One Million and Growing:
A Brief Account of the AED --Please Read!
- By Michael Stillman
Multiple fields can be used to hone in on results for just the first American edition of Huck Finn
By Michael Stillman
We reached a major milestone in the development of this site a few weeks back: over one million records and growing. Specifically, we are talking about the AE book database of records, and it is the backbone of this website. For those of you not familiar with the "AED," we request you take a few moments to learn what it is. You may want to subscribe (it's cheap), you may not. Your call. But as it has become the most extensive record of its kind pertaining to books and book sales, you should know what it is. If you own a bookshop, and a customer asks you about AED records, you want to be able to say, "that's a very useful resource," or "that isn't particularly helpful to me." As the expert, the one thing you never, ever want to say to a client is, "what is that?" So, here's the quick explanation.
The AE Database and the Americana Exchange went live 2 1/2 years ago. Many of the site's features are free, and we long ago lost track of how many people come here daily to use them. However, the AED is a subscription feature and it does help to pay the bills. It's also a great value. When we opened, it contained just over 200,000 records, all taken from classic bibliographies such as Sabin, Evans, American Imprints Inventory, and more. What made the AED a unique resource even then was that the records were placed in a database, and could be located through numerous different fields, such as author, title, date, publisher, place of publication, etc. That is very different from scanned or facsimile files where you can look for words anywhere in the text, but cannot conduct searches targeted to specific fields. That type of search often results in "Google" results, so many matches that you can't possibly find the ones you want.
That was then. Since 2002, we have expanded the database with priced records, primarily from book auctions and booksellers' catalogues. For book auctions, we include the hammer price; for dealer catalogues, the listed price. Some are very old, as far back as the 19th century. Others are as recent as an auction held a few days ago.
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One Million and Growing:
A Brief Account of the AED --Please Read!
- By Michael Stillman
Some of the most recent results for the first American of Huck Finn
Today the great majority of our records are priced. We understand that there is no "blue book" for books, and so others' pricing history is essential for determining appropriate value, whether you are a buyer or seller. However, we also know that descriptions are critical, both for understanding the price of each particular copy, and to identify and describe the copy you have. Auction listings and dealer catalogues contain some of the best bibliographic descriptions of books, and we provide them in full, not abridged versions.
Now many people use the book sites like Abebooks as their pricing guide. We love "Abe" and all of the book sites. They can quickly tell you whether a book is unusual or common, and give some pricing information. However, you will often see books where the high price is ten or more times the low, with no discernable difference in condition. The reality is "Abe" provides prices from a jumble of sellers, respected professional bookseller to amateur operating out of a garage. Some prices are legitimate, others are drawn from thin air. All priced records in the AED are either actual auction prices or those determined by knowledgeable booksellers. While time needs to be factored in on older records, they represent the understanding of those who know their books. These are the records that will enable you to estimate the appropriate price to place on a book you want to sell, as opposed to list. Many "Abe" sellers don't recognize that difference. As a buyer, they will help you establish what is a reasonable price to pay.
Here's another gap that the AED fills versus the book sites. Abebooks will find lots of used and more common old books. The AED fills in with data on the rarer and more valuable books that aren't often found on the Abebooks site.
So why the name "Americana Exchange?" Does the AE Database cover only Americana? No. The name is something of an historical oddity. This site was started with 200,000 bibliographic Americana records, but has evolved far more rapidly than anyone expected. Booksellers' catalogues offering all types of works are included, and for over a year every book and manuscript or similar ephemera from over 80 worldwide auctions has been entered, most of which have nothing to do with America. Sure there is still a concentration of records pertaining to Americana, but today new records for every type of book are being added practically everyday. Ironically, a large percentage of AED subscribers are European, but maybe that shouldn't be so surprising. European booksellers frequently come across books of Americana or European Americana but may have few resources to turn to. Now they have the AED.
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One Million and Growing:
A Brief Account of the AED --Please Read!
- By Michael Stillman
Detailed results from a PBA auction earlier this year
What's up next for the AED? Lots more. We will continue to add records, from the latest auction results to classic references from the past. It's an ongoing project and one million is merely a steppingstone, not a finish line. In fact, as I write, the AED has already jumped 32,644 entries beyond the million mark, and by the time you read this, there will be more. This is a resource that will only get better in the days and years ahead. Meanwhile, we are also working on new ways to make the AED even more helpful, so watch here for new announcements in the coming months.
Of course, we welcome anyone who would like to sign up now. The price is just $14.75 per month, or $141.60 for a full year. Just go to the following page and sign up for a "Research" Membership: www.americanaexchange.com/NewAE/registration/becomemember.asp. If you aren't sure, sign up as a one-week "Visitor" for $7.95, and that amount will be credited to a monthly or yearly membership if you elect to continue.
If you've subscribed to auction or other such databases before, you will recognize that this is a real bargain. And when it comes to auction results, you won't have to wait until year's end. Results are added as soon as they are received. Here at the AE our goal is to bring valuable resources to the book collecting and bookselling fields, and offer them for relative pocket change. We offer other services, and if you go to the link above, you will be able to learn about them too. They may be more than you need right now, but everyone can use the AED today to make wiser buying and selling decisions. In other words, this is a resource that will quickly pay for itself.
Thank you for your time.
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