Reference Manager. Version 8

Citation

Ashworth, W. (1998), "Reference Manager. Version 8", New Library World, Vol. 99 No. 2, pp. 89-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/nlw.1998.99.2.89.1

Bilaney Consultants Ltd is the European Agent for the US software produced by Research Information Systems, an offshoot of the Institute for Scientific Information. Bilaney handles the technical support in the UK. ISI is well‐known for its long involvement and considerable experience in information handling and its Reference Manager program is now in its eighth version of Windows 95/NT. It provides a means for individual research workers or librarians to create and manage their own databases more efficiently and also control the reference work of others.

The program is now a large one requiring three HD floppy disks for its installation and a hard disk with at least 10Mb available. A database with only short notes to each reference will accommodate about 5,000 references in 1Mb space. The 90‐page “Starter’s Guide” supplied in addition to the full “Guide” will prove invaluable to newcomers as a key to the many facilities on offer. A tutorial sample database on the disks leads through the processes of entering and amending references. Using the program it is possible to generate bibliographies, compose work in the main standard word processors, and “cite‐while‐you‐write” to produce a correctly laid‐out list of references automatically. In short, to “manage” essential bibliographical work competently, with the minimum of trouble. The disks contain long lists of the standard formats adopted in the main periodicals of the world. Searching can be improved by recording variants to authors’ names and periodical title abbreviations so that every subsequent search will encompass all known forms. References in the format of different periodicals can be mechanically merged into another format. Thus, by drawing on its stored knowledge of standards and styles, controlling bibliographies is reduced to a largely mechanically‐operated process, so the worker can import references from external databases and ensure that they are recorded without duplication in any desired local format. The program not only takes the hassle out of bibliography creation but ensures that errors do not creep in unnoticed. All fields in generated bibliographies may be fully searched by Boolean operators. The program sets no limits to database capacity, to the number created or the size of abstracts and notes appended. As a final feature, links to the World Wide Web are incorporated and by them, downloading of references may be controlled.

The value of this software is seen when one realises that a large part of information transfer, especially in the research field, occurs through the medium of the world’s books, reports and periodicals, and references are vital keys to it all.