Hamnet

Hamnet was the Folger's first online catalog, a component of the Voyager ILS. It debuted in 1997, and remained in service until June 30, 2022 when it was replaced by the current Catalog.

History

The name "Hamnet" was chosen through a competition open to staff and readers, and evokes both Shakespeare ("Hamnet" was the name of his son, "Hamlet" is one of his best-known plays) and the Internet (often called just "the Net" in the 1990s). At first, Hamnet only had full records for open-stacks books and newly-cataloged vault books, plus preliminary records for any vault books, art, and manuscripts acquired from 1997 onward. By the time it was replaced, it contained at least a brief record of just about everything in the collection.