Catalog of Dictionaries, Word Books, and Philological Texts, 1440-1900: Inventory of the Cordell Collection, Indiana State University

The Warren N. and Suzanne B. Cordell Collection of Dictionaries, housed at Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State University, is the world’s largest collection of dictionaries, with over 5100 pre-1901 titles and several thousand more from the 20th century. This listing which interfiles foreign and English-language materials, and gives access to holdings through a date index, a language index and a subject guide. Organised alphabetically by author, editor or compiler (or by title in the case of main-entry titles), the catalogue’s arrangement by date under the main entry offers a sense of publishing history for individual lexicographers. The catalogue not only contains exact information on the holdings at Indiana State University, but also provides guidance for the use of sources that may be available in less extensive collections. Aside from obvious utility in the areas of languages, linguistics and lexicography, the catalogue provides valuable information for research in other fields.