BibFiler: Bibliography Download for INNOPAC
Ann M. Fiegen · Information Technology and Libraries · 1991
One of the greatest services a library can give its users is the ability to download records from the online catalog using a personal computer. Such a service allows a user to truly customize the library's catalog for their own purposes. Lists of potential sources can be created, revised, and reformatted into a finished document as bibliographic citations. Used regularly, such a utility can support a continuing bibliography as new sources on a particular subject are added to the library collections. This need is already being met in a number of ways; there are many programs that download and create bibliographic citations. Now an addition to this category of software designed for users of Innovative Interfaces' INNOPAC catalog is available. The folks at the University of Maine have developed a superb little program that is designed to download bibliographic records from Innopac. BibFiler is a TSR program that allows the user to choose anyone of five file formats to create a bibliographic citation from INNOPAC. THE SOFTWARE BibFiler is a terminate and stay resident program for IBM or compatible personal computers. It can be used with a floppy or hard drive. It used DOS 2.0 or higher, and requires only 28K of memory. BibFiler can be used in conjunction with other TSR programs as long as normal conventions are followed when using multiple TSR programs. When Bibfiler is first loaded, the user is prompted for a file format type. Choices include the entire screen; all bibliographic fields; brief citation consisting of author, title, and publisher; a more complete citation that adds location and call number; or a delimited field record. Next comes a prompt for a filename and an option to add to an existing file or to create a new file. After loading BibFiler, the file format type or file name may be changed by going through the DOS gateway of your communications program. That is the essence of BibFiler. Personal bibliographies can be created and easily modified. You can mix citation formats in a single file or create new files. BibFiler allows you to work easily with multiple files and multiple citation formats in the same session. Files can be printed as is and used to locate the items in the library, or they can be stored and imported into wordprocessors, databases, or spreadsheets. To invoke BibFiler when searching an Innopac catalog a hot key combination is pressed. At this point the screen is saved using the file format and filename that have been previously chosen. Commands are invoked from the DOS prompt, using the DOS gateway of your communications package. There are only two other basic BibFiler commands. The bibfiler/f command prompts the user for a different format and filename. The bibfiler/u command unloads the program from memory. FILE FORMAT OPTIONS Option 1: Save Entire Screen This option is essentially a screen dump. It can be used to save INNOPAC summary screens, such as a listing of all titles under a particular subject heading. Since the filenames are saved, the file can be used as an ongoing permanent bibliography and updated as new items are added to the library's collection on that subject. Non-bibliographic screens can be downloaded and incorporated into user or staff training manuals. Option 2: Save All Bibliographic Fields For this option, bibliographic fields, including the boxed item information, are saved. …