r e d to in this paper as " t h e copy-
r i g h t r e c o r d s . " 

the United States needs no emphasis. . . . 
They are the basic sources for a history of 
our literary and typographical arts for the 
period which saw those arts spring from the 
swaddling clothes of the eighteenth century 
to the giant stature of the nineteenth. At a 
rough estimate these records may contain 
150,000 entries. And this wealth of material 
is substantially untouched.3 

Indeed, few bibliographers have made use 
of the copyright records in the compilation 
of national, regional, or local, and subject 
bibliographies.4 T h e i r existence has not 
been generally known, and their biblio-
graphical significance has not been appreci-
ated. T h i s is not to say that the copyright 
records before 1870 have not been used 
occasionally by bibliographers or that 
reference to them has not been made by 
members of the Copyright Office staff and 
the Library of Congress staff to answer 
certain specific requests for bibliographical 
information. T h e i r use has been confined 
chiefly, however, to establishing the date of 
copyright of isolated items, priority of copy-
right and place of copyright, and to deter-
mining whether a certain title had been 
copyrighted. And their use has been com-
paratively infrequent. 

T h e writer's experience in using the 
copyright records in the compilation of the 
Bentley-Leonard Bibliography of Works on 
Accounting5 led her to the belief that they 

3 Roberts, M . A . Records in the Copyright Office De-
posited by the United States District Courts Covering 
the Period 1790-1870. [ W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . ] G o v e r n -
ment P r i n t i n g Office, 1939, p. 13. 

4 T h e e x t e n t to w h i c h tne original c o p y r i g h t records 
h a v e been published is indicated in a b i b l i o g r a p h y 
w h i c h the w r i t e r has p r e p a r e d . 

6 B e n t l e y , H a r r y C l a r k , and L e o n a r d , R . S . Bibli-
ography of Works on Accounting by American Authors. 
Boston, H . C . B e n t l e y , 1934-35. s v . 

34 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



could be used to great advantage, in a 
variety of ways, as sources of bibliographical 
information for the period they cover 
(1790-1870). A further investigation was 
therefore undertaken as an attempt to make 
the copyright records better known to 
bibliographers and to discover how and to 
what extent they could be used in biblio-
graphical undertakings relating to works 
printed in this country from 1790 to 1870. 
Since it was obviously impossible to see and 
evaluate all existing records, it was decided 
to study the value of the copyright records 
as a source of bibliographical information by 
an examination and interpretation of the 
copyright records pertaining to the United 
States District Court of Massachusetts for 
the period 1800-09, inclusive. 

Interpretation of the Copyright Records 

Preliminary to the discussion of the re-
sults of this investigation, it may be well 
to present a brief interpretation of the copy-
right records which resulted from the vari-
ous acts pertaining to copyright up to 1870. 
Much has been written concerning the 
significance of the copyright law and its 
administration for authors, printers, pub-
lishers, and lawyers; however, two publi-
cations only6'7 have attempted to point out 
the significance of the law and its adminis-
tration from a bibliographical standpoint 
and to describe the records of copyright re-
sulting from the provisions of the various 
acts. T h e following has been adapted from 
these two publications and the Copyright 
Enactments of the United States, I7&3~ 

1906,8 

T h r e e provisions of the first federal copy-
right law of 17909 are significant: ( 1 ) that 
the copyright claimant must before publica-

0 Roberts, op. cit. 
7 B e n t l e y - L e o n a r d , op. $it., v . i , p- [ x i l - x x i . 
8 U . S. C o p y r i g h t Office. Copyright Enactments of 

the United States, 1783-1906. W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . , Gov-
ernment P r i n t i n g Office, 1906. ( C o p y r i g h t Office Bulle-
tin, no. 3. 2d ed.. r e v . ) 

9 Ibid., p. 32-34. 

tion deposit a printed copy of the title of 
such map, chart, book, or books; ( 2 ) that 
such deposit be made in the clerk's office of 
the district court where the author or pro-
prietor resides; and ( 3 ) that the clerk of 
such court be required to record the same 
in a book to be kept by him for that purpose. 

