The following message is taken from a Press Release issued by the 
     British Library. It is supplemented with information which may be of 
     use to those searching for music manuscripts.
     
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     
     BRITISH LIBRARY MANUSCRIPTS CATALOGUES GO ONLINE
     
     A three-year project to automate  the printed catalogues of 
     manuscripts and to make them available remotely via the Internet has 
     been successfully completed. This innovative conversion  project was 
     developed  and executed  with generous financial support from  the 
     Heritage Lottery Fund and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.
     
     Compiled over nearly two centuries, the scholarly catalogues of the 
     Department of Manuscripts, cover all types of handwritten material in 
     western languages.  These range from notes written on papyrus in the 
     pre-Christian era to contemporary literary and political papers, and 
     include manuscript music and maps, wax seals, drawings, photographs 
     and illuminated manuscripts.
     
     Sixty-two volumes, hitherto only available in the Manuscripts Reading 
     Room at the British Library or in a few specialist research libraries, 
     have been converted from print to database.  The catalogues selected 
     for conversion comprise the quinquennial Catalogues of Additions and 
     those of named special collections. Subject and language-based 
     catalogues are not included. A full list is displayed online and in 
     the User Guide. There will be a continuing programme of enhancement 
     and expansion.In addition, all the new cataloguing prepared on 
     computer since 1986, some of it not yet published, has been merged 
     into the system.  For the first time, users can encompass most of the 
     mainstream catalogues in a single search, rather than having to refer 
     to a series of consecutive volumes. They can also retrieve keywords in 
     context or combinations of index terms which could not be targeted in 
     the printed text.
     
     The online catalogue can be accessed using a standard browser at 
     
     http://molcat.bl.uk 
     
     or via the British Library's Website at 
     
     http://www.bl.uk
     
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     
     Catalogues of Music Manuscript holdings 
     ---------------------------------------
     
     The following information attempts to relate the published catalogues 
     listing the Library's music and music-related manuscript holdings with 
     the online catalogue:
     
     * Augustus Hughes Hughes, _Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the 
     British Museum_ 3 vols (London, 1906-9 R/1964-6). The information in 
     this catalogue is *more detailed* than that on the online catalogue.
     
     * Pamela Willetts, _Handlist of music manuscripts acquired 1908-67_ 
     (London, 1970). The information in this catalogue is generally in 
     *less* detail than the online catalogue.
     
     * William Barclay Squire, Catalogue of the King's Music Library, part 
     I, The Handel Manuscripts; part II, The Miscellaneous Manuscripts 
     (London, 1927, 1929). This catalogue is not yet available through the 
     online catalogue but a data conversion is under way and should be made 
     available online later in the year.
     
     * Arthur Searle, _The British Library Stefan Zweig Collection: 
     Catalogue of the Music Manuscripts_ (London, The British Library, 
     1999). This catalogue is more detailed than the version published in 
     the _Catalogue of Additions_ and that available on the online 
     catalogue.
     
     Manuscripts acquired from 1968 are listed along with other manuscripts 
     acquired by the Library in the quinquennially-published Catalogue of 
     Additions. Those volumes covering the periods 1976-80, 1981-5 and 
     1986-90 have been published and those for 1956-1975 and 1990-1995 are 
     in preparation and information on these holdings is available from the 
     typescript Summary Catalogue of Music Manuscripts on the open access 
     shelves of the Rare Books and Music Reading Room in the British 
     Library's new building at St Pancras. The information in these 
     catalogues is the *same* as that in the online catalogue.
     
     Information on the following is only currently available through 
     inhouse typescripts:
     Manuscripts on Loan
     Copies of manuscripts received under Export license rules Microforms 
     of manuscripts in other collections
     
     'Tips for searching' are available online. When searching for 
     particular works by composers it is worth noting that the index 
     entries are not generally made for individual compositions, 
     particularly where the library's holdings of a composer are large. 
     However, it is possible to use the 'near' operator in a Descriptions 
     search to combine part of a composer's name with part of a title (e.g. 
     Tippett near child for Michael Tippett's 'Child of our time'; Curzon 
     near Mozart for Clifford Curzon's annotated copies of works by Mozart; 
     string near quartet for 'string quartets', 'quartets for strings' 
     etc).
     
     If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact
     
     [log in to unmask]
     
     *****************************
     Chris Banks
     Curator of Manuscript Music
     & Deputy Head
     Music Collections
     The British Library
     96 Euston Road
     London NW1 2DB
     
     Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7510
     Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7751
     Email: [log in to unmask]
     BL URL: http://www.bl.uk
     *****************************


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