STC to ESTC, Past, Present, and Future

A Centenary Symposium.

2026 marks the centenary of the publication of 'A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of English Books Printed Abroad 1475 – 1640', otherwise known as 'STC'. In the 100 years since its publication, the Short-Title Catalogue (STC), its revised and enlarged second edition (published in three volumes between 1976 and 1991), and its successor, the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), have become invaluable resources for librarians, scholars, and bibliographers alike. ESTC’s mission to “record every distinct letterpress item produced during the hand-press era” in the British Isles has so far resulted in identifying 500,000 distinct imprints held in more than 3 million copies worldwide.

In 2025, ESTC was re-launched as part of the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL)’s ecosystem of databases and is accessible for free at https://datb.cerl.org/estc. It continues to be co-managed by ESTC British Library (ESTC/BL) and ESTC North America (ESTC/NA).

This one-day symposium seeks to celebrate the legacy of the first two editions of STC and explore the promise of the newly re-launched ESTC with a series of talks and discussions on topics ranging from the history of submitting data to STC, the effects of ESTC on library professional practice, and the ways that ESTC's data can continue to tell us more about the books of the handpress period and the people who worked with them.

List of speakersKaren Limper-Herz (British Library) and Greg Prickman (Folger Shakespeare Library): Introduction to the History of STC and ESTCHolly Forsythe (University of Toronto): Beyond Census Reporting: The Hidden Benefits of Contributing to ESTCSara Schliep and Erika Giddens (Folger Shakespeare Library): STC in Practice: 100 Years at the Folger Shakespeare LibraryDavid Shaw (Bibliographical Society): The Bibliographical Society’s Cathedral Libraries Catalogue and its Contributions to ESTC 2nd editionDavid Vander Meulen (University of Virginia): ESTC: A User’s Perspective Across Half a CenturyStephen Gregg (Bath Spa University): Machine Readable: The Other ESTCJonathan Barry (University of Exeter/LMU Munich): Not in the ESTC? A case-study of items printed in Bristol before 1801Fred Schurink (University of Manchester): What is an Early Modern English Book? Continental European Books in Early Modern England, 1500-1640Kate Ozment (Case Western Reserve University): Tracking Book Trade Businesses in the ESTCJames Misson (British Library): Vector Similarity and Semantic Discovery in the ESTCDavid Macfarlane (Cambridge University Libraries): Reuniting Members of the London Book Trades with Their Printed Works: Linking the LBT to the ESTCHelen Vincent (British Library): Reflections on the Future of the ESTC: A Group DiscussionNicolas Bell (Trinity College, Cambridge): Show and Tell of material from the revision of the Short-Title Catalogue