Results of the first provision are the re-
cording of many copyright entries for works 
which never saw the "printer's stick" and 
some discrepancies between copyright dates 
and publication dates. T h e second pro-
vision brought about the recording of copy-
right entries in one district court which 
were actually printed within the jurisdiction 
of another district court and the copyright 
registration of many works in more than 
one district court. T h e effects of the third 
provision are some 315 volumes now in 
existence which record the original copy-
right entries of the several district courts. 
T h e records of some of the district courts 
were lost, burned, or destroyed prior to 
1870, when the law provided for their re-
moval to the Library of Congress. 

T h e act of Feb. 3, 1831 (a complete re-
vision of the copyright law of 1790), 
requiring the clerk of each district court to 
transmit a certified list at least yearly to 
the Secretary of State, resulted in the copy-
right records being kept in duplicate from 
that time to 1870. T h e r e are nearly three 
hundred volumes, the majority in unbound 
form, which constitute "the certified lists of 
titles, or duplicate title-entry records" sent 
to the Department of State, and later to 
the Patent Office. T h e i r importance lies in 
the fact that for some district courts they 
represent the sole record, since the originals 
have disappeared. 

No specific requirement concerning the 
copyright notice in the work was made until 
1802, when notice of copyright registration 
was required to be inserted in the work. 
T h e majority of claimants complied with 
the law during the period under investiga-

JANUARY, 1946 
3 7 



tion by inserting the notice exactly as it 
appeared in the copyright record book. If 
no publication date is given, this notice may 
be the only clue to the date of publication 
unless the original copyright entry is con-
sulted. 

T h e various provisions for additions of 
copyrightable material are significant in 
indicating the change in the scope of the 
records. However, it is of interest to note 
that music, both collections in book form 
and sheet music, were copyrighted as books 
in the first two decades of copyright—long 
before this class of material was specifically 
designated as a subject matter of copyright. 
Prints, dramatic compositions, and photo-
graphs were likewise copyrighted before 
they were legally copyrightable. 

T h e privilege of copyright was expressly 
withheld from foreigners. M a n y foreign 
works were, therefore, reprinted and copy-
righted in this country in the name of the 
printer or publisher who reprinted them. 
T h i s provision of the law encouraged 
plagiarism, as well as the issue of many 
editions of foreign works which were copy-
righted as "American works." 

T h e various provisions for the deposit of 
the printed product are significant to bibliog-
raphers. Record of deposit establishes 
proof that the work was printed, and the 
date of deposit may be helpful in determin-
ing the approximate date of printing. 
Among the volumes and records resulting 
from the requirement of deposit of the 
printed work are the Registers of Copy-
rights Received in the Department of 

State, 1796-1842, in eleven volumes. T h i s 
set constitutes what amounts to a national 
library catalog. Although a comparatively 
small proportion of the works copyrighted 
were ever deposited, these volumes are an 
immensely valuable source of bibliographical 
information for works deposited which 
cannot be found today. Another important 
"national library catalog" is the ledger 

which records chronologically by year, with 
alphabetical arrangement within each year, 
the copyright works transferred to the 
Patent Office from the Department of 
State. T h i s listing of 7849 titles gives a 
clue to the fact that many works deposited 
for copyright from 1790 to 1859 did not 
survive at the Department of State de-
pository and were not available to turn over 
to the Patent Office. T h e copyright 
accessions to the Patent Office from J a n . 10, 
i860, to J u l y 5, 1870, were recorded 
chronologically as they were received, in 
two volumes. 

I t was not until 1846 that the idea of se-
curing copies of copyright works for use 
rather than merely for record was put into 
effect. At this time both the Smithsonian 
Institution and the Library of Congress 
were designated as depository libraries for 
copyright works. Second and third copies 
were required to be deposited, but the 
records reveal an even smaller proportion 
of copyright works sent to these libraries 
than were sent to the Department of State 
or the Patent Office. T h e law of 1846 was 
repealed in 1859. In 1865 the Library of 
Congress again became a copyright deposi-
tory. T h e Smithsonian records of copy-
right works deposited were not among those 
required by law to be transferred to the 
Library of Congress in 1870. However, 
annual reports of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion for certain years contain the current 
accessions under the copyright law. T h e 
Library of Congress record books include 
two volumes listing the "copyrights" re-
ceived, 1846-52 and 1865-70. 

