By Bruce McKinney

The Americana Exchange Database, the AED, as we go to press, has 2,896,494 records, a hundred thousand more than just a month ago. We continue to add auction records as sales conclude and also add records from 20th century auctions as well. We have been focusing on Sotheby's prolific sales from second half of the century. Where buyers' identities are known we include this information. Where consignor information is known or can be deduced we add this as well.

All the records are searchable on the current site. We will update the beta site [www.wikibiblio.com] around mid-November. We expect at that time to be approaching three million records. On the new site, also accessible by clicking on the AE logo on this site, the searches are quick and the results complex. All AE databases, the AED, Books for Sale and Upcoming Auction Lots, irrespective of which database is selected, simultaneously search all databases, display results for the database selected and links [expressed as numbers] for results in the other databases.