Glenn Thomas says he is trying to catalog a few thousand rolls.  You can
easily get the basic inventory list with a portable cassette recorder.
Just announce the roll brand and number and record it for later
transcription.  The title can be recorded as a cross-check.

After the list of roll numbers is transcribed it can be linked with an
existing data base of roll numbers to get the particulars (title, artist,
music style, etc.), and a draft list of your inventory printed out.  (Put
a copy of this list in a safe place, in case your collection is destroyed
the next day.)  Then, at your leisure, you can physically inspect the
rolls (and play them) to add your data fields for "musical quality" and
"physical condition", etc.

The "existing data base of roll numbers" exists only in the reference
books, as far as I know.  I've entered the Vincent Lopez Ampico data
from the Obenchain book, plus a few other categories, but my "Ampico
Rollography" is only beginning.

I use a separate file to cross-reference re-cuts.  Especially cumbersome
is trying to keep track of a favorite song that appears on several
10-tune nickelodeon or organ rolls.  It's that same song and same basic
arrangement in each instance, but sometimes the instrumentation stops are
different, and so on.

Mark Fontana inquired about a source for correct titles and composers
names.  My disc file of old sheet music titles is less than 1000 entries,
and so is only a very small percentage of what's needed.  Actually, I
get a lot of information from the Ampico and Duo-Art and Welte books.
I am slowly copying the data from these fine reference books into disc 
files.  (Does anyone want to help? !)

Robbie Rhodes