Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1978
Copyright registrations from 1978 onward can be found in the Copyright
Office's online database.
The Copyright Office also published a print Catalog of Copyright
Entries for 1978, which included some prior original registrations and
renewals that did not appear in previous issues of the Catalog, and
that are not in the database.
For completeness, then, one may need
to include this year's Catalog in copyright searches. Below we link
to as many of the 1978 volumes as we can find, with a special focus on the
pre-1978 registrations and renewals that appear herein.
The following types of records are available here:
- Pre-1978 Renewals for Books and Pamphlets (6 catalog pages)
- Pre-1978 Renewals for Periodicals (2 catalog pages)
- Motion pictures and filmstrips (including 8 catalog pages of pre-1978 registrations, and 7 pre-1978 renewals)
- Visual arts (including 25 catalog pages of pre-1978 registrations, and 2 pre-1978 renewals of commercial prints and artwork)
- Maps (including 4 catalog pages of pre-1978 registrations)
- Renewals (1978 only; redundant with the online database)
A guide
to abbreviations used in the records
is now available.
To find out more about researching copyright renewals, see
this page.
To see if a book can go online, you may have to check not only the "Books"
category, but also the "periodicals" category, if parts of the book first
appeared in a periodical, and the "artwork" category if you want to scan
any of the illustrations. If the book is a play, or a set of lectures or
addresses, check the "Drama and Works Prepared for Oral Delivery" category too.
Not yet available online are full volumes with leftover
original registrations for
books, contributions to periodicals,
periodicals, drama, music, and sound recordings;
and leftover renewals for drama and music.
Please let us know if you have or find any
of these online.
Copyright renewals also exist for music, film,
commercial prints, and certain other categories. We have
no immediate plans to digitize these, since we're mainly
interested in book renewals at this point. If you want to
digitize these, though, contact onlinebooks@pobox.upenn.edu.
Renewals for Books and Pamphlets
The following page images are available (all GIFs):
- January - March:
- April - June:
- July - September:
- Page 2197 (portion listing renewals; 2 entries)
- (None were recorded in the October-December issue)
Renewals for Periodicals
The following page images are available (all GIFs):
- January - June:
- July - December:
Motion pictures and filmstrips
The semiannual volumes for motion pictures and filmstrips (Part 4 in the
new series) included some pre-1978 registrations and renewals that had
not appeared in earlier issues of the Catalog of Copyright Entries.
Visual arts
The Copyright Office published semiannual volumes for visual arts as Part 5
in their new series. The January-June volume included some pre-1978
registrations and renewals for artwork and for commercial prints and labels
that had not appeared in earlier issues of the Catalog of Copyright Entries.
I have not seen an online copy of the July-December volume,
so I do not know if that volume included such registrations
as well.
Maps
The Copyright Office published semiannual volumes for maps as Part 6
in their new series. The January-June volume included some pre-1978
registrations and renewals
that had not appeared in earlier issues of the Catalog of Copyright Entries.
I have not seen an online copy of the July-December volume,
so I do not know if that volume included such registrations
as well.
Renewals
The Copyright Office published semiannual volumes for copyright renewals
of all kinds as Part 8
in their new series. These volumes do not include any pre-1978
registrations and renewals that had not appeared in earlier issues
of the Catalog of Copyright Entries; such renewals are only found
in the sections above. I have included the volumes here
for completeness (and for confirmation that they have
no pre-1978 renewals), but they should be completely duplicated in the
Copyright Office online database,
which I recommend you use for renewal
searches from 1978 onwards.
The images above were scanned by Google and by John Mark Ockerbloom.
If you would like to contribute better copies, or registrations that
we don't yet list from the 1978 volumes, email
onlinebooks@pobox.upenn.edu.
(Please don't send any images by email unless I ask for them.)
