Bibliographic database manager

Several people have asked me about software suitable for bibliographic
work and I usually recommend Notebook II (and still do), but the
following announcement in PACS-L sounds interesting.

    Date: 17 May 90
    From: Harry Hahne <HAHNE%UTOREPAS.BITNET [at] Forsythe__Stanford__EDU>
    Subject: Bibliographic Database Manager

    In light of the recent discussions about bibliographic software, I
    feel many on this list may be interested in a database manager that
    I have written.

    LIBRARY MASTER is a database manager designed especially to meet the
    needs of those who work with a lot of textual and bibliographic
    information.  I wrote the program because the limitations of typical
    database managers (such as fixed length fields, column based reports
    and limited support for non-English text) make these programs
    inadequate for the type of information used by professors, students,
    writers, researchers and librarians.

    LIBRARY MASTER allows easy entry of multilingual text of arbitrary
    length, rapid powerful searches on any combination of fields, and
    flexible report formatting.  It allows researchers to keep track of
    tens of thousands of articles and books and to take research notes
    on these works.  Information can be classified not only under
    subjects but also passages in literary works such as the Bible,
    classical literature and Shakespeare.

    The flexible report generator is designed to work especially well
    with variable length text.  Complex reports can be designed without
    programming.  Reports can produce documents in the file formats of
    popular word processors.  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 a wide variety of sources, including
    online library catalogs, online information services, other database
    programs and text files.

    Here are a few of the special features that make LIBRARY MASTER of
    particular interest to scholars, professors, researchers and
    librarians:

     1. Variable length fields and records up to 65000 characters long.

     2. Built in editor includes common word processor capabilities such
        as extensive cursor movement and text delete commands, wrap
        around, search and replace, block operations, and fonts such as
        underlining, boldface, italics, superscript and subscript.

     3. Accented Western European language characters can be easily
        entered, searched and properly sorted.

     4. "Point and select" listing of field contents simplifies
        searching and data entry for repetitious fields (such as subject
        categories) and insures consistent entry of repetitious field
        data.

     5. Multiple record types allow different types of data in the same
        database (e.g., books, journal articles, articles in books,
        dissertations, unpublished manuscripts, video recordings,
        interviews, artwork, etc.). Each record type can have different
        fields and can be formatted differently in a report or
        bibliography.

     6. A wide variety of data types including text, names, dates,
        numbers and literature references.

     7. References to literary works such as books of the Bible, ancient
        Greek and Latin literature, Shakespeare, etc. can be searched by
        a range of references (e.g., Jn. 3:5-20; 1QS 5:20-24; Ex. Rab.
        3-4).  This is particularly useful when you are cataloging
        articles that contain an analysis of other literary works.

     8. Data compression on repetitious fields saves disk space and
        speeds up searches.

     9. Powerful search capabilities on any combination of fields using
        Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).  Whole field, field contains
        or beginning of field can be searched for equals, not equals,
        greater than, greater than or equals, less than, less than or
        equals, and sounds like.

    10. B-tree indexes allow rapid searches and updates.

    11. Searches run concurrently in the background while the user
        browses through matching records.

    12. The flexible report generator allows reports with textual
        information to be arranged in almost any manner.  Bibliographies
        are automatically formatted according to common manuals of
        style.  New Style Sheets and report formats are easily designed.

    13. Reports can automatically include formatting codes used by
        popular word processors, such as underline, boldface, margins,
        line spacing, headers, tabs, page numbers, accented characters,
        etc.

    14. Keystroke macros allow automation of frequently repeated tasks.

    15. Flexible data import capabilities allow data to be imported from
        online information services and library catalogs, other
        databases and text files. The import program can be customized
        to work with almost any type of file.

    Planned future enhancements include support for languages using
    non-Latin alphabets, in particular Greek and Hebrew.

    LIBRARY MASTER requires an IBM PC compatible with at least 384K of
    memory.

    If you want a more detailed information sheet, contact me via EMAIL
    and I will and I will BITNET it to you.  If you give me your mailing
    address, I will mail you a demonstration version of the program to
    try out for free.  It includes most program features but limits the
    database size.

    Harry Hahne <HAHNE@UTOREPAS>
    Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

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                   Conservation DistList Instance 3:8
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