In summary, evidence of publication of 
the copyright works may be obtained from 
the records and catalogs of the various de-
positories prior to 1870. T h e depositories 
of copyright articles from 1790 to 1870 
w e r e : the Department'of State, 1790-1859; 
the Patent Office, 1859-70; the Smithsonian 
Institution, 1846-59; the Library of Con-

36 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



gress, 1846-59 and 1865-70. T h e district 
courts may be considered original but tem-
porary depositories, since the law required 
yearly transmittals of copyright articles by 
the clerks in the several district courts to 
the Department of State and later to the 
Patent Office. 

T h e act of July 8, 1870, centralized 
records and deposits under the care of the 
Librarian of Congress and required that all 
records and deposits of copyright material in 
the Patent Office and in the district courts 
be transferred to his custody. T h e deposits, 
numbering 23,070 volumes, were absorbed 
into the collections of the Library of Con-
gress, and the records were sent to the 
Copyright Office at the Library of Con-
gress. 

Some explanation is in order in regard to 
the discrepancy between the number of en-
tries in the copyright records, estimated at 
150,000 and the number of volumes, 
23,070, turned over to the Library of Con-
gress in 1870. T h e reasons for this 
discrepancy are these: 

1. Many entries were for articles other 
than books. 

2. Many items copyrighted were never 
printed. 

3. The copy required for deposit was never 
submitted for deposit or, if deposited, never 
reached the Department of State or the Pat-
ent Office. 

4. There were inevitable losses due to lack 
of provision for adequate custody and space, 
ravages of war and fire, and removals. 

5. Interest was lacking in the deposits as 
mere deposits of record. 

Analysis and Interpretation for the 

District Court of Massachusetts 

As a basis for evaluating one segment 
of the copyright records—those for the 
District Court of Massachusetts—the 342 
copyright entries for the 1800-09 period 
were copied. Subsequently, the Department 
of State registers, the National Union Cata-
log at the Library of Congress, the American 

Imprints Inventory files of Massachusetts 
imprints, other union and imprint catalogs, 
and additional bibliographical sources, were 
consulted. T h e aim was to examine each 
of the 343 items10 in order to prove that 
each item was printed and extant today and 
to verify the bibliographical information in 
each copyright entry. One result of this 
plan was the compilation of the Transcript 
of the Copyright Entries for the District 

Court of Massachusetts, 1800-1809, with 

Bibliographical Notes.11 

Certain deductions, analyses, and inter-
pretations were then made, based on the 
data gathered in the compilation of the 
Transcript of the Copyright Entries. . . . 

First it was discovered that less than one-
tenth of the works printed in Massachusetts 
between 1800 and 1809 were copyrighted. 
Although the copyright items represent such 
a minor proportion of the state's printing 
during the period under consideration, it 
seemed worthwhile to investigate how and 
to what extent the copyright entries might 
be used in bibliographical undertakings. 
T h e results are summarized in the follow-
ing paragraphs. 

Relation between Number of 

Titles Copyrighted and Located 

T h r e e hundred and two, or 88 per cent 
of the 343 copyright titles, were located and 
identified in one or more libraries or book 
collections. Of the forty-one titles which 
were not found as printed works, ten have 
some evidence to prove that they were 
printed, although no copy was identified. 
Of the thirty-one items which have no evi-
dence of publication, one was a plan of the 
Mill Pond in Boston by Charles Bulfinch, 
which was no doubt never intended to be 
published and exists today in its pristine 
form in the archives of the City Clerk's 

1 0 O n e c o p y r i g h t e n t r y c o n t a i n i n g two titles, t h u s 
m a k i n g a total of 343 c o p y r i g h t titles f o r this period. 

1 1 Included in the w r i t e r ' s master's essay, . A p p e n d i x 
B , p. 69-176. 

