Listen carefully and you can hear the next generation of shoes dropping. Material everyday is being organized and digitized by subject and collection for the web and scholars, collectors, librarians and dealers are beginning to access this next generation of complex, related and threaded information via single searches. It's happening on library sites and its happening on AE. The difference is that libraries are cataloging their collections. On AE we are creating borderless bibliographies that both provide the positive presentation that libraries are building but also match AE's Wikis to material posted at auction and in Books for Sale. Rather than endlessly search the research simply looks at the changes posted everyday. In a few years this new structure of information will replace traditional book listing sites.
Libraries and institutions are digitizing their collections and associations, collectors and dealers are beginning as well to organize their material as collections, fields, focuses and inventories - in effect, bibliographies by whatever name you call them, that will become magnets to attract related and relating material from across the globe into single search results. The future comes into view.
Wiki Bibliographies, AE's concept for how this can work, were introduced on the Americana Exchange in October, 2008. This month we introduce a substantial simplification of the Wiki Control Panel to speed the process of creating entries.
On the Wiki Control Panel an L now identifies those Wikis that are live. Increasingly Wiki Bibliographers will manage more than one Wiki. Some will be public and others under development. Those with the L are live.
Under Operations -
Add Items. Selecting this link brings up a list of each Wiki Bibliographer's Wikis. One or more Wikis can be simultaneously selected if an entry is intended to be added to multiple Wikis.
The Add an Item Screen now includes a 'footnote' field. Up to 75 records from the AED can be organized to document bibliographic details, rarity and history. With this link such records are attached to the Wiki entry.
Up to four images can now be attached to each Wiki entry as the initial entry is being created. For each image uploaded a thumbnail appears in the entry module. Images can of course be added later. The goal of this change is to permit a complete record with footnotes and images to be created in a single entry.
Altogether, a listing and its description, author, date and place printed can be organized with footnotes, a link to the full readable text if it is available in Google Books or Open Library, and up to four images.
Edit/Postpone/Delete Approved Items. It turns out Wiki Bibliographers aren't perfect. If an item in an existing Wiki needs to be suspended or deleted both options are provided here.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
Heritage Auctions Rare Books Signature Auction December 15, 2025
Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
