LGS 311 - Intellectual Property

Official Public Catalog | Copyright Public Records System (CPRS)

Search Strategies

The Official Public Catalog and CPRS both online Copyright Office records. The CPRS is a pilot system with more advanced search and filtering options

1. Consider what information you are wanting to find when crafting a search strategy. 
   • The records of the registered works available contain title, type of work, registration date and number, author, copyright claimant and potentially other limited information. 
2. Keyword searches will search terms anywhere in the record.
   • Use quotations to surround exact phrases. You can also use ? for truncation (ex: photo? searches for photograph, photographic, photos, etc.) and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
3. When searching in the Official Public Catalog:
   • Omit initial articles (A, And, The). If searching by name, for personal names, type last name then first name first. For corporate names, type in order.
   • If you wish to search by document names, go to Other Search Options and choose one of the Docs options. 
4. When searching in the CPRS, more advanced search options are available.
   • Names can be entered in first last name order. You can also search by field headings.
   • You can search for phrases, 'starts with', or exact keywords.
   • Results can also be filtered by item type, date, and registration status.
5. The CPRS also contains a Name Directory where you can search a list of names electronically indexed from records.

Note: Both the Official Public Catalog and CPRS only contain digital records of copyright registrations from 1978 to present. The Catalog of Copyright Entries is a project collecting catalogs of copyright entries (published registration record compilations) from 1891 to 1977. The collection is incomplete and volumes are being digitized in reverse chronological order.