JANUARY, 1946 3 7 



Office, Boston. O t h e r titles were copy-
righted, probably with the intent to publish 
but the required funds failed to materialize. 
Still others, for example, pilot charts, may 
have been printed but were of such a nature 
that they did not normally find their way 
into library collections. Such copyright 
items are, nevertheless, important to bibliog-
raphers. 

Among the forty-one unlocated titles 
were items in the following fields: biog-
raphy i , bookkeeping I, geography and 
travels 3, language study 2, law 1, literature 
3, military art 1, music 5, penmanship 2, 
sciences 5, social sciences I, and theology 4. 
Is it not important to have a record of the 
"unfulfilled ideas" of the authors in these 
fields? Since registration of a title for 
copyright presumably records the author's 
intent to publish the work, it follows that 
the work was usually in a form ready for 
printing at the time it was copyrighted. 
W o u l d it not be worth while for historians 
of the culture and social life of this nation 
to have a record, not only of the works 
which were produced, but of those which 
were written but failed of publication? N o 
better source could be used than the copy-
right record of the nineteenth century to 
reveal this information. 

Relation between Number of Works Ex-

amined and Number in Union Catalog, in 

American Imprints Inventory, and in 

Neither 

I t is obvious that the copyright entries 
cannot be used as a basis for any general 
bibliography of Massachusetts imprints. It 
is obvious, also, that the copyright entries 
for all the district courts cannot be used as 
a basic source for a general bibliography of 
nineteenth-century American imprints. 
However, it is possible to demonstrate the 
value of the copyright records as a supple-
mentary source in the compilation of any 

general bibliography of American or 
regional imprints. 

In the process of locating the printed 
works which represented the copyright 
titles, the two chief sources which must 
eventually be used in the compilation of a 
general bibliography of nineteenth-century 
American imprints—the National Union 
Catalog at the Library of Congress and the 
files of the American Imprints Inventory— 
were consulted. Of the 302 works which 
were examined and identified as the titles 
deposited for copyright, fifty-five, or 18 per 
cent, were not in the L. C. National Union 
Catalog. An analysis of the works revealed 
that some Massachusetts imprints of im-
portance covering this period are missing 
from the union catalog. 

W h e n the files of the American Imprints 
Inventory covering Massachusetts imprints 
were examined, it was found that sixty, or 
20 per cent, of the 302 items were missing. 
Furthermore, twenty-four of the fifty-five 
items not listed in the union catalog were 
also not found in the files of the American 
Imprints Inventory. T h i s means that 
nearly 8 per cent of the 302 copyright works 
proved to have been printed and extant in 
one or more copies today, would be missed 
if the union catalog and the American Im-
prints Inventory were the only sources con-
sulted. 

T h e Bibliographical Society of America 
has announced12 that, with the aid of a 
grant by the Rockefeller Foundation and 
with the cooperation of the Library of Con-
gress which owns the files, it has undertaken 
the resumption of the editing and publica-
tion of the field notes of the American 
Imprints Inventory. T h e title of the pub-
lication will be "Bibliography of American 
Imprints." T h i s means that the files of the 
American Imprints Inventory, whether they 
be in manuscript form or edited and pub-

1 2 B i b l i o g r a p h i c a l S o c i e t y of A m e r i c a . News Sheet, 
n o . 63, J a n . i , 1944, p. 5. 

38 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



\ 

lished as regional or state checklists of 
imprints, form the present basis for a gen-
eral bibliography of early American im-
prints. 

In continuing the American Imprints 
Inventory it is the thesis of the writer that 
the copyright records for each district court 
should be used, in addition to the library 
catalogs and shelflists in each state or 
region, in order to have a checklist of pos-
sible imprints to verify in each catalog 
consulted or in each library or collection 
visited. T h i s would insure a more compre-
hensive coverage. Obviously, it is easier to 
find a work if one knows the author and 
title. 

