The informed collector
A collector and the Internet go hand in hand. In the old days, we depended on scarce catalogs, or bits of identification gleaned from the rare contacts with other, like-minded folk. Now, if you can Google or Wiki, the answers are there. Literally, figuratively, whateverly. And I don’t care if you don’t think that’s a word; it works for me.
Consider the librarian. Some authors are prolific and also write things in a series. In an ideal world, the publisher is working “after the fact” and puts a bibliography in the frontispiece. Otherwise, turn to the wonderful world of Wiki. If there’s a series, someone is going to spawn a page that lets the rest of the world in on the salient details. No muss, no fuss. I was checking through a collection of Animorphs kid-lit. Now I know the proper chronology, which ones were ghost-written (an explanation of stylistic lapses). Ditto for the Hardy Boys. Or Tom Clancy. Finally, a checklist when it is needed.
Yes, I could depend on Amazon, but that’s also a “new kid on the block”. Back in the catalog days, a lot of time was wasted by yours truly trying to keep collections in order.
In the world of recorded music, Schwann’s catalog helped the classical aficionado, but the rocker was left to combing the bins. No more. Simply check out the detail available from sites like allmusic.com. Magical. In the world of ham radio, trying to trace the lineage (or the innards) of an old transmitter has been helped along by the folks who hang out at www.eham.net, as an example. And that’s only three fields out of the vast tracts of land.
