ECCO Parts 1 and 2 is a digital collection of books and directories, Bibles, sheet music, sermons, advertisements, and works by many well-known and lesser-known authors. The majority of titles are in English with additional material in French, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian and Welsh.

The collection includes works from women writers of the 18th century, collections on the French Revolution, and many Shakespeare editions. Multiple editions of each individual work are offered to enable scholars to make textual comparisons of the works. New material in ECCO Part 2 includes 96 new editions of Shakespeare and 900 new works and editions by over 400 female authors.

ECCO Parts 1 and 2 include:

• Every significant monograph published between 1701 and 1800 in the English language and also every significant monograph in any language printed in the British Empire during this period
• All first editions published between 1701 and 1800
• All variant editions published in the same period (to be included, a variant edition must include substantial alterations from a prior edition. Works with qualifying alterations may be prefaces, additional chapters, or indexes: a straight reissue with a new title page or dedication is not considered a substantial alteration)
• All printings of the following authors: Addison, Bentham Bishop Berkeley, Boswell, Burke, Burns, Congreve, Defoe, Jonathan Edwards, Fielding, Franklin, Garrick, Gibbon, Goldsmith, Hume, Johnson, Paine, Pope, Reynolds, Richardson, Bolingbroke, Sheridan, Adam Smith, Smollett, Steele, Sterne, Swift and Wesley Early American imprints, except those works also published in Britain, are excluded to avoid duplication with another ongoing project: Readex's Early American Imprints

We purchased ECCO on behalf of UK higher and further education institutions and Research Councils. Parts 1 and 2 offer institutions online access to over 180,000 titles (200,000 volumes) and nearly 33 million pages published between 1701 and 1800. This newest material has been sourced and scanned from collections in the British Library, Bodleian Library, Cambridge University, National Library of Scotland and the Ransom Center at the University of Texas.

Institutions can also access this resource by subscribing to the Jisc eCollections service (via the Jisc Historical Texts platform).

Publisher selection policy

Content is selected from 18th Century printed books recorded in the English Short Title Catalogue. ECCO Part 2 arose as a result of the ESTC uncovering new material and new holdings of previously unavailable titles since 2003.

Backfiles or archives included

In 2009, Jisc Collections purchased the new edition ECCO Part 2, providing an additional 45,000 titles and 7 million pages of new works and editions uncovered by the English Short Title Catalogue since 2003. This new material has been sourced and scanned from collections in the British Library, Bodleian Library, Cambridge University, National Library of Scotland and the Ransom Center at the University of Texas.