A Lot of Help from Our Friends
The original sources of our listings of early Columbia releases are volumes one and four of Tim Brooks’ and Brian Rust’s Columbia master book discography (Greenwood Press, 1999). The basis of our listings of U.S. Berliner discs, also recently added to the website, is the first edition of Paul Charosh’s Berliner discography (Greenwood Press, 1995). Thanks to the generosity and expertise of two collectors and early recording authorities, Tim Brooks and David Giovannoni, we have been able to augment the database's documentation of these labels significantly.
Original paper documentation that outline activities of early record companies is usually scarce. Most of the information on Berliner and early Columbia discs found in the books adapted for our database was obtained through examination of individual discs and trade catalogs. Tim Brooks and David Giovannoni have provided the editors with information about hundreds of recordings that have been discovered since publication of the print volumes. We're enormously grateful to these two men for their commitment to recording history scholarship and contributions to enhance this work.
Many other collectors, too, have contributed to our work. They are listed on our Acknowledgements page.