HARPER@finuh.bitnet ("ROBERT HARPER, FINLAND") (07/10/89)
Here is an interesting posting to BIOBIT from Mikko Lammi.
It deals with some other software for handling references.
Submitted by MIKKO LAMMI on 26 Jun 1989, 16:52:45.
Key BookEnds Reference System
BookEnds Reference Management System is HyperCard Stackware
and it costs $99. Latest version is 1.1, as far as I know.
It is provided by
Sensible Software, Inc.
335 E. Big Beaver, Suite 207
Troy, Michigan 48083
(313) 528-1950
MS-DOS version is also available (I don't have experience on
that, though).
Features:
- Database size is limited only the free disk space.
- It has categories for author, title, editor, journal, volume, pages,
date, publisher, loacation, keywords, abstract, and classification
- Each category can have up to 30 000 characters
- Convenient import abilities including:
1. Tab delimited text files (data type typical for most database
applications in MacWorld)
2. Other BookEnds databases (from MacIntosh, Apple II or IBM-compatibles)
3. Dialog
4. MedLine/MedLars
5. BRS, MESH format
6. BRS, Generic format
7. MedLine Knowledge Finder (CD-ROM)
- Generates alphabetical listing of all unique authors and keywords in
a database
- Export to text files and to other BookEnds stacks
- Duplicate references can be deleted
- A Journal Glossary with abbreviations of the journal name for easy
source entering
- Boolean AND, OR and NOT searches supported (although a bit limited)
- References can to searched by scanning the stack, by the absolute number
of the reference, with Search command (scans all the desired categories),
or by Find command which scans only one category at the time.
- Matches can be sorted by any two categories
- Output can be formatted easily. 10 editable formats can be used at
one time. The order of categories,as well as author and editor names
can be formatted (Fonts and styles cannot be formatted)
- Output can be:
1. Printed
2. Sent to a text file
3. Sent to the word processor you like best
- MultiFinder compatible (not copy protected)
These are the main features, some others are still available
Our experience so far:
We have some 3400 references now, and the worst possible search
(that is, searching all the categories and collecting the matches
using quite simple AND or OR logics) will take our Mac II about
9 and a half minutes. Searching from one category without a match
list collected is almost immediate. By using short seacrh strings
the search will be faster.
The most important feature for us is the Import capability. We can
import references from Datastar's (in Switzerland) MedLine database
from the on-line log file with a converter program written in Fortran.
I get the log file from our library and run a conversion application
in our mainframe (VAX) and transfer the file to Mac II using the FTP
protocol and Import the references. This takes only some 5-10 minutes
in all.
Datastar's MedLine can be imported without the conversion by using
BRS, Mesh format Importing in BookEnds, the drawback is that BookEnds
cannot separate the categories in the reference source, so the source
will go into category Journal.
We are quite satisfied with BookEnds, but it could be faster. It
might be possible to Import references from CCOD (Current Contents
on Disk), since CCOD can output the references in MedLine format.
I don't have any experience on that. Anyway, this would add the value
of this package.
Mikko Lammi