Microform Collections: Literature

* WHAT: The Early English Books microfilm collection contains nearly every British book published from the invention of printing to 1640 - according to the Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue of books. From the first English book published through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this collection contains more than 30,000 titles. Materials that have been microfilmed range from official publications hundreds of pages long to single page posters and handbills.

* FORMAT & SCOPE: Microfilm. Reel 1-onward.

* ORGANIZATION: Microfilm reels are numbered consecutively rather than chronologically. Documents from various years will appear on the same reel of film. The collection is divided, by year, into two segments with slightly different call numbers (see above). Be sure to retrieve the reel from the appropriate section of the collection. You will need Call Number, Reel Number and Item Number in order to locate specific documents. Each citation in the online catalog contains a reel number and an item number designating its position on the reel.
EXAMPLE: PR1127 .E2 1615:17
call # reel : item position
Items cited in print indexes only contain the reel number and item number.

Note that the items on each reel rarely contain number cards or frames to indicate their position on the reel. The only sure way to locate the right item effectively is to carefully count the start of each new document as you proceed through the microfilm reel. This can take patience and considerable time and effort if a reel contains many short documents.

* INDEX: There are entries for a significant number of the unique titles contained in this collection in the online catalog. Note that the most recent acquisitions have not yet been added. Early English Books are indexed in paper supplements or guides as follows:

Early English Books 1475 - 1640: PR1120 E2 Guide
PR1120.E224
Early English Books 1641 - 1700: PR1127 E2 Guide
PR1127 E222 1981
PR1127 E223 1990

* WHAT: The Early English Books microfilm collection contains nearly every British book published from the invention of printing to 1640 - according to the Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue of books. From the first English book published through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this collection contains more than 30,000 titles. Materials that have been microfilmed range from official publications hundreds of pages long to single page posters and handbills.

* FORMAT & SCOPE: Microfilm. Reel 1-onward.

* ORGANIZATION: Microfilm reels are numbered consecutively rather than chronologically. Documents from various years will appear on the same reel of film. The collection is divided, by year, into two segments with slightly different call numbers (see above). Be sure to retrieve the reel from the appropriate section of the collection. You will need Call Number, Reel Number and Item Number in order to locate specific documents. Each citation in the online catalog contains a reel number and an item number designating its position on the reel.
EXAMPLE: PR1127 .E2 1615:17
call # reel : item position
Items cited in print indexes only contain the reel number and item number.

Note that the items on each reel rarely contain number cards or frames to indicate their position on the reel. The only sure way to locate the right item effectively is to carefully count the start of each new document as you proceed through the microfilm reel. This can take patience and considerable time and effort if a reel contains many short documents.

* INDEX: There are entries for a significant number of the unique titles contained in this collection in the online catalog. Note that the most recent acquisitions have not yet been added. Early English Books are indexed in paper supplements or guides as follows:

Early English Books 1475 - 1640: PR1120 E2 Guide
PR1120.E224
Early English Books 1641 - 1700: PR1127 E2 Guide
PR1127 E222 1981
PR1127 E223 1990

* WHAT: LAC is a collection of materials on microfiche relating to all aspects of American life and literature from their beginnings to the outbreak of World War I. Included in the collection are pamphlets, periodicals, documents, biographies and autobiographies, fictional works, poetry, collections of various kinds, materials of foreign origin relating to America, and many rare books not generally available.
LAC is mounted in a fiche format called ultrafiche which reduces the original image even more than regular microfiche does. When using this collection you will need to ask the Info Desk staff to load the X87 lens on the reader printer you are working at. Note that high quality prints are virtually impossible from this format.

* FORMAT & SCOPE: Ultra-fiche. Complete.

* ORGANIZATION: The LAC is organized by fiche number.

* INDEX: The contents of this collection appear in the online catalog as unique entries. All entries have the call number assigned to this collection. Additional digits follow the call number and these digits designate the fiche number.
- EXAMPLE: LAC E156 .L5 10174
Print indexes are located near the collection in Wilson 2 East.
- LAC Index: E156 .L52 4 volumes

* WHAT: LEL is a collection on microfiche containing material relating to all aspects of English literature from its beginning to the Restoration in 1660. Included in the collection are Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, Tudor, and Elizabethan materials as well as many examples of poetry, drama, essays, prose fiction, and religious, philosophical, and critical works both contemporary with the period covered and modern. Major works by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton, among others, are included along with sufficient materials for textual study.

LEL is mounted in a fiche format called ultrafiche which reduces the original image even more than regular microfiche does. When using this collection you will need to ask the Media Desk staff to load the X87 lens on the reader printer you are working at. Note that high quality prints are virtually impossible from this format.

* FORMAT & SCOPE: Ultra-fiche. Complete.

* ORGANIZATION: The LEL is organized by fiche number.

* INDEX: The contents of this collection appear in the online catalog as unique entries. All entries have the call number assigned to this collection. Additional digits follow the call number and these digits designate the fiche number.
- EXAMPLE: LEL PR1101 .L5 11773
Additionally a paper volume is available for this collection and is shelved in the Microform Index area along the south windows on Wilson 2 West. This index can be useful for example if a user wanted to see all of the documents by a particular author and their location in the LEL.
- LEL Index: PR1101 L52

* WHAT: A collection of cultural materials from the 19th century. This collection is jointly owned by WWU, the other Washington State supported universities, and Evergreen State College. The collection is divided into the following areas: linguistics, publishing, book trade and diffusion of knowledge, visual arts and architecture, and women writers.

* FORMAT & SCOPE: Microfiche. Western only holds volume 2 - Publishing, The Book Trade and the Diffusion of Knowledge.

* ORGANIZATION: Microfiche cards are organized by at "Title Number" consisting of 3 or more digits separated by two decimals.
- EXAMPLE: Title Number 3.1.1
A notation in the upper right corner of the card indicates the total number of cards per title. Each card is uniquely titled and titles may encompass more than one fiche. Microfiche in this collection are sometimes filed more than one to an envelope.

* INDEX: Call number is DA533 .N563 and lists the contents of all four parts of the collection. Western only holds volume 2 - Publishing, The Book Trade and the Diffusion of Knowledge.

* WHAT: English and Latin texts originating between AD 1479-1602. This collection covers rhetoric from the invention of printing to AD 1600. The texts, which show the influence of Cicero, Aristotle and Quintillian, also illustrate the effect of rhetoric on letter writing and preaching methods. A wide variety of authors (lawyers, philologists, courtiers, senators, town clerks, scholars, etc.) from various cultural backgrounds are represented.

* FORMAT & SCOPE: Microfiche, complete set.

* ORGANIZATION: By fiche number. Each document in the collection is represented by a unique title in the online catalog. The call number in the catalog record will contain the fiche numbers for that particular item.
- EXAMPLE: PN6010 .R45 1986 fiche 37-38

* INDEX: Paper index to the collection is shelved by the above call number in the Microform Index area on Wilson 2 East. All titles appear in the online catalog as unique entries. Fiche numbers 62 and 101 are missing from our collection.