4.0004 Bibliographic Software (122)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 7 May 90 20:08:40 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0004. Monday, 7 May 1990.


(1) Date: Sat, 05 May 90 11:17:34 IST (17 lines)
From: Itamar Even-Zohar <B10@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Bibliography Software [eds]

(2) Date: Sun, 06 May 90 05:03:16 IST (7 lines)
From: Daniel Boyarin <BOYARIN@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Bibliography Software [eds]

(3) Date: May 6, 1990 (30 lines)
From: Harry Hahne <HAHNE@UTOREPAS>
Subject: Re: 3.1355 Bibliographic software

(4) Date: Mon, 7 May 90 08:00:46 MDT (37 lines)
From: koontz@alpha.bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Bibliography Software [eds]

(5) Date: Mon, 7 May 90 15:35 EDT (31 lines)
From: <DONALDSON@LOYVAX>
Subject: Bibliographic software

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 05 May 90 11:17:34 IST
From: Itamar Even-Zohar <B10@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Re: 3.1355 Queries: Bibliography Software; Nodes; SCORE (63)

I have heard (not confirmed officially from any source) that Dragonfly
Software are planning to make versions of IBID., Nota Bene's
bibliographic software, for both Word Perfect and Word. This will let
WP and Word users have one of the privileges of NB, if this is true.

As it looks now, NB goes deeper and deeper into fulfilling the needs of
researchers and writers, while WP is going in completely other
directions (perhaps where the large market is). I expect NB to come up
with more IBID-like products in future, and WP & Word will probably
always lag behind in these domains.

Itamar Even-Zohar.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------14----
Date: Sun, 06 May 90 05:03:16 IST
From: Daniel Boyarin <BOYARIN@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Re: 3.1355 Queries: Bibliography Software; Nodes; SCORE (63)

on bibliography packages: dragonfly is working on a version of ibid for
word perfect and for word. no release date as yet. perhaps you could
be a beta-tester for them. don't say i sent you.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------38----
Date: May 6, 1990
From: Harry Hahne <HAHNE@UTOREPAS>
Subject: Re: 3.1355 Bibliographic software

Regarding Mark West's query about bibliographic software that works with
Word Perfect, LIBRARY MASTER sounds like just what you want. It is a
database manager designed especially to meet the needs of those who work
with a lot of textual and bibliographic information. It overcomes the
limitations of typical database managers (such as fixed length fields,
column based reports and limited support for non-English text) for this
type of application. LIBRARY MASTER allows easy entry of multilingual
text of arbitrary length, rapid searches on any combination of fields,
and flexible report formatting. The flexible report generator is works
especially well with variable length text. Reports can produce
documents in the file formats of many popular word processors, including
Word Perfect. Annotated bibliographies are automatically formatted
according to manuals of writing style such as Modern Language
Association, University of Chicago, American Psychological Association
and Turabian.

Data may be imported from online library catalogs, online information
services, other database programs and text files.

If Mark West or anyone else wants more information or a copy of the
demonstration program, they may contact me.

Harry Hahne <HAHNE@UTOREPAS>
Wycliffe College, University of Toronto
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------48----
Date: Mon, 7 May 90 08:00:46 MDT
From: koontz@alpha.bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Re: 3.1355 Queries: Bibliography Software

Dragonfly's IBID works only with Nota Bene.

A stand alone package of similar or superior power (except for being
available inside the word processor) is Personal Bibliographic Software's
Pro-Cite. You can import PRO-CITE output into your word processor. It
can extract references from a text file prepared by Word Perfect and
generate the appropriate reference list.

The following information is a couple of years old:

Personal Bibliographic Software, Inc.
412 Longshore Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
313-996-1580

The price used to be c. $400. I believe there may be site licensing
discounts; you might ask your computer services organization is there is
a site license. I haven't seen the package discounted anywhere. There
are DOS and Mac versions. There are some add-ins for doing on-line
searching of commercial bibliography services.

There is a comparative review of bibliographic database programs in
Science, Vo. 235, 2/27/87, pp. 1093-1096, Ruth E. Wachtel, Personal
Bibliographic Databases. I have heard a rumor on USENET that SCI-MATE, a
major competitor of PRO-CITE reviewed there, is defunct. Can anyone
confirm or correct this rumor?

Alas, learning one word processor after another is the common fate of all
users of word processors. I actually use Nota Bene but anticipate
having to learn a new system in a few years as products improve. The
really upleasant situation to be avoided is having to use several bad
word procesors simultaneously.

(5) --------------------------------------------------------------35----
Date: Mon, 7 May 90 15:35 EDT
From: <DONALDSON@LOYVAX>
Subject: Bibliographic software

Mark West asked about bibliographic software. My experience tells me
that you're right to conclude that NB's Ibid. is the best there is. Per-
haps others have had better luck, but I have looked in vain for something
to match either Nota Bene as a word processor for longer manuscripts des-
tined for publication or Ibid. as a bibliographic utility. The newest
version even solves most of the problems with multi-language entries.

I too am wed to WordPerfect for the time being. It is good and getting
better and better. I will say, however, that I would switch to Nota
Bene in a minute (I have used it for one large project several years ago.
The manual is daunting, but learning the program is relatively easy, and
the results marvelous.) if they would support downloadable fonts other
than HP's own. I've asked but they show little interest.

One possible sidelight. In my attempts to transfer work from WordPerfect
to and from Nota Bene, I came across a great little program called "Word
for Word" which will transfer files in and out of most formats. It works
quite well (better than I expected) and the help line staff was extremely
helpful. Alas, I could not solve the problem of transferring italics as
WordPerfect and Nota Bene treat the issue differently. Lacking that I
would be transferring back and forth regularly.

Hope that there's something useful in all this.

Randy Donaldson (Donaldson@LOYVAX)