Analysis of the Kinds of Works Copyrighted 

I t may be of bibliographical interest to 
analyze what works were thought worthy 
of copyright protection. T h e subject which 
is represented by the largest number of 
copyright titles is music, with sixty-six 
items, of which fifty are collections of sacred 
music or psalms set to music. T h e next 
largest field represented is theology, with 
fifty-seven items. Together, theology and 
sacred music account for 107 titles, or 31 
per cent of the total. Language study and 
literature have sixty-seven titles, or 19 per 
cent of the total. Thus, one-half of the 
titles are in the fields of religion or religious 
activity and in language study and litera-
ture. 

During the period 1800-09 many leaflets, 
pamphlets, and periodicals, as well as bound 
volumes, were copyrighted as "books." Al-
though maps and charts became copy-
rightable in the original law of 1790, only 
ten were copyrighted during the ten-year 
period under consideration. T h e act of 
Apr. 29, 1802, extended the benefits of 
copyright to the arts of designing, engrav-
ing, and etching. Between 1802 and 1809, 
however, only six engravings or designs 
were copyrighted. 

JANUARY, 1946 

Analysis of Bibliographical Information 

in the Entries 

In addition to the evaluation of the copy-
right records as a source for discovering im-
prints and the analysis of the kinds of works 
copyrighted, it is pertinent to inquire into 
the accuracy of the copyright entries, their 
scope, and their value as a source in estab-
lishing date of printing and obtaining other 
bibliographical information. T h e copying 
of the titles by the district court clerks was 
found to be essentially accurate, and the 
handwriting was very legible, with few ex-
ceptions. Since the law required only that 
the copyright claimant be a resident within 
the jurisdiction of the district court in 
which he filed the claim, some works copy-
righted in the District Court of Massachu-
setts were printed outside Massachusetts. 
Since the copyright claimant need not be the 
author, it follows also that works could be 
copyrighted in the District Court of Massa-
chusetts which were written by authors 
residing elsewhere and even by foreign 
authors, provided the copyright claimant 
was a resident within the jurisdiction of the 
district court. These observations are par-
ticularly important to bibliographers who 
may use the copyright entries in compiling 
local or regional bibliographies. 

Bibliographers may expect to find the 
following bibliographical information for 
each entry: 

1. The full date of the copyright registra-
tion, expressed as a particular day of the 
month in a certain year of the independence 
of the United States. 

2. The full name of the copyright claimant, 
with his designation as author or proprietor. 

3. The designation of the title as a map, 
chart, engraving, or book. 

4. The title of the work, including state-
ment of edition and the quotations, if any, 
copied in full as given on the title page. 

5. The author's name, copied as found on 
the title page, with his position, degrees, 
affiliations, other works written, etc., if this 
information was included on the title page. 

3 7 



Registration of the title (only) before 
publication of the work was one of the con-
ditions of copyright. Although the copy-
right date is usually previous to the date of 
printing, reference to the original copyright 
entry has special value for bibliographers 
when the printed work includes no evidence 
of its publication date. Of the 302 works 
examined, thirty-six did not include the date 
of printing, and twenty-three of this num-
ber lacked also the copyright date. T h i s 
means that the original copyright entry 
would be an important source to use in 
determining the approximate date of print-
ing for nearly 8 per cent of the 302 items 
examined. T h e Department of State 
Registers are also important as an aid in 
establishing the approximate date of print-
ing. T h e law required deposit within six 
months of the date of publication. In this 
investigation it was found that seventy-six, 
o r 93 per cent, of the eighty-two works 
deposited at the Department of State were 
received either within six months of the 
date of copyright or within six months of 
the date of printing. I t may be assumed, 
therefore, that an approximate date of print-
ing may be determined, when the date is 
unknown, by reckoning that it will fall 
within six months previous to the deposit 
of the printed work. 

In addition to the use of the original 
copyright entry as a means of establishing 
the approximate date of printing, there are 
other ways in which the copyright entries 
may have value as a bibliographical source. 
Among the works examined, one lacked 
a title page and two had mutilated title 
pages. T h e copyright entries for these 
items would supply the complete title and 
the approximate date of printing. Several 
works among those examined were issued 
anonymously or pseudonymously. T h e 
copyright proprietor, in such cases, usually 
proved to be the author or compiler. I t is 
of interest also to know at least who was 

responsible for the publication and distribu-
tion of an anonymous work, even if the 
authorship is not known. T h i s information 
was supplied in the case of fourteen works. 
T h e name of the copyright proprietor is one 
item of bibliographical information which 
cannot be found in any other bibliographical 
source. T h i s information may serve several 
purposes. It may, for example, identify 
the name of the printer or publisher when 
the work does not supply the name. T h e 
activities of little-known printers, presses, or 
publishers may also be gleaned from a study 
of the copyright proprietors. 

