Cataloging Your Collection

[Kevin Connolly]

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on cataloging a magic collection. I notice some collectors use a book form to keep their information. Some even use pictures of the item, along with the description.

Are there any programs you like to do this? What information do you enter? etc., etc.

I would like to finally get my collection under control or at least in order. :)

Thanks,
Kevin

[Michael Edwards]

Kev:

I just though you'd put it all under "H" for Houdini. :D

Michael

[Kevin Connolly]

Thanks Pal!

Remind me to step on your thumb tip collection the next time I see you. :eek:

[Michael Edwards]

Ouch :o

Okay, here's what I do...

My magazine files are fairly simple given the Daily/Alfredson and Fernandes guides (at least for the English language periodicals). I keep card (and an electronic file) on each set which includes the periodical, the issues I have, condition, provenance, perhaps past auction history, and any references to articles that may have discussed the history of that particular publication. For those sets which I have had bound, I also include the appropriate binding information so additional volumes can be later matched.

My cup collection (which includes about 150 sets) is catalogued in a series of albums. For each set, I include a photograph or two, a fairly detailed description of the set, its provenance, and often any catalog or advertising copy that might be relevant.

My posters are in a rather primitive data base which inludes an image of each lithograph and the salient information about the item, including links to additional sources of information.

As for books and ephemera, I'll get around to them someday...perhaps ;)

Michael

[Kevin Connolly]

Michael,

Thanks. Your thumb tips are safe. In your descriptions, do you enter the cost or previous prices the piece has sold for? I would like to add that, but to have the option not to print certain info when going to hardcopy. I guess a simple cost code would work.

Thanks for the help. Your bottle of flesh tone paint is on its' way.

Kevin

[Michael Edwards]

Yes, I do both. I try to keep tabs on what I paid for the item and sometimes what a similar item might have brought at auction etc.

[Gary Hunt]

Kevin,
Just took the plunge and am in the middle of putting my collection into a database. Before I had written records and had tried a database, which was wiped out after a hard drive crash several years ago. I looked at a number of book collecting programs and finally settled on BookCat. It is a very sophisticated Access based program that is really built for public or commercial libraries. However, at $39.95 it is a steal. It seems to have a rather large worldwide following and the author does a good job of supporting the product. Check it out at: http://www.fnprg.com/index.html . It is customizable, but since it was build for books it has a few shortcomings handling journals and the other odd pieces one tends to accumulate.

So far I have concentrated on books and magazine files. For books I am collecting the usual bibliographic information (author, title, copyright, edition, printing, type of binding, limited edition, pages, language, country of publication, and publisher. Also can put in the dimensions of the item. If there are significant articles or chapters in the pub, I will also enter this information. Then price paid (can also track current value), condition, when purchased (and from whom if important), subject (I guess for you this would be Houdini. <g>), keyword, and location (shelf, file, etc). I can also add comments about the item and a photo or scan.

I am almost finished with my books and will start on the magazines files soon. There I am really just interested in what I have and what I need to complete a file.

Am doing this all rather rapidly in order to get it all into the database. Will then go back and clean up and expand the data.

The only real problem I encountered is the shock that I got when I ran a report on total price paid..amazing how quick all of those small purchases add up.

Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck.

Gary Hunt
Editor Emeritus
Magical Past-Times: the On-Line Journal of Magic History
www.illusionata.com/mpt/
garyhunt@mindspring.com

[Kevin Connolly]

Gary,

Whew! That was some post! You sure answered alot of questions in one fell swoop. Does your program have a search?

What I am thinking of doing is something like John Bushey's books. He has the description on one page and the photos on the next. I would like to have two formats(?) so that I can have one to show to collectors and one with other info, like cost, where I bought etc. Some info I would like to keep to myself. :D

Thanks Again,

Kevin

[Michael Edwards]

Kevin:

You can try out the database Gary is using free of charge for 30 days. There should be enough flexibility in it to accomplish what you want to do. The challenge is entering the data...

Michael

[Gary Hunt]

Kevin,
The program has a search function. It also has a report generating function, so you can just print out the data fields you want. I have not really gotten much into this feature yet. Just did some basic title author reports. It takes a little while to get use to, but the data entry screen can be customize. I am still learning all of the capabilities of the program. The program is free to try for up to 40 entries. It is not the most intuitive program, but sure is better than one I could write.

