Our Catalogs
Literature printed from 1976 and thereafter is entered in our online catalog Regina which can be used to search for and request materials. A large portion of the material from before 1976 is also in Regina.
The National Library has two main catalogs for printed material where you find a large portion of our older material:
- Card catalog, for literature printed 1956-1986
- Sheaf catalog ("Plåten"), for literature printed through 1955
We also have other card catalogs, including the chapbook catalog, verse about individuals and funeral sermons.
Since all materials have not yet been entered in Regina, you should search the card catalogs if you do not find what you are looking for in Regina.
The National Library also has special materials that are not included in Regina or the card catalogs. Most of the collections of ephemera, maps, pictures, and manuscripts must be requested by other means. For more information, see the relevant heading under In Collections.
Card Catalog 1956-1986
The catalog covers the relevant years and contains standard format library catalog cards. Most of this catalog has been entered in Regina. All titles in the catalogs from 1976 onward are also in Regina and LIBRIS.
The Sheaf Catalog -1955
This catalog is also called "Plåten" because the sheaves are stored in large metal cylinders ("plåt" is Swedish for metal/sheet metal). When you use the nominal catalog, the alphabetical part of the sheaf catalog, you must remember that alphabetizing rules changed over the century. When the rules were changed, the library allowed the previous rules to remain on the sheaves, so works are often found under different headings than the ones stated by the most recently implemented rules.
There are a great many inconsistencies. The catalog was never meant to be used by the public. It was a working tool - a professional catalog - for the staff. For that reason, the library could allow it to get complicated and difficult to access, with a great many peculiar exceptions.
You can search two-thirds of the material in the sheaf catalog in the SiSch Database in Regina. The subjects are divided according to the National Library’s old "Signature Plan", SiSch.
- From Bound Volumes to Sheaf Catalog
In the early days, cataloging rules were passed on through oral tradition and the first printed catalog rules for the National Library are from 1916.
In the early 1860s, the National Library decided to follow foreign example and create a catalog made out of loose sheets of paper (sheaves). This was a new and bold idea for most libraries, which before then always listed book holdings in bound volumes.
The new sheaf catalog that replaced the old bound-volume catalog was used for nearly 100 years, until 1955.
