National Union Catalog
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints (commonly abbreviated "NUC") is a catalog of books published before 1956 which are held by major American libraries. It is sometimes referred to as Mansell, after its publisher. The work is a massive bibliography in 754 volumes, compiled during the period from 1968 to 1981. It contains photocopies of printed catalog cards from major American and Canadian libraries, arranged alphabetically by author's last name, or by title for books that have no author, such as the Bible.
The NUC was an important resource for verifying bibliographic information and finding copies of books before the advent of large electronic bibliographic databases, such as WorldCat; the massive size and weight of the set make it less useful now. However, given that approximately 27% of the books listed in the NUC were not in listed WorldCat as of 2005, it remains an extremely valuable tool for researchers.[1]
[edit] Complete title
The complete title of the this work describes its purpose and scope[2]:
- The National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints: A Cumulative Author List Representing Library of Congress Printed Cards and Titles Reported by Other American Libraries, Compiled and Edited with the Cooperation of the Library of Congress and and the National Union Subcommittee of the Resources Committee of the Resources and Technical Services Division, American Library Association.[3]
[edit] Project history
The Library of Congress began its union catalog project in 1901 in an attempt to locate and note the location of a copy of every important reference book in the United States. With financial assistance from John D. Rockefeller Jr., the collection grew to over 11 million cards. Copies of these cards were distributed to a number of libraries around the country.
In an effort to simplify research, it was decided in the 1960s to collect and publish all of the references in a single alphabetical listing. Mansell Information/Publishing Ltd., the company which created the British Museum catalog, won the contract to publish the proposed union catalog. Over the next 14 years, about five 600-page volumes were published each month until the NUC was completed.
[edit] Physical dimensions
The NUC is published in 754 volumes, containing over 528,000 pages. The set takes up approximately 130 linear feet of shelf space.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Beall, Jeffrey, Kafadar, Karen (2005). "The Proportion of NUC Pre-56 Titles Represented in OCLC WorldCat". College & Research Libraries 66 (5): 431-5. Retrieved on 2006-10-27.
- ^ Hall, Danelle (2004). "Mansell Revisited". American Libraries 35 (4): 78-80.
- ^ (1968-1981) The National union catalog, pre-1956 imprints; a cumulative author list representing Library of Congress printed cards and titles reported by other American libraries.. Mansell. DOI:720100038 ISBN 720100038.
