Copyright Renewal Database

Orphan works, books printed between 1923 and 1963 that have no apparent owner, cause real problems for institutions that want permission to digitize titles. Now Stanford University has created the Copyright Renewal Database to make it easier to identify orphans. The database consists of renewal records received by the U.S. Copyright Office between 1950 and 1993 for books published between 1923 and 1963. Be forewarned, however, that it only covers renewals (not original registrations) of books (Class A registrations) that were published in the United States.