Spreadsheet design for my IGY covers

After collecting IGY stuff for over 15 years, I'm finally trying to organize, catalog, and sometimes make more sense of and write about my hoard. As I get chunks of my organizing and cataloging in better shape, I plan to share these resources online with anyone who might be interested.

For written works, I am using Zotero for a bibliographic database, including web pages, articles, technical books, popular books, books about 1950s culture, etc. I have my articles saved as pdfs, and a physical personal library of technical and popular books, reports, and magazines. I try to keep my Zotero database up to date on useful resources, and have a separate Zotero library folder for my physical library, part of which is shown.

For philatelic items, I am feeling my way through developing spreadsheet databases and linked scans. Lately I have been focusing on a spreadsheet for U.S. IGY and IGY-related covers. I had some helpful suggestions from two other collectors of IGY philatelic items, Robert A. Greenwald and Don Hillger. Among their publications, Bob wrote International Geophysical Year; A Philatelic Survey, for the The American Philatelist, Feb. 2007, p. 138-146.  Don and Gary Toth authored A Philatelic Look at the IGY and the Dawn of the Space Age in Astrophile, July/Aug. 2007, p. 155-164. Hillger and Toth also have a great online checklist for IGY philately, which provided an initial model for my own spreadsheets.  

So, here is my spreadsheet, at the moment focusing on my U.S. covers and some other philatelic items related to the IGY. I currently plan on a separate spreadsheet for international covers, and still another for stamps, blocks, and panes.

Scans of these covers are contained in three flickr albums:

• the "Wood" collection (details to come in another post);
• Mellone covers (listed in the Mellone catalogs);
• other U.S. IGY-related covers.

The headings to the spreadsheet columns are currently as follows, although I am still playing with the format:

• Country - U.S. for all these, but of course will be otherwise for international covers;                                                           
• Sternberg # - a running index for my collection;
  
  
• Stamp 1 - Scott Catalog number for the "primary" stamp, many of which are Scott 1107 for the U.S. IGY stamp;
  
  
• Type/Stamp 2 - designation for stamps other than singles, such as a block/Scott catalog number for additional stamps on the cover other than the primary;
  
  
• Cover # (default Mellone) - cross-listing to any lists of covers, so far just the Mellone lists and the special "Wood" collection;
  
  
• Cachet maker (Mellone price mult.) - maker of the cachet where known or surmised (and for Mellone-listed covers, the price multiplier given for the relative value of the cover);
  
  
• Cachet theme/color/(number); bold significants [intended as a plural rather than an adjective, so not a typo] - main themes portrayed in the cachet/color variant of the cachet/how many if there are duplicates/bold type for anything deemed significant, such as signatures on the cachet;
  
  
• Date (FDI-bold) - date of the postmark (bolded if a first day of issue);
  
  
• Postmark - place of the postmark;
  
  
• Addressee/Sender (bold significants) - addressee/sender of the cover, if given (notable people in boldface);
  
  
• Cost - what I paid for the cover, although so far I have not been filling this in;
  
  
• Cancel slogan or pictorial (p) - any slogans or pictorial (p) components of the cancellation;
  
  
• Scan front - a scan of the front of the cover, linked from entries in my flickr account;
  
  
• Scan back - a scan of any non-blank backs of the covers, and/or of inserts;
  
  
• Comment - any other feature of the cover, such as being a naval cover;
  
  
• Blog - date of a blog post for which this cover was used.

This may be over-complete for some. I'd appreciate feedback on significant omissions, superfluous information, or ways this content might be improved.

The alpha and the omega in the file at this moment:

US 001, from the "Wood" collection

US 211, Robert Goddard FDC, U.S. rocket scientist, from my childhood collection

Feel free to use this spreadsheet should it be useful, but please acknowledge me as appropriate.