Rare Book Monthly
Articles - September - 2002 Issue
Using the Americana Exchange Resources to Their Fullest Potential
Because the Americana Exchange Monthly has been deliberately designed to be interactive and reader–driven, we offer you various opportunities to make your voice heard. In the Readers Survey that follows each article — including this one — you will be able to instantly evaluate specific content, and we will publish your evaluations. You will be able to tell us how were doing and will be able to express what you see as our strengths and weaknesses, article by article. In the Vote for Upcoming Articles feature, you can tell us exactly what your collecting interests or research questions are and get us to address topics that are especially relevant to you. Interested in Teddy Roosevelt? Suggest that we write an article about the man and his works. Or submit an article on the topic and what draws you to it and why others should care.
You can use our Letters to the Editor feature to write in with specific or general critiques, inquiries, and suggestions. Additionally, the Americana Exchange Monthly will host Discussion Groups where you can communicate with other readers about defined topics. Join a discussion group and tell others what youve learned through your research, talk about what you collect and why, pose a general research question, or just add a comment or two to an ongoing debate. Or suggest that we start a discussion group in your area of interest. AE’s discussion groups and the Americana Exchange Monthly are part of the overall concept of AE: to create a member-driven website that will serve AE’s members as a stimulating, dynamic, online venue for the rapidly changing, increasingly diverse community of people who research, collect, work with, read, and have a passion for Americana. Become a part of its ongoing readership and participate in the conversation.
The final AE research module that this article will consider is that of the Classified Advertisements. Classifieds, it is true, are rarely considered within the realm of research possibilities; but in fact, the AE Classifieds have great potential for researchers. Let’s go back to our Teddy Roosevelt example. Perhaps you live in a cramped apartment which is rapidly running out of room and you decide to divest yourself of Aunt Harriets collection, or at least of the duplicate copies and less valuable material within it. As a paid member you have the unique opportunity to design and run a free ad for the first ninety days of your AE subscription. You can post an ad offering Great Aunt Harriet’s books for sale, even if youre not a professional dealer. Furthermore, each day one lucky classified ad will be picked at random to be featured prominently on the Americana Exchange Monthly site. In either case, all of the individuals, institutions, and auction houses and dealers who comprise AE's membership base will read your ad & this entire constituency will contact you if they are interested in what you are selling. And there are other research uses for the classifieds. You can also use the classifieds to comparison shop: you can read other peoples ads and see if theyre offering Teddy Roosevelt books and if so at what price. This will contribute to your by now well developed sense of the rarity and value of particular T.R. titles. Thus don’t overlook the Classified module when you consider the various research functions available at AE.
