Introduction to the Bibliographic Database

The AE Bibliographic Database is an amazing tool for book collectors, booksellers, librarians and historians. Located within the database are volumes of information pertaining to old and rare books.

Its more than 1.6 million full text records are divided in four types: bibliographical, collector and bookseller catalogues, and auction records. The latter includes recent, contemporary, and selected historical auctions.

Within bibliographical records you'll find Sabin's 29-volume "Bibliotheca Americana," generally regarded as the most important reference in Americana ever published. Then there's Evans' "American Bibliography" and Howes' "Usiana." Howes' is particularly useful as Wright Howes set out to create a valuation scale for the 11,000+ titles he reviewed. You'll find many volumes from the almost forgotten American Imprints Survey. Produced on behalf of the WPA during the Depression era, when even bibliographers couldn't find work, these obscure but wonderful resources come to life again in the AE Bibliographic Database. And there is still more, such as Bradford's and Church's works, and Pilling's bibliography of books relating to North American Indians.
The American Book Auction Catalogues list of American auction events beginning in the 17th century and continuing through 1934 is also included

Next come the catalogues of some major collectors, such as Thomas Streeter, George Brinley, Henry Huntington and Frank Siebert. Some of the best descriptions of printed works are contained in these catalogues, and since they were used as auction catalogues that ultimately dispersed these great collections, realized prices are included as well.

While the bibliographies and collector catalogues are focused primarily on Americana, the larger categories of bookseller catalogues and auction records cover a wider range of material. Booksellers' catalogues provide both descriptive and pricing information. Here you'll find catalogues from such booksellers as Maggs Bros., Edward Eberstadt, Goodspeed's, and Ernest Wessen's extraordinarily comprehensive "Midland Notes." The pricing data is particularly useful if you are trying to determine the value of books for either buying or selling. The AE Bibliographic Database shows how some of the most knowledgeable booksellers, both from the past and present, valued their books. Since few people kept or collected long runs of these catalogues, this information is virtually unobtainable elsewhere.

Finally, there are auction records. The Americana Exchange has covered material at auction since its inception in September 2002. Since then we have gradually increased coverage to include all books, manuscripts and ephemera at traditional documented auction worldwide. Today we are covering 130 auction venues and continue to add new firms and locations to our coverage as the documentation becomes understandable.

Auction coverage is both proactive and historical. To auction houses we recommend posting lots a minimum of 17 days ahead of sales to maximize exposure. All such lots are fully [and freely] searchable on AE. Once sales are complete the realized prices are added and the lots become searchable in the AED as part of the historical researchable records.

We include the entire lot descriptions provided by the auction houses, as truncated descriptions which do not fully explain factors such as condition, may make sales prices misleading. Additionally, we continue to add results from contemporary (past two decades) and historical auctions as well. In 2006 we provided coverage for more than 204,000 lots covering more than half a million books. In January we provide a complete analysis of auction results and a searchable database for readers to assess auction outcomes according to their personal perspectives.

For research members a current value estimator program is provided. It adjusts older values, adds and averages multiple records for an instant synthetic current estimate of value.

Premium Services members have access to Footnotes, easily constructed electronic files of past records that are provided to confirm value and rarity or simply to document importance.

For a listing of sources in the Americana Exchange Database, click here. To subscribe to the AE Database, click here.