bibliographic databases

[christopher k cosner]

Dear SEELANGStsy,
        What thoughts can you contribute about bibliographic
 computer programs, such as ProCite? Has anyone had any
 particular success or failure with a certain program? Are there
 programs better suited to Slavic languages? Is a bibliographic
 computer program really much more useful than an
 alphabetical list in a word processing document? What issues
 do you see as crucial in choosing a program?

        I'll start off. ProCite seems pretty good to me, but it is too
 pricey, certainly out of range of a graduate student. I am
 curious whether anyone uses HyperCard for this purpose.

        The "failures" I would worry about with a program would
 be: attempting to convert the citations to an appropriate format
 and finding that it simply couldn't be done without editing each
 reference (no great tragedy); finding that subject tags carefully
 entered over several months did not help to extract pertinent
 records after all; finding that your new computer system is
 simply so different that you cannot transfer the database to it.

        Other issues I have thought of in choosing a program are:
 use of mixed fonts; convertibility to and from other formats;
 price--what is reasonable?; ease of data entry; web integration
 (can you easily insert a URL, and will the tag stay "hot," i.e.,
 can you click on it and go into your web browser and directly
 to the site); and does the average humanities scholar even need
 a toy like this?

        Any comments will be appreciated, before or after the
 holidays.

Chris Cosner
c-cosner at uiuc.edu



Sincerely,


Chris Cosner

c-cosner at uiuc.edu
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