Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands

Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands

The STCN is the national bibliography of the Netherlands up to the year 1801. It comprises detailed descriptions of many thousands works printed in the Netherlands or in the Dutch language. These works have been preserved in one or more copies in publicly accessible heritage institutions in the Netherlands and abroad. At the moment (November 2025), the database contains over 225,000 titles in over 655,000 copies.

The STCN is a convenient and valued research instrument for literary scholars, book historians and for all who are interested in the early modern book. Almost all entries have been created with the book in hand – in autopsy – and carefully checked by editors of the KB to ensure the quality and consistency of the data. Photographs of title-pages and links to digital copies have also been added (in progress). The complete data set is open access and the metadata is available in various formats for research and re-use via data.bibliotheken.nl (Linked Open Data) or by contacting the STCN via STCN@KB.nl.

The STCN is a service of the KB, the national library of the Netherlands and based on a longstanding cooperation with libraries at home and abroad. The database grows daily, among other things via large (inter-)national collaborations, such as the project Unlocking the Fagel Collection with Trinity College Dublin.

For questions, or interest in cooperation, feel free to contact the STCN at STCN@KB.nl or using the contact form.

For more information about the STCN, visit the page on the website of the KB (in Dutch), and the pages with background information, rules and search help on this website.