"The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) is a union short-title catalogue of works published between 1473 and 1800, in Britain and its former colonies, notably those in North America, and primarily in English, drawing on the collections of the British Library and other libraries in Britain and around the world. It is co-managed by the British Library and the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (CBSR) at the University of California, Riverside. The database is freely searchable." (From Wikipedia.)
The ESTC includes:
- Lists abridged entries of all books, pamphlets, broadsides, etc, printed in the British Isles, regardless of language between the years of 1475 and 1801. (some items are dated as early as 1470)
- Entries printed in the British Isles, Colonial America, the U.S. (1776-1800), Canada, or territories governed by Britain, in all languages.
- Entries of all books, pamphlets, broadsides, etc, printed in English outside of the British Isles between those same dates.
- Records from Pollard and Redgrave’s A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad 1473-1640
- Records from Wing’s A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America and of English Books Printed in Other Countries 1641-1700
- Records from the Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue (the predecessor of ESTC), including items catalogued by the American Antiquarian Society as part of the North American Imprints Program (NAIP).
- Newspapers and other serials, which began publication before 1801.