Summary and Conclusions 

O n the basis of the data gathered and the 
analyses and interpretations made, it may be 
concluded that the copyright entries would 
aid in a variety of ways in bibliographical 
undertakings relating to nineteenth-century 
American imprints. By compiling a tran-
script of the copyright entries for the 
District Court of Massachusetts, which in-
cluded a comparison of the title with the 
published work, it was possible to show ( 1 ) 
that, given the author and copyright title, 
some works could be found which have 
hitherto been unrecorded outside their own 
location and ( 2 ) that certain bibliographi-
cal information could be contributed by 
means of the copyright entries. 

T h i s investigation indicates that the copy-
right records of the various district courts, 
and all the other copyright records prior to 
1870, should be used as a supplementary 
bibliographical source in the compilation of 
a general bibliography of American imprints 
to fill the gap between Evans' American 
Bibliography, ending in 1799, and the 
American Catalogue, which started in 1876. 
T h e project of the Bibliographical Society 
of America to resume the editing and pub-
lication of the American Imprints Inventory 
is encouraging as a step toward filling the 

(Continued on page 44) 

40 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Defricasse-Usefovitch Manuscript of Omni-
ology.' " 2 

Nevertheless, with full cognizance of the 
problem, it is recommended that the college 
librarian find and assume his place in the 
collection and preservation of materials of 
local history. His responsibility in that 
direction has been purposely emphasized, to 
the neglect of the more obvious compensa-
tions which should be apparent to any 
college librarian. These rewards, however, 
deserve mention. In the first place, there 
may be a widening of the college library's 
circle of friends in the community. 
Secondly, in the local history collection 
there may be much that will contribute to 
the teaching program, especially in the social 

2 The Koh-i-noor of Books . . . by T y d o r D e b r e n o w -
s k y [ p s e u d . ] T o r c h P r e s s , 1038. P r i v a t e l y printed. 

sciences. A f t e r all, the sources of local 
history do not differ greatly, except in 
volume and magnitude, from those of state 
and national history. T h r o u g h the use of 
local sources it should be possible to vitalize 
instruction in methods of research and in 
the evaluation and use of original materials 
by college students, especially in the fields of 
history, economics, sociology, and political 
science. 

Incidentally, although no less important, 
a cooperative program for the collection and 
preservation of the materials of local history 
might well promote coordination of all li-
brary facilities and service within a com-
munity. This, as all college librarians 
know, is a matter on which they have talked 
much but accomplished little. 

Bibliographical Importance of Copyright Records 
(Continued from page 40) 

hiatus in American bibliography. H o w -
ever, to ignore the copyright records in this 
undertaking is to ignore one of the most 
valuable sources that could be used in the 
compilation. 

All bibliographers of regional imprints 
should find the copyright records of particu-
lar interest, especially for certain types of 
works which are not normally recorded in 
library catalogs. Bibliographers of special 
subjects or forms of material will also find 
a search of the copyright entries productive 
of much information not otherwise avail-
able. Even though they may discover en-
tries for titles which were never printed, 
yet the act of copyrighting the titles indi-

cates an intention to publish which is sig-
nificant. 

Further research needs to be done to 
establish other ways in which the copyright 
records may be used. For example, studies 
might be made to prove the value of the 
records as sources ( I ) for the printing and 
publishing history of the nation; ( 2 ) for 
indicating the trends in literary and artistic 
production; ( 3 ) for analyzing the subject 
matter of copyright. T h e urgent need, 
however, is to have the copyright records 
made immediately accessible, through their 
publication or by their transcription on 
cards, in a file which will be centrally lo-
cated for use by bibliographers. 

44 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES