Pamphlet and polemic: pamphlets as a guide to the controversies of the 17th-19th centuries
Funded under the RSLP Research Support Libraries Programme, this was initially a joint project, managed by the University of St Andrews, with the University of Aberdeen as partner. The project's aim was to add records for c. 12,700 pamphlets of the 17th to 19th centuries to the on-line catalogues of the two universities. In 2000, the University of Wales Lampeter joined Aberdeen and St Andrews in the project. The addition of material from its Tract collections brings the total number of targeted items to c. 24,200.
Aberdeen:
The Brown-Lindsay pamhlet volumes were originally in the library of the United Presbyterian College, Edinburgh. They encompass 300 years of the history of the dissenting Presbyterian Churches but there are also unusual rarities reflecting wider religious issues. The collection includes works on slavery, temperance, revivals, Mormonism and religious education. Aberdeen has exceeded its target of 2,000 records by 22 and finished its part in the project.
Lampeter:
The nucleus of the Lampeter Tract Collection consists of some 9,000 pieces assembled by the Bowdler family over the period 1638-1787. Many relate to the Nonjuror movement and the Civil War, but there is also much material covering many other events and concerns of the period. In addition, there are 54 manuscript tracts which until now have not been known to researchers at all; at least one item was intended for publication but never saw the light of day because the printer was executed. At the end of the project, Lampeter has added records for c. 11,000 printed and manuscript items to its on-line catalogue.
St Andrews:
The St Andrews material is extremely varied in subject matter, ranging as it does from the political and religious controversies of the 17th century through methods of growing cucumbers, the style of Lloyd's beaver hats, the reform of the Corn Laws, to revolutionary new ways to design ships. There are legal, political, literary, scientific, medical and technical pamphlets, many of which came into the Library between 1710 and 1836, when St Andrews was a copyright library. Of the 10,700 pamphlets targeted by the project, c. 650 are 17th century, 4,650 18th and early 19th and 5,400 late 19th century. Records for c. 11,000 pamphlets have so far been added to SAULCAT, the Library's on- line catalogue.
Closely related to Pamphlet and Polemic is the 19th century Pamphlets project, led by the University of Birmingham, which aims to provide enhanced access to the collections housed in some of the major CURL libraries. For more information see the project website.
Like the other RSLP projects, Pamphlet and Polemic is scheduled to finish at the end of July 2002.