By Abby Tallmer

As readers of AEM may remember from last month’s issue, I, like others on the AE staff, am participating in a project called The Collaborative Project (or TCP for short) which involves us each choosing a topic of our choice to research on the AE Database and carrying that research through to its logical conclusion by either “buying” the books on internet bookbuying sites or obtaining reading copies of them from libraries and the like.

My topic of choice was and is anti-slavery materials printed in the 19th century and either written by, or addressed to, a female audience. My interest in this topic might, to some, take some explaining. Yes, I am a 21st century Caucasian woman. However, I have had a longstanding academic, intellectual, and personal curiosity both about 19th century women’s studies and about African-American studies (not necessarily in that order) and I wanted to pick a topic that would bring these two often overlapping worlds together. In particular, I have always been unable to fathom how women could have cooperated with the institution of slavery (as many did, of course) and I have always admired all of those, female and male, who fought to overcome it– but I admit a special curiosity about the women, black and white, who were brave enough to resist the this vile system. Finally, this specific topic is one that I have done a bit of research and minor collecting on already, thus insuring that I wouldn’t “go in cold” to a topic about which I knew nothing.

When we last ended off I had been using what to me is a crazy, antiquated system of checking the AE Database search by search and then cutting and pasting the “matches” into a word document, which I then planned to weed for duplications. And as I recall, I had a 150-odd page Microsoft word document of “matches” to be weeded against each other for duplications. I also still had many remaining “Keyword Searches" to perform as well as a remaining list of some 30 to 50 names which had come up in “matches” but which I had yet to check further.

Well, that was back in my 19th century!

Since then, we staffers at AE have been treated to our own private versions of the new AE “Wants List” Software. And a treat it is! This new “Wants List” Software has made just about everything I did last month, except the brainwork and the bibliographic research culled from reading the bibliographic records, obsolete. No longer am I working with a 150-plus page Microsoft Word document that holds all my “cut and paste” records and my notes about what to do next.

Now, I simply perform searches, and using the “Wants List” Software technology I am able to save my “matches” onto what is called a “Provisional List.”

There are many huge bonuses to AE’s “Wants List” Software. Because I have been busy editing this magazine and have not used it to its fullest potential, I can only name the advantages I have come across so far.