MELVYL ESTC The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) on the Melvyl System provides access to over 400,000 records for works printed in any language in England or its dependencies from the beginning of printing through the end of the eighteenth century, as well as works printed in English anywhere else in the world during that period. The ESTC is a union list, and the holdings of over 1,500 institutions are represented. The ESTC is updated daily.

The ESTC database on the MELVYL system and EST on Eureka are identical in content, but their searching features differ (Click here for a comparison of indexes) . Use ESTC when you want to employ familiar MELVYL system commands.

To BEGIN, it is best to type START ESTC or to select it from the main MELVYL menu, though you can type ESTC at any Melvyl system prompt. Type help or explain at any point for assistance.

HOW TO SEARCH: For exact word order searches, include punctuation except parentheses; otherwise, omit punctuation. For a complete list of ESTC indexes, type e indexes at any time while searching ESTC. You can search the following indexes (sample searches in red):

Accession Number (f an R22437)

Author (f au Sacheverell)

Exact Personal Author (f xau Washington, George)

Corporate Author (f ca Parliament)

Exact Corporate Author (f xca City of London Lying-In Hospital)

Title Words (f tw lamentable fire)

Exact Title (f xt Paradise Lost)

Uniform Title (f ut Proclamations)

Exact Uniform Title (f xut Gulliver's Travels)

Subject Heading (f su melancholy) (pre-1701 imprints only)

Exact Subject (f xs Gunpowder Plot, 1605) (pre-1701 imprints only)

Imprint Year (f iyr 1776)

Country of Publication (f cou stk) (USMARC country code)

Place of Publication (f pl Philadelphia)

Publisher (f pu Debrett)

Publication Type (f pt songs) (type explain pt for list of codes)

Language (f lan lat) (language name or USMARC language code)

Keywords (f kw Cromwell)

Notes (f nt anonymous)

Reference (f ind by Evans 6054)

Holding Library (f hl Folger)

Shelfmark (Call Number) (f sm PE1495.C65 1796)

TRUNCATION: Use truncation to broaden a search result and make it more comprehensive. Searches cannot be truncated to fewer than three characters. The truncation symbol is #. f tw sign# finds sign, signe, signature, etc. In exact searches, ESTC will automatically complete search strings with a space and a #. f xt paradise is searched as f xt paradise #, and will retrieve Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, etc., as well as works simply titled Paradise. Place search in " " to override this automatic feature.

BOOLEAN OPERATORS: HOW TO REFINE SEARCHES (when fewer than 10,000 items retrieved):

• By adding search terms using and: Ex.: f pa burke and tw sublime
• By excluding search terms using and not: Ex.: f tw paradise and not su sermons
• By including several terms using or: Ex.: f xs flax or xs linen
• By date range (avoid large spans) - for instance and date -1550 or and date 1780- or and date1750-1760
  
  

HOW TO DISPLAY RESULTS:

Full record d long or d lon 4, 7-8 (detailed format with subject headings and notes)

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UC call numbers are not available in the ESTC database unless a UC library has reported to the ESTC. To check the Melvyl database for information about items in UC libraries, type cat or ten to change your database and then retype your search. Type ESTC to return. You may also type in the CAT or the TEN file the command redo to have the same search redone in those databases. To check for journals or periodicals, type f xp or f pe directly from the ESTC prompt.

PLEASE LOG OFF THE DATABASE: Type end when you finish your Melvyl session or close to end your rcat session. Type sho db at any point to see what databases you have open. Please log off from the ESTC database when you finish and close Eureka or Firstsearch databases when you finish; there are limited ports available and others may be waiting.

ESTC is available from 8 am Saturday until 9 pm Friday

ucr/jbloomberg-rissman 7/30/96 MELVYL(r) is a registered trademark of The Regents of the University of California

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