Researchers in the sciences are increasingly looking towards software packages to manage personal collections of bibliographic data. This project will support the development of a personal bibliographic database software clearinghouse. The clearinghouse will serve as a demonstration facility for faculty, staff, and students requiring computer software applications to organize, store, search, and retrieve locally downloaded data records. Examples might include the selection of the most appropriate software for the creation of a local database of records from Biosis and Expanded Academic Index.
Public service librarians in the science libraries will gain personal experience with some of the most popular software tools, and will therefore be able to provide more knowledgeable advice to researchers coming to us with information management problems. By establishing a demonstration facility on a library workstation, science librarians will have the means for providing hands-on instruction to researchers. Our patrons will benefit from the local expertise of information professionals, and the ability to personally evaluate the products for specific needs. This project supports the Library-wide goal of faculty outreach in an innovative way by enabling librarians to move beyond traditional roles through assisting researchers in efficiently managing information.
We will purchase copies of selected database software packages and load the software on a library workstation. Next, we will familiarize ourselves with the individual products and create sample databases for each application. We will then evaluate each product in terms of ease of creating a database, ease of use, report generation capabilities, and technical requirements. Finally, we will create demonstration modules suitable for instruction sessions.
Load software, become familiar with products: January - March 1998
Identify selected databases and download information: April - June
Comparison test software products: July - September
Create final demonstration modules and write final report: October -
December
Popular software packages we would like to make available for demonstration are listed below. See attachment for additional information.
Endnote with Endlink: $214.00 Reference Manager with Capture Module: $300.00 ProCite with BiblioLink: $300.00 askSam: $149.00 InMagic: free Total = $963.00
Ranked from simplest to most complex.
1. Endnote Plus 2.0.0.0 (PC, Mac) plus EndLink Designed for capturing citations from online databases or keyboard entry. Allows simple Boolean searching of database contents and limiting to specific fields (author, title words, journal name). Will allow reports to be generated in a number of formats/styles. Not fully networkable at this time. 2. Reference Manager 7.0 (PC, Mac) plus Capture Designed for capturing citations from online databases or keyboard entry. Automatic checking of data validity and duplicates at point of input. Allows simple Boolean searching of database contents and limiting to specific fields (author, title words, journal name) using a simple interface. Will allow reports to be generated in a number of formats/styles, and allows reports to be created and sorted by subject. Results are visible with a split screen option for better initial information presentation. 3. askSam 3.0 (PC) Designed for maintaining large text files, and allows for the capturing of citations from online databases or keyboard entry (but has no good template/format recognition parser). Has a powerful and easy to use fill in the blanks search approach. Flat file and/or index capability. Will allow reports to be generated in a number of formats/styles. 4. ProCite 3.0.5 (PC, Mac) plus Biblio-Links Designed for maintaining large text files, and allows for the capturing of citations from online databases or keyboard entry. Users must construct a search expression -- no fill in the blanks approach. The Quick Search option view allows for keyword scrolling through indexes. Will allow reports to be generated in a number of formats/styles, and allows reports to be created and sorted by subject. Results are visible in a variety of options but this requires some detailed creation work. 5. InMagic (DB/TextWorks) (PC, Mac) Designed for maintaining large text and image files, and allows for the capturing of citations from online databases or keyboard entry. Users may construct a search expression or use a fill in the blanks approach. Will allow reports to be generated in a number of formats/styles, and allows reports to be created and sorted by subject. Results are visible in a variety of options but this requires some page creation work.