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 the registrations from that year as well,
along with prior original registrations and
renewals that did not appear in previous issues of the Catalog (and
which are not in the database).
For completeness, then, we link to the 1978 printed volumes
of the Catalog of Copyright Entries, with added links to the
pre-1978 registrations and renewals that appear in the volumes.
The organization of this year's volumes is different from that of previous
years.
The following types of records are available here:
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 "nondramatic literary works"
category, but also the "periodicals" category, if parts of the book first
appeared in a periodical, and the "visual arts" 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 "performing arts" category too.
Pre-1978 copyright renewals recorded in the 1978 volumes (and
not in the online database) have also been
transcribed by Project Gutenberg as
well as being included in the volume scans below.
Nondramatic literary works
The volumes for
Part 1 (Nondramatic literary works) were published quarterly.
They included current original registrations, and leftover pre-1978 original
and renewal registrations for books and pamphlets.
Serials and Periodicals
The volumes for
Part 2 (Serials and Periodicals) were published semiannually.
They included current original registrations, and leftover pre-1978 original
and renewal registrations.
The volumes for
Part 3 (Performing arts) were published quarterly.
They included current original registrations, and leftover pre-1978 original
and renewal registrations for drama and music.
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 volumes for Part 5 (Visual arts) were published semiannually. They included current original registrations, and leftover pre-1978 original and renewal registrations for artwork and for commercial prints and labels.
Maps
The volumes for Part 6 (Maps) were published semiannually. They included current original registrations, and leftover pre-1978 original registrations.
Sound recordings
The volumes for Part 7 (Sound recordings) were published semiannually. They included current original registrations, and leftover pre-1978 original registrations. As copyright registration for sound recordings only began in the 1970s, there were no renewals made this year.
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 the Copyright Office, by Google,
and by John Mark Ockerbloom.
If you would like to contribute better copies, email
onlinebooks@pobox.upenn.edu.
(Please don't send any images by email unless I ask for them.)