For the CERL Manuscripts Expert Goup, National Contacts and National Backgrounds, press here
The 'English Short Title Catalogue' (ESTC) began as the 'Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue', with a conference jointly sponsored by the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the British Library, held in London in June 1976. The aim of the original project was to create a machine-readable union catalogue of books, pamphlets and other ephemeral material printed in English-speaking countries from 1701 to 1800.
In 1987, with the agreement of the Bibliographical Society and the Modern Language Association of America, the International Committee approved the extension of the database to cover the period from the beginning of printing in the British Isles (ca. 1472) to 1700. The file changed its name to the 'English Short Title Catalogue', thereby keeping its well-known acronym.
For more information: estc.bl.uk