IMPORTING ASFA CDROM REFERENCES INTO BIBLIOGRAPHIC FILE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Peter Brueggeman Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library The Scripps Library advises and assists Scripps researchers with their personal bibliographic file management software needs. Researchers are offered assistance with importing references into their personal databases from databases available on online databanks (eg BIOSIS, Chemical Abstracts, Medline). With one of the Library's goals being to encourage usage of ASFA CDROM, the import of ASFA CDROM references into the personal bibliographic databases of Scripps researchers is a major objective. ASFA CDROM references are unusual; their format does not resemble that of references obtained from online databanks. Some success has been achieved to date in importing ASFA CDROM references and is reported herein. Further experimentation is needed. Researchers will wish to use ASFA CDROM references for more than printed output; currently it is difficult to do much else with them. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts should include standardized format(s) for ASFA CDROM output that would be recognizable outside the ASFA CDROM universe. Several bibliographic file management software incorporate import capability for references downloaded from the major databanks; Cambridge should align ASFA CDROM output with these efforts. Being bibliographic records, ASFA CDROM references have fields and field tags; for example, TI tags the title fields of source items. A field name follows each field name; for example, source titles are prefixed TI: TITLE (field tag and field name). ASFA CDROM records have an external format of field tags, field names, and field information; field tags and names are justified at the left margin and field information starts on a new line below the tag/name and is justified at the left margin. ASFA CDROM records also have an internal format. Punctuation, spaces and word proximity are characteristic of internal format. For example, author's last names are followed by a hyphen and then initials. ASFA CDROM should be able to function as a bibliographic utility for creating personal databases with bibliographic file management software. The capability to import pre-existing bibliographic records is valuable because one can avoid keyboarding those records into the database. Bibliographic file management software like EndNote/EndLink (for Macintosh), Reference Manager (for IBM and Macintosh), and Pro- Cite/Biblio-Link (for IBM and Macintosh) support the import of pre- existing bibliographic records. However they vary in their import capability. Some import records having a precise external and internal format. Others import records using an algorithm that will recognize a variety of external and internal formats. Determining whether a bibliographic file management software can import ASFA CDROM references involves reading the documentation followed by experimentation. Since some bibliographic file management software run on Macintosh microcomputers, an ASCII file of ASFA CDROM references has to be converted to a Macintosh ASCII file before being used on a Macintosh. Conversion of files from IBM to Macintosh was reviewed recently (Stephanie Izarek, "Reconcilable Differences, MAC and PC", PC MAGAZINE, 8(8):175-188, 25 April 1989). For successful importing, it may be necessary to alter the format of ASFA CDROM references so that they will be accepted. Reformatting may involve a suite of changes. Field tags may have to be renamed. The spatial arrangement of field tags and their corresponding fields may have to be altered. Extraneous information may have to be deleted. The internal format of field information (spaces, punctuation, word proximity) may have to be altered. Some of this is possible with special programming and some may be possible only by brute-force wordprocessing. Obviously it is desirable to determine what can be accomplished easily and then publicize the capability to one's clientele. Two utility software are available from the Scripps Library for reformatting ASFA CDROM references; the Library is interested in learning of others. One reformat utility works only in conjunction with the Reference Manager software. The other reformat utility converts ASFA CDROM references into a tagged output format similar to output from an online databank. Provided by the producer of Reference Manager, the Reference Manager reformat utility converts ASFA CDROM references so that they mimic references from Cambridge Scientific Abstracts' Medline CDROM. As currently marketed, Reference Manager does not support importing ASFA CDROM references via the misnamed "Compact Cambridge" option in Reