Database programs for record collections

[mjbarnes]

I am not expert at Excel, or Google Sheets, or Apple Numbers -- any of which you may have on your computer. But if you list your recordings in one of those spreadsheet programs, you can learn a lot about your collections. You will see the duplicates. You can view your collections by year, or by artist, or by title, or by any other topic of interest, as long as you entered information about each recording under column headings you created at the start.

I learned quite a lot about my Blue Amberol cylinders today by typing 135 of them into a spreadsheet. I will share info in another post shortly.

[travisgreyfox]

I really need to do this, but I feel like when I go into my music room I do so to unplug. I just want to dig through my records and play stuff. I have my records (dis)organized by piles of stuff where I kinda "know" where things are LOL.

[Marco Gilardetti]

I really need to do this, but I feel like when I go into my music room I do so to unplug. I just want to dig through my records and play stuff. I have my records (dis)organized by piles of stuff where I kinda "know" where things are LOL.

Same feelings, but I had to set up a database at a point in time because, despite not having a particularly large record collection, I happened to buy twice records that I had been seeking for a very long period of time (as if my mind refused to memorize that I had found them, at last).

As a consequence, I have loaded all of my 33 rpm in a database of which I have a copy on my smartphone, ready to be checked anytime.

Differently, I only have a sketch of my 78 rpm collection, related to the singers that I dig the most, as at times I couldn't remember wether I already had or not any of their most obscure titles, and in which condition the record was. But it's not even remotely a complete database.

[drh]

I started keeping a computer catalogue in the early 1980s, at first as a word processing document (after a failed attempt with an early database program that turned out not to work as claimed). From there I ported it to a DOS database program called SquareNote and finally to my current software, Personal Knowbase, the latter in response to issues in running DOS software under Windows and capacity limits in the older program that were becoming awkward. Other than CDs, it covers all formats--cylinders, 78s, LPs, even my handful of 45s--and I'd be lost without it. The tricks, though, are to start before the collection gets too big, as playing catch-up thereafter is not fun, and to be diligent about keeping it up to date as new records flow in. Oh, yes, and to keep good backups!

[Marco Gilardetti]

The tricks, though, are to start before the collection gets too big, as playing catch-up thereafter is not fun, and to be diligent about keeping it up to date as new records flow in. Oh, yes, and to keep good backups!

Very true. Luckily I made up my mind when my collection was not as big as to be an impossible task. Actually, it had been fun to go through all of the records, labels, sleeves... To some degree it was like getting reacquainted with my records. Indeed, a side purpose of the database is also to recall me the features of the pressings that I own, as I particularly hate owning a non-folding reprint of a record that was originally a folding edition, or featuring a paper-white inner sleeve while the original pressing featured lyrics or pictures. These lesser details are hard to recall while "out for hunting".
And yes, I am very diligent as you say, and as a matter of fact newly purchased records are set aside in a sort of limbo until I found the time to entry their data.

[Inigo]

By my side, I'm glad i started this database when i only had 500 x 78s (1997). I acquired the habit of typing into the database the data of records newly acquired (from 1 to 150, but usually 5-10) as soon as they came home. Now the database has grown up to 10,000 + registers (each side separately) with 28 information fields each. Utilities such as sorting by matrix number are useful to put a date on elusive recordings, etc. You can detect patterns, recording engineers' correlative works, etc. I've never lamented of having done all that work, because it has been done little by little...
Of course it also has the information about where a record is stored so thanks to this it takes but a few seconds to locate any record among the 5,500...
I have a catalogue printed out on paper, in the fashion of company catalogues, that is, alphabet order of titles mixed with artists names, so each side is listed twice, once by title and also by artist.
I have a txt copy on my mobile phone, and with the search facility it's still better than the paper book

[travisgreyfox]

Holy cow Inigo! That's enough music to play non-stop for like 30 days straight. Looking at your collection would be something to behold.

Cheers

[Inigo]

Not a collection of rarities, but good music only. There is still a lot of it out there!

[JerryVan]

I have a very simple spreadsheet. I have a location code, title, artist, label, record number. If nothing else, it has kept me from buying duplicate copies of records many times already... which is why I made the spreadsheet in the first place. My memory could not keep up with what records I already had. I've got maybe 600 records/1200 sides listed. Much as Inigo states, I don't have many records that anyone would get excited over, just the music that I like.

[mjbarnes]

By my side, I'm glad i started this database when i only had 500 x 78s (1997). I acquired the habit of typing into the database the data of records newly acquired (from 1 to 150, but usually 5-10) as soon as they came home. Now the database has grown up to 10,000 + registers (each side separately) with 28 information fields each. Utilities such as sorting by matrix number are useful to put a date on elusive recordings, etc. You can detect patterns, recording engineers' correlative works, etc. I've never lamented of having done all that work, because it has been done little by little...
Of course it also has the information about where a record is stored so thanks to this it takes but a few seconds to locate any record among the 5,500...
I have a catalogue printed out on paper, in the fashion of company catalogues, that is, alphabet order of titles mixed with artists names, so each side is listed twice, once by title and also by artist.
I have a txt copy on my mobile phone, and with the search facility it's still better than the paper book

To Inigo's point -- discovery of patterns was an unexpected benefit of typing my (small) database. For those with large record collections where the project seems daunting -- just do little by little. One box or one drawer at a time.