Primary Search: An Easier Way To USE the AE Database
- by Bruce E. McKinney
Primary Search Screen
by Bruce E. McKinney
We now offer a revised and much improved Primary Search tool to identify records in the Americana Exchange Database. We have revised both the search field that comes up first on the toolbar under Search and also the format of the results.
The Primary Search looks like this:
The database currently contains more than 268,500 records and we are adding 25,000 new records each month. When you click on Word Wheel (requires Windows operating system) next to Bibliographical Type you can see the current composition of the data base. It is always growing.
175544 Bibliographical References
1737 Celebrated Collections
66760 Dealer Catalogues
4094 Recent Auction Records
20259 Selected Historical Auction Records
Let’s try some searches.
You do not need to put information into each field and you do not need to put complete information into any field. Let’s put Jefferson in the Author field. It finds Jefferson in 416 records in the AUTHOR field. Now let’s narrow the search by adding Thomas: Jefferson, Thomas. This narrows the results to 200 matches. Jefferson College and other such items disappear.
If you have a portion of the title we can now add it in the TITLE field. Jefferson’s most famous book is Notes on the State of Virginia but you must be careful. A single key word is best because it picks most and probably all related titles but if you have it just a little wrong you may miss many references. Let’s say you put in the TITLE field Notes on Virginia you’ll find only some of the references – 13 whereas Notes finds 70. Generally it is best to have too many references and then to quickly look at what you have and add additional qualifying terms. If you now enter1782 in the YEAR PUBLISHED the total records that exactly match is reduced to 6. Now look at the most recent auction record. If you have a copy, and there are undiscovered copies in attics, you have a great book that is worth a great deal of money.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Ellis Smith Prints unsigned. 20” by 16”.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: United typothetae of America presidents. Pictures of 37 UTA presidents 46th annual convention United typothetae of America Cincinnati 1932.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec signed Paper Impressionism Art Prints. MayMilton 9 1/2” by 13” Reine de Joie 9 1/2” by 13”.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Aberle’ Ballet editions. 108th triumph, American season spring and summer 1944.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Puss ‘n Boots. 1994 Charles Perrult All four are signed by Andreas Deja
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Specimen book of type faces. Job composition department, Philadelphia gazette publishing company .
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: An exhibit of printed books, Bridwell library.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court By Mark Twain 1889.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 1963 Philadelphia Eagles official program.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 8 - Esquire the magazine for men 1954.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: The American printer, July 1910.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Leaves of grass 1855 by Walt Whitman.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare. The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
Sotheby’s: William Golding. Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
Sotheby’s: John Milton. Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD
