LECTURE: History of Libraries Research Seminar, Dr. Matthew Sangster (University of Birmingham), Copyright Literature in St Andrews University Library, Senate House (First floor, Room 104), Malet Street, WC1E London, 3 March 2015, 17:30 – 19:30.
During the eighteenth century, the university library at St Andrews was transformed by the accessions of thousands of books, plays and pamphlets sent under the aegis of the 1710 Copyright Act. This paper will explore the ways that these publications were used and valued by examining the contents of the library’s accession records, considering samples from its extensive and detailed borrowing registers and presenting some of the revealing marginalia preserved in surviving books.