Cataloguing the Library's collection of tracts and pamphlets
Cataloguing the Library's collection of tracts and pamphlets included creating online descriptions for all tracts, assigning subject headings and providing provenance information. This will enable information on the tracts and pamphlets to become available to a wider audience and will benefit researchers, other libraries and College staff.
The Library was awarded two grants from the Research Resources in Medical History scheme set up by the Wellcome Trust. These awards enabled the College to catalogue approximately 26,000 out of a total of around 28,000 of its collection of tracts and pamphlets. The remaining items were catalogued in the final phase of the project that commenced in May 2007, also funded by the Wellcome Trust, to catalogue the printed collections from 1800-1849 online.
The initial project began in 2002 and the second phase concluded in June 2006 after the addition of c. 26,000 records to the Library’s online catalogue, Heritage Collections.
The bibliographic records covering the tracts and pamphlets are now also available via Jisc Library Hub Discover - see ‘Access to the collection’ below for further details.
Benefits of the Project
Use of the tracts has been difficult because they are bound by size rather than subject and listed only on terse, hand-written catalogue cards. Cataloguing the collections has revealed the contents of the collection by creating online descriptions for all the tracts.
Recognised standards were followed in cataloguing. Every record has subject headings from the National Library of Medicine's thesaurus, allowing the discovery of previously unknown material. Many of the tracts are presentation copies and indexes of former owners will aid provenance research.
Access to the collection
You can search for records of tracts and pamphlets in the Library's online catalogue, Heritage Collections.
Many are available to view online and downloaded in PDF format via the JISC-funded UK Medical Heritage Library.
The bibliographic records covering the tracts and pamphlets are now also available via Jisc Library Hub Discover.
Jisc Library Hub Discover exposes rare and unique research material by bringing together the catalogues of major UK and Irish libraries. In a single search you can discover the holdings of the UK’s National Libraries (including the British Library), many university libraries, and specialist research libraries. This service replaces Copac and SUNCAT, providing access to a growing range of library catalogues, with a new interface style and updated search facilities, with more changes in the pipeline.
Subscribing institutions can locate records for the tracts and pamphlets on Jisc Library Hub Cataloguing.
If you are interested in consulting the tracts, please email library@rcseng.ac.uk.
Other medical and scientific pamphlets collections
- Medical collections - within the John Rylands University Library of Manchester
- The Foster Pamphlet Collection - Whipple library, department of the history and philosophy of science, University of Cambridge
- The James Young Simpson Collection - Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
- History of Medicine Collection - Liverpool Medical Institution Library