Record and Cylinder Organization Methods?

[antique1973]

My office looks like it was bombed with records and cylinders from a
B-52 Stratofortress. If anyone has creative or even just good common sense methods
of organizing I would love to hear about it and see pics too if possible.
The herzog cabinets for cylinders are nice but I don't know if I will ever
find one on the local market, and if so its probably too much for my budget.
Thanks guys!

[Brad]

Ah, what a great problem to have! I ended up building shelves for my records and a cabinet to hold my cylinders (Woodworking is one of my hobbies). I record my records and cylinders in an excel spread sheet where I reference a sleeve number for a record and a location in the cabinet for a cylinder. It works great UNTIL you run out of room. I have no more room on the shelves or in the cabinet, and the media is piling up - Ah, what a great problem to have.

Before I built the shelves, I used the same excel method and kept the records in plastic milk crates. I hung a tag on each crate that listed the starting and ending sleeve number for the records stored there in. For the cylinders, I stored them standing vertically in cardboard can goods boxes (the kind of boxes that are just a bottom and 4 sides and the sides are only about 3" tall). I numbered each box, then had a scheme of rows and columns within the box. My spread sheet listed the box #, row, and column in the box.

It worked well and allowed me to find a recording quickly and replace it later.

Where I have run into problem is my collection grew quicker than my ability to log them in the spreadsheet and it out grew my storage.

So my advice is to either limit your collection to your ability to store and reference, or implement a system that can dynamically grow with your collection.

Here are pictures of my shelves and cylinder cabinet I built (Many have seen these pictures before ) Others have used commercially available shelves, etc, quite effectively.

[EdiBrunsVic]

Brad, that's a great example of organization! I just finished an inventory on a computer database of my records, but don't have the shelves like yours. I used a location note in the memo section as to if the record was in the cabinet, record file, shelf, or in one of the machines, such as the record section of my Victrola XVI. It helps me know approximately what I have and about where it is. Thanks for sharing the good photos.

[antique1973]

That is awesome Brad, great job! My space to work with is pretty much confined to
a small closet so here is what I came up with today. I have a few dozen more
records that I have to contend with but its much better now. I have 45 diamond
discs and 39 cylinders on the way so I have to get organized!

[Kirkwood]

Brad----Your cabinets are magnificent, exactly what I hope to build for my own collection one of these days. I like seeing old pics of store interiors from years ago, and your cabinets look much like some of those used in the dealer's stores. I like how the 12" albums are nearer the bottom, and how you have sculpted the supports to graduate the sizes (larger diameter near the bottom, so on). On the left side, there are a series of albums? boxes? with what appears to be a nice quartered oak spines---are they old or did you make them? Very interesting to see what looks like a nice set.

Even though I have a couple of old cylinder cabinets, the type with cardboard pegs in the drawers, I prefer your solution for the cylinder storage. My collection over the years has refined to include mostly cylinders with the proper boxes. I have misgivings about removing the cardboard pegs from an old cabinet to store the boxes (which don't always have enough room to stand upright in the drawer anyway). My cabinets have had most---but not all---of the pegs removed years ago. Always thought that the cylinder boxes were a dandy visual element in their own right, and your display behind the glass doors fills the bill nicely. Congrats on your excellent woodworking skills~!

Once upon a time, I had my record collection confined to a closet, and learned very early to think about going UP. The closet quickly was lined with shelves that went near the ceiling. I also discovered that records nearer the floor and nearer the ceiling seldom got played. My determination to hear something had its limits, evidently.

That Excel spread sheet for tracking the inventory is a great idea. I have long wondered if the record dealers (like Mr Nauck, as an example) had some sort of standardized format they used. In the event that I meet an unexpected demise, my surviving heirs wouldn't know diddly about the records, nor what to do about disposing of them. They could just shop that Excel list around, sell what they could individually and then dispose of the remainders (probably at the local landfill).

[JHolmesesq]

Since my collection is still rather small, I keep my discs in 10" aluminium cases - they're strong and sturdy and padded for protection.

I also maintain a spreadsheet detailing the record matrix number, label, band, song, condition and rough value so I know exactly what I have and when.

