JISC Collections has purchased a range of historic book archives for perpetual access by member institutions. Currently, these archives must be separately accessed, searched and browsed on a range of platforms, and are subject to an annual access fee.

One platform, over 350,000 historic books

JISC Historic Books contains the full text or page images of over 350,000 books published in Britain from 1475 to 1900. The service draws together content from two of the best-known and longest-established early book collections:

• EEBO (Early English Books Online)The scanned images and (increasingly) full-text digital versions of over 125,000 books published in English up to 1700, from the fi rst book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.

• ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)A digital collection of all the books published in Great Britain and its colonies during the eighteenth century, comprising some 33 million pages from more than 180,000 titles. The collection includes books in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, Spanish and Welsh.

Uniquely and never before available online, JISC Historic Books also includes:

• Nineteenth Century books from the British Library collection

A digital collection of more than 65,000 fi rst editions from the long 19th century, covering philosophy, history, poetry and literature. The collection of over 25 million pages of previously rare and inaccessible content is searchable for the fi rst time, and includes the original typeface and illustrations for each book.

JISC Collections, with the JISC Historic Books advisory board, is exploring how the community can work together to improve the machine-created text that sits alongside the digitised images, and how we can best provide libraries with MARC records for all the titles on the platform – no small task! Stay up to date on progress by visiting the JISC eCollections website www.jiscecollections.ac.uk.

DEVELOPED BY

The single search box searches the full text of over 270,000 books and

recognises Authors or Titles, delivering relevant

results

Results can be refi ned using the unique

Autonomy concept cloud

Searches can be saved for future reference

The book can be searched for a new

search term

The page can be zoomed for a larger view

Pages can be truned using the arrows at the top or side of the page

Instances of your search term can be quickly

reviewed or accessed from a side panel list

Results are ranked in order of relevance. Just click on a book title to read a digital facsimile

The single search box remains at the top of the

screen so new searches can be run quickly and easily

Help is available, providing guidance on how to search and use the platform

Advanced Search is also available

JISC Historic Books consists of titles published 1475 -1900