Those Buttons - the Other Services that Come with the AE Database

- by Michael Stillman

Thomas Edison's most commonly used keywords relate to autographs, not electricity.

Add to Footnote:  Footnotes is a great tool for those who sell books (booksellers, auctions, or private individuals), and librarians and others posting research or information about books. It enables you to select up to 50 records from the AE Database, put them on a page, and then create a link to that page you can post anywhere. So, if you are selling a book and want potential customers to understand why it is valuable, you can create a file of past sales. At the end of the "for sale" listing on your site, simply copy and paste the link to the Footnote file you created (a footnote). When a viewer clicks the link, they will see all of the listings you created. Even if you don't have your own website you can post this link as the Footnote file is hosted on AE's server.

 

This service may similarly be used by librarians, historians, or anyone else looking to create a Footnote of records from the AED to support their research.

 

Get AE Keyword - If you would like to know what words are most often used in listings for a particular item or subject, simply select all or some of those listings you find after an AED search and click "Get AE Keyword." You may want to do this for practical reasons - such as finding additional terms to search to find material of interest, or to be sure you are using terms others search for when creating descriptions of books you are selling. You may want to check keywords out of curiosity, or for what else they may tell you. For example, if you search for "Thomas Edison," you will find "light" and "electrical," but after "Edison" and "Thomas," the most common keywords are "signed," "letter," "typed" and "autograph." A bit further down comes "signature." A signed piece from Edison is a wonderful thing to have, but in assessing what to pay for such an item, don't assume things in Edison's hand are very rare. The frequency of these keywords in listings relating to Edison tells you they are not.

 

Print - Finally, a button that needs no explanation.

 

Track Record - Track Record is a service that is partly similar to MatchMaker and partly not. It enables you to keep a notation of a book you find in the AE Database for future reference… in other words, so you don't forget about it. Once you have marked a book for tracking, you just go to your "My Account" page to find it. However, like MatchMaker, you will also receive a notification if any of these books ever comes up at auction or is listed in AE's Books for Sale.

 

Records Found - Now for those two blue links above the buttons that give a number of "records found." One says "Books for Sale," the other "Upcoming Auctions." Whenever you search the AE Database, there is a behind-the-scenes search going on of two other databases - upcoming auction listings and Books for Sale. This way, if you would like to see what's available in these databases, the results are right there. You don't have to go to these other databases and conduct separate searches. We call it a "triangulated search," which is a fancy way of saying we recognize that in today's world, it's all about information. People want reams of information, all in one place and all at once. Triangulated search provides the AED subscriber not only with over 3 million records of past results but data on books currently listed at auction and for sale as well.