Reference Collection

The Reference Collection in the Department’s reading room documents all aspects of the history of the book. The Collection includes:

• General works on the history of the book
• General, author, national and subject bibliographies
• History of printing and publishing
• Book collecting and book selling
• Bookbinding
• Paper and watermarks
• Book illustration
• Biography
• History of periodicals
• History of Trinity College Dublin
• Catalogues of other libraries

Items with the call number prefix OL are stored on the Open Access shelves in the reading room. This material is available for consultation in the reading room without submitting call slips.

The Open Access collection is supplemented by further reference material relating to the history of the book and shelved in the Early Printed Books Stacks. Items with the shelfmark prefix OLS are requested on green call slips. For further information on requesting material see Planning your Research Visit.

Apart from holding the Reference Collection, the reading room is used for consulting older Library material and special collections from the Closed Access Stacks.