This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License. | Details of our policyTips for expanding what look like Book title abbreviations:
1. Google ~ Google actually often works well for this. Put in the whole abbreviation and see what you get. If you have an author last name plus a title abbreviation This is true for any language. If it is a major work, it might come up. Don't spend a lot of time here -use your common sense - if it doesn't come up with something logical - move on.
Good Example: Reeve conch. icon. - The 1st Google result tells you this stands for the book: Conchologia Iconica by Lovell Augustus Reeve
Bad Example: for Delect. Anim. Artic Brasil. Google says "appears to be a phrase referencing an upcoming international student animation festival in Brazil"
2. Major works on Pelagic natural history in the 18th-19th centuries - Check this list of Works and abbreviations
3. Try WorldCat - this is especially helpful if you have an author name and a date + the abbreviation. Can you figure out some words in the Abbreviation? If so, you can try WorldCat with the author name, Publication Year - because some books come out over time - put in a year range - so if the year is 1833 - put in 1830-1839 to start, and one or two word guesses from the title abbreviation.
Example: Back to Delect. Anim. Artic Brasil. - The reference also gives the author Perty, and the year 1833. I can guess that anim. might be animal - so if I search WorldCat for author: Perty - Title: animal* and limit to years 1830-1839 - I get: Delectus animalium articulatorum : quae in itinere per Brasiliam - Ta Da! See the Tab on Searching WorldCat for specifics
4. Email Your Liaison - Me - Sharon at sc2520@gmail.com
Often for older classic works, you will only get an Author and a Date. This is a clue that it is going to be relatively easy to find. The example you've probably already run across is Linneaus 1758 - as you no doubt already figured out - this refers to Linneaus' work Systema Naturae - and specifically the 10th edition published in 1758. There are no other books by Linneaus published in 1758.
When you run across one that you do not know - and no further information is given there are several strategies.
Strategy #1 - Google ~ Google is often very good at this - if you type it in with the author last name, and the year, it will often get the right one. Example: This is the best strateg
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License. | Details of our policy