Re: Anyone using IBID+ ?

["Myron Gochnauer" GOCH@xxxxxxxx]

> 1. Is anyone using Ibid, and, if so, how good is it?
I used Ibid+ for a short period of time. It is competent if your
needs are pretty straightforward. I did not think it was a
particularly good database manager, and the import facilities are
quite limited. But it does work, and it is integrated into XyWrite.
When I tried it had relatively primitive abilities to automate fully
formatted footnotes.

> 3. Does anyone have a strong recommendation for any other reference
> software that works well with Xy4.

I am currently (and happily) using a Canadian product called Library
Master (version 3). It is a DOS product (although they are working on
a Windows version) that I have run under OS/2 Warp, Win 3.1, MS DOS
and Win95. (I had some problems with DR-DOS 6, but didn't pursue it.)

Library Master is an extremely powerful, flexible bibliographic
database manager. It is designed specifically for academics. It
supports an enormous number of citation styles, and can import from a
wide range of databases, including many on-line library catalogs.
It is also used to keep field notes and take notes on books and
articles.

It knows about XyWrite and NB, and can produce bibliographies and
in-text citations in XyWrite format. (It is easy to create your own
as well. I use it with LaTeX. It also handles WordPerfect, Word,
etc.) If you were using XyWin, you could
easily pop Library Master references (formatted according to your
choice) onto the Windows clipboard and then put them in XyWrite,
fully formatted. With XyDOS it is a pretty simple matter to have it
write the citation to a temporary file and then merge it into the
XyWrite document. This could be pretty well automated with macros.

Even better, though, is to use Libary Master as a kind of
bibliographic processor for XyWrite files. In your XyWrite document
you might have citations like: *[Dworkin, 1987]* and *[MacKinnon,
FU]*   When you want to format the document with footnotes or
proper citations, you go into Library Master and (through a series of
menus) tell it the XyWrite file to process, the output file name,
whether you want a bibliography (a separate file), the citation
style (Turabian, ChicagoA, APA, etc.) and the sort order. Library
Master then replaces the *[....]* citations with full citations in
the style you chose.  Since the original file is not changed, you
can produce 'final' versions in several different formats for
different journals. It doesn't lock you in to early choices. Nifty.

For what it is worth, my University library uses Library Master as
well.

Here is the ftp site: UWOVAX.UWO.CA/libsoft/lib_master
I haven't checked to see whether they have a web site.

They used to have a demo there, but it wasn't version 3 (i.e didn't
do the in-text formatting).

I've seen several other slicker programs, but now with the power and
flexibility of Library Master 3. A bit pricey, but well worth the
money if you're an academic.