Cataloging the Collection: Who does it?

External Since: Mar 21, 2004 Posts: 4

I have been cataloging my collection in an Access database. Anyone else use an
electronic catalog system? Do you design your own or use some special piece of
software?

How do sellers and collectors catalog sets? For instance: The Complete Works
of Dickens. Do you use only one entry for all 22 volumes, or a separate entry
for each story?

How about multiple authors in a set? For instance: Stories of English Authors.
These are grouped by theme. Do you list each theme, story and author as a
separate entry, or just carry a huge description with all the particulars?

How about sets where volumes were published in different years?

With any luck I hope to be finished with the gross entries by the end of the
year. Its a great excuse to dust the top edges and oil the leather.

External Since: Nov 10, 2003 Posts: 126

In article <20040321174814.28938.00000137.TakeThisOut@mb-m25.aol.com>,
rodinsbalzac.TakeThisOut@aol.com (Rodins Balzac) wrote:

> I have been cataloging my collection in an Access database. Anyone
> else use an
> electronic catalog system? Do you design your own or use some special
> piece of
> software?

I'm using a FileMaker Pro database which I originally designed for a
bookstore and am adapting for my personal collection.

> How do sellers and collectors catalog sets? For instance: The Complete
> Works
> of Dickens. Do you use only one entry for all 22 volumes, or a
> separate entry
> for each story?

One entry for a set like that, where everything has been issued at
(more or less) one time in a uniform binding, but for a /series/ - eg
Pevsner's Buildings of England - I would catalogue the volumes
individually. There are grey areas where one just has to make a judgement
on whether one considers it a single oeuvre over multiple volumes, or a
group of different books.

> How about multiple authors in a set? For instance: Stories of English
> Authors.
> These are grouped by theme. Do you list each theme, story and author
> as a
> separate entry, or just carry a huge description with all the
> particulars?

I would go down the huge-description route, though in practice I would
only note the authors/stories I considered to be of particular interest.

> How about sets where volumes were published in different years?

Bibliographically you can do them as one entry with "1901-07" (or
whatever) as the publication year, in practice you may be edging into the
territory of what I called series, as opposed to sets, above.