This is intended to be a very basic introduction to searching the Library of Congress catalogs, including LOCIS via TELNET. It is not our intention to make professional researchers or librarians out of our readers, but to give you a general idea of how to find the somewhat less obvious material listed in the publicly accessible portions of the Library of Congress catalogs.
There are a variety of reasons one might look for copyright information. For example, a writer may be interested in adapting a novel for the stage but cannot find the publisher or the date of publication. Or, say, a composer may have decided to sue another composer over copyright infringement but before hiring an expensive lawyer and research team wants to double check to make sure the work by the writer he's suing doesn't predate his own work.
Due to a household filing mishap, we found ourselves unable to put our hands on the registration papers for a work of ours that we knew we had attempted to register with the Library of Congress. A record company was interested in looking at the work, but before we would allow them to see it we wanted to make sure that it was indeed registered. "No problem!" said I. "I'll call the LoC and they'll happily provide the information."
Yeah, right. After being bounced between several departments and making a number of long distance phone calls I finally reached someone who told me that they'd be happy to do a search for me if I mailed them a request that blah, blah, blah, and etc. I pleaded and cajoled and begged. Finally this person let slip that all information about registration of copyright with the Library of Congress since 1978 was available on the Internet. Duh! (Why didn't she pass on this information in the first place?) I knew that the LoC had made available access to their catalogs of published and archival material, but unpublished material?
I whipped open my browser and sped on over to the Library of Congress home page. Burrowing down through their pages, I found myself at the Library of Congress Catalogs page. (Searching the catalogs is only available during certain time periods; check your access point -- either web page or TELNET -- for times.) Their search tools are pretty self-explanatory and great for finding published materials. For example, click the "Advanced Word Search" link. Change the "Select Database to be Searched" pull-down menu to "PreMARC (unedited older bibliographic records)." After "Enter Term 1," type miller, arthur. Pull the menu which follows that text entry box down to "Personal Name" (leave the "Word" pull-down menu as is). After "Enter Term 2," type salesman. Pull the menu which follows down to "Title." The resultant page is a listing of published copyrighted versions of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, including several sound recordings and study of the play (in German).
But that kind of database won't help your intrepid research with his plight. What about finding the unpublished material we're looking for? That requires a visit to LOCIS (Library of Congress Information System) via TELNET. We'll continue our search next week!
The Library of Congress' website is not just for access to its catalog. There you'll find thousands of pages devoted to their exhibitions; information on the LoC, its structure, events, special features; and all kinds of facts and data. For example, check out my article, African-American Theatre on the Web - Part 2.
A teacher is addressing a class on the evils of the double negative. "In the English language it is possible that two negatives may cancel each other out to create a positive. But the opposite does not exist; two positives cannot create a negative."
From the back of the class Little Johnny speaks: "Yeah, right."
For more information on the use of TELNET software, contact your ISP, internet guru, or check Suite 101's computing areas (Mac / PC).
C U @ the Theatre!
Originally published at Suite101.com Theatre, 1/12/99
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