There is a free program available that can translate the data for use on a PDA database. Found this a little buggy, but others seem to get ir to work. The only problem is that you have to buy a PDA database first.

Michael is right; the hard part is putting in the data. Though it is fun to go through the collection. Keep running across things I forgot I had and getting side tracked skimming through books i have not seen in years. I am getting a better appreciation of the scope of the collection and what I have and where I need to go in the future.

Gary Hunt

[Marco Pusterla]

Hi!
I think I mentioned BookCAT on this forum some years ago, and I've been using it since 2000. I'm really pleased with it as it has MOST of the features a magic books collector would need. Its reports are very good and they should allow you to generate all the data you want, but they may be complex to design, at first.

To have an idea of the sort of list you may generate out of BookCAT, go to http://www.mpmagic.co.uk/library.htm

The pages have been generated with the standard "HTML Export" feature, not a report, though.

What I think is missing from the software is more control on the books contents (I would like to define "notes" for tricks in books chapters) and a more powerful keyword engine (a trick may require coins, a double-face card, a pass and a TT, and this may just be a single trick in a whole book... you can only assign keywords to books :( )

But, still, I think it is a great program!

On the other hand, it may not be the best program to manage a collection with items in various categories (posters, books, cards, ephemera, tokens, photographs, programmes, etc.) or for insuration purposes (altough my insurance is happy with BookCAT...)

I've been "playing" with a couple of these prorams in the past, but I was not comfortable with either (and I also have a somewhat limited collection, concentrating mostly on books) so I did not use any. At the moment I cannot recall what I used, but I'm sure a visit on Google will find you plenty to try.

Just my two cents...

---
Marco Pusterla - http://www.mpmagic.com

[Michael Edwards]

Kevin:

I've now been playing around with the BookCAT database for a couple of days. While it's taken me a bit of time to fully understand how to adapt the software to my particular needs (periodicals, posters and artifacts as well as books), I now find it a rather helpful tool. If you are interested in cataloging books, the program is pretty intuitive. If you are interested in using it to track other kinds of items, the key is to have a strong sense of what data you want to maintain, how you want it displayed, and what kind of reports you might be interested in generating. Once you have a clear vision of this, it's fairly easy to modify the database fields and screens to reflect your preferences. Of course, there are a large number of other data management programs on the market...and -- I would assume -- even possible applications that are already on your computer. But Gary and Marco are right that this particular program is worth looking into...

[Marco Pusterla]

Actually, for posters, I used "StampCAT", one of the CAT-like programs. While it is supposed to help you catalogue stamps, it is fairly easy to use it for posters (heck, they are just very big stamps :D ).

I don't have many posters, though, therefore the demo version was enough for me.

Just my 2 cents...

Ciao!
---
Marco Pusterla - http://www.mpmagic.com

[Gary Hunt]

I set up a separate database for my magazines and designed a simple data entry screen. Worked very well. Of course as I added data I kept thinking up new fields to add. Next will tackle other printed materials (again I may use a separated database/input screen or just integrate it into the book database) then I have to figure out how to put in all of the articles, zerox copies, computer files and bits and pieces of flotsam and jetsam. Not worrying about posters as I only have three. <g>.

Has been fun and put the collection into a more organized state (if that is ever possible).

Since it is going to snow tomorrow, I may have some time to get more in.

Gary Hunt

[Jeff Haas]

I found a freeware book collection database, it's worth a look:

http://songstech.com/

It's not as far along as other solutions, but it's free. Decent support on the author's forum, too.

Jeff

[David Kaplan]

I'm another satisfied BookCat user. I started using it a few years ago and quickly settled on a general categorization scheme that works for me.

I use the Keywords on an as-needed basis. I don't have the time or interest to compulsively annotate every book with all of the keywords that might apply. I instead attach keywords to those items that catch my attention from time to time. So, for example, I have a keyword that identifies all the references in my library to the Torn & Restored Newspaper. On the other hand, I (currently) have no interest in billiard balls, so I haven't taken time with these.

I find it more difficult to keep up with my monthly periodicals. For now, I generally enter them as a single record for each volume. I note those issues which are of special interest to me as well as the issues (or online databases) that contain more detailed index informaton.

-- David