A library of libraries
It never fails.
You’d think by now The Legal Genealogist would know better.
But nooooooooo…
I still make the same mistake.
Like yesterday when I was mentioning the wonderful treatises about justices of the peace in Ohio that I had come across using resources like Google Books, HathiTrust Digital Library and the Internet Archive.1
There were two treatises that I mentioned: Humphrey H. Leavitt’s 1843 The Ohio Officer and Justices’ Guide;2 and Paul Douglass’ 1932 The Justice of the Peace Courts of Hamilton County, Ohio.3
The first is readily available online — you can download it and read it.
Alas, the second — published after the 1923 break-point for U.S. copyright law4 — is still copyright-protected so it’s only available in snippet view online.
Yep, the reality is… it’s not all online.
So… as I should have expected… within minutes of that blog post going live, in came the question. Reader Debbie H. wants to know: “How do I find a book like that in a place where I have a fighting chance to be able to use it?”
Fortunately, there’s a very easy answer to that question.
It’s WorldCat.
And the website is WorldCat.org.
WorldCat explains that:
WorldCat is the world’s largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.
WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. WorldCat grows every day thanks to the efforts of librarians and other information professionals.
You can search for popular books, music CDs and videos—all of the physical items you’re used to getting from libraries. You can also discover many new kinds of digital content, such as downloadable audiobooks. You may also find article citations with links to their full text; authoritative research materials, such as documents and photos of local or historic significance; and digital versions of rare items that aren’t available to the public. Because WorldCat libraries serve diverse communities in dozens of countries, resources are available in many languages.5
Think of WorldCat as a catalog to just about every library around. And when you do a search for a book like Paul Douglass’ out-of-print-but-still-copyright-protected book, you can check to see if it’s available in alternative formats and editions (there is an e-book format, but it’s no more available than the print version) and — here’s the key — you can check to see exactly what libraries have a copy.
You begin by entering the information on the book you want to search. You can search by author name, by title, by publisher, by time period, by language and by much much more. (Hint: when you’re playing around on WorldCat, make sure to look at the “Subjects” and “More like this” fields… You may find things you didn’t know existed!)
Then when you find the exact book and edition you want, you enter the zipcode or city where you want to begin your search. In the image here, I used a zipcode in the City of New York. The system then returns a list, in the order of closest-to-farthest-away-from-you, of all the libraries that hold a copy of the book you want to read.
It turns out that three libraries in New York City have the book — two university law libraries and the New York Public Library. And there are, overall, 73 libraries right out to the Hamilton Library of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (4,900 miles from New York City) that have it.
You can, if you want, get a map to the library, get information about the library and even click through to an ask a librarian feature with libraries that offer that.
WorldCat.
A great way to find that book, no matter where you are, and no matter where that copy may be.
SOURCES
- Judy G. Russell, “Treating the treatises,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 4 Apr 2017 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 5 Apr 2017). ↩
- Humphrey H. Leavitt, The Ohio Officer and Justices’ Guide (Steubenville, Ohio: James Turnbull, 1843); digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 3 April 2017). ↩
- Paul Douglass, The Justice of the Peace Courts of Hamilton County, Ohio (Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins Press, 1932). ↩
- See Judy G. Russell, “That 1923 date,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 20 Nov 2016 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 3 Apr 2017). ↩
- “What is WorldCat?,” Worldcat.org (http://www.worldcat.org/ : accessed 5 Apr 2017). ↩
My problem at times is that I get so excited about finding a book that perhaps mentions my ancestor that I forget to note the url of where I found it! Then a few days later I realize the error of my ways and the hunt is on. Again!
I love WorldCat. Have used it to get information on some great current books my local library might want to consider buying, and to share history and genealogy book information with people in Canada, the UK and Australia.
Please be aware that many very small public libraries can’t afford to add their holdings to Worldcat. Here is how to tell if the library you are interested in has its holdings listed in Worldcat. When you are on the main search page click on the “Find a Library” link. Then type in the library name, or address, or zip code to find their entry, Then click on the hyperlinked name of the library.
IF you see this message:
“There are no WorldCat item holdings set for this library. If this is a branch library, holdings may be set at the main library level in WorldCat”.
then you probably will need to go to the library’s website and search their catalog through the link listed in their entry.
I also love that is any libraries have an LDS microfilm it will be listed in Worldcat.
WorldCat usually tells me “Sorry, no libraries with the specified item were found.” Of course, I tend to search for things like Florida non-population censuses and Letters Received by US or Confederate government agencies.
It helps to use the LoC catalog together with WorldCat.
https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/searchAdvanced
Worldcat is only secondary when you’re looking for archival materials. Go to ArchiveGrid instead.
Are you sure that the Douglass book is still protected by copyright? There is no record for it that I can find in Stanford’s database of copyright renewals at https://exhibits.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/catalog?utf8=%E2%9C%93&exhibit_id=copyrightrenewals&search_field=search_author&q=douglass%2C+paul. A search in Google for the title plus “catalog of copyright entries” only pulls up the original registration but no renewal record. Similarly, a search of HathiTrust’s scans of the CCE volumes (at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis&c=1052370572) does not show any renewal records for 1960, 28 years after publication.
HathiTrust will upon request review whether it is incorrectly restricting access to a title. Just use the “Feedback” link at the top of the page to submit a request along with your rationale for why it should be open. It may take awhile before librarians have a chance to review the record, but if you are right, you have helped provide access to the entire country.
You’re right — I jumped to an unwarranted conclusion that it was in copyright because it hasn’t been digitized, and we both know that’s not true. It’s just that it’s easier for the digitization services to use 1923 as a black-and-white dividing point.
As a professional librarian, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that public libraries can do even more. Your local library can search WorldCat for books, then order them for you via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). I worked at several, and even our smallest branches were able to do this. Most places will send their books out via ILL for free (others charge a small fee for postage). While most have no restrictions, some will require that the loaned book remain at the borrowing library. This is one of the best services your local public library offers–take advantage of it!
One reason why organizations that digitize content are so reluctant to digitize post-1923 books is because a book itself might now be in the public domain because of failure by the author to renew the copyright 28 years later, but that book could contain illustrative content inside it, such as maps or photographs, that could conceivably still be under copyright protection by a third party. It is EXCEEDINGLY difficult to determine if illustrative matter in a now public domain book was or was not timely renewed.