In processing a request for copyright clearance for
non-renewed copyrights, the PG rules require searching manually the renewal
records for the 3 years surrounding the date of expiration for the author,
title, publisher, etc. This can be a time consuming process if it is eventually
found to have been renewed.
I have found the following Rutgers site a quick way
of determining if a book has been renewed, thus sparing much
effort:
A quick search on names titles etc will stop you
from wasting a lot of time. I don't think it covers magazines.
For example a quick search on Frank Harris revealed
that all of his major works have been renewed.
Likewise Albert Payson Terhune
But Margaret Armstrong "Trelawney" showed no
renewal, so a manual search is now being done to clear this for PG.