[gramophoneshane]

The majority of my shellac is kept in my Ikea bookcase, and each "cubical" is asigned a particular label, or in some cases 2 or 3 different labels with cardboard dividers separating them. I also use record cabinets & storage area of uprights to hold records by label. The cabinet under my Zonophone horn machine holds my single sided and early double sided discs, and an upright holds the later Zono discs etc. Where posible, I try to keep labels with the same brand machine, from around the same era. Another Aussie made upright holds my early Aussie labels, and another holds the later Aussie and NZ labels.
I tend to remember what label different songs/artists are on, so it makes it fairly easy to find what I'm looking for within a few minutes. I also try and asign each shelf within a cabinet, a particular genre when posible, so the top 2 shelves might hold jazz/dance records, the 3rd comedy/novelty, and the bottom shelf classical/traditional/sacred/boring type recordings lol.
Other records that I have a lot of, by the one artist on the same label, like Bing Crosby/Al Jolson/Doris Day etc, I keep in unused pizza boxes. I write the artist and label on the front edge, and the record titles on the lid.
I have no idea how to even create a spreadsheet on the computer, but even if I did, I doubt I would do it. With around 10,000 records, I think it would take me years to list everything properly, and if they were stored in order of the cat no's, it would mean I'd have to put each record back in the exact same spot/order everytime I used it, which I'm sure I'd be totally hopeless at doing lol.

[OrthoSean]

I'm with you, Shane! I actually did get started doing so, but I've got tens of thousands of records...many of which will eventually be sold / traded / given away, so it's a waste of time for me to do it and I gave up. Everything I have is sorted and shelved (mostly) alphabetically by artist(s) (classical has it's own shelving), then by label and catalog #. I can locate almost any 78 in a minute this way and I've got the ability to expand shelving as needed. They're almost all in one place (dry basement) and , hey, it works well for me.

Sean

[gramophoneshane]

Cylinders I keep in either chests of drawers or boxes. One chest of drawers holds BA up to around 3500, and another holds wax cylinders. The excess are kept in lidded cardboard boxes I picked up from the news agents for $3 each. I like having these with lids, as it keeps the dust out, and you can stack them 3 or 4 feet high & they remain stable
I used to have my cylinders separated by artist/genre for years, and I always knew which drawer to open to find what I wanted, but about a year ago, I resorted them by catalogue number. Ever since I've found it a real PITA to find things, but I guess I'll get used to it eventually, once my brain starts to relate song titles to catalogue numbers. At the moment I find myself having to rely on either looking everything up in the BA book, or opening 2 or 3 drawers and scanning over the lids of 100 cylinders to find anything.
It was much easier when I knew if I opened the second drawer, I'd find 3 rows of Billy Williams, then 3 rows of Billy Murray, then 2 rows of Ada Jones etc.
Another problem I've found with keeping my BA's in drawers by catalogue number, is when I get new cylinders, I then have to insert them into there appropriate position, and that can sometimes mean moving 3 ½ drawers full over cylinders to accomedate it/them. And because the drawers are full, this means the ones at the end of the sequence get kicked out of the drawer & into the boxes, which also then have to be reorganised

I also keep my wax cylinders in order of record numbers, but I dont buy these often, so I dont have to move them along very often.
Because most 2M cylinders only have a number on the lid, I do keep a sheet of paper in each drawer with a kind of location graph drawn on it, with the rec no., title & artist written in each square.

[gramophoneshane]

I'm with you, Shane! I actually did get started doing so, but I've got tens of thousands of records...many of which will eventually be sold / traded / given away, so it's a waste of time for me to do it and I gave up. Everything I have is sorted and shelved (mostly) alphabetically by artist(s) (classical has it's own shelving), then by label and catalog #. I can locate almost any 78 in a minute this way and I've got the ability to expand shelving as needed. They're almost all in one place (dry basement) and , hey, it works well for me.

Sean

Yes, I think it would be a total waste of time when you have such a large collection with occasional turn-over
Not much point of listing 5000 discs that may not be there in 6 months time.
I think your alphebetic system sounds like a good idea. The top 5 cubicals of my bookcase are all HMV, so it can be a little harder finding certain things at times. If I knew A-E was in the first cubical for example, it would narrow down, and speed up a search lol.

Do you use a similar system for your cylinders?
I have to admit that my recent change-over to storing mine by number, gives me a dose of the $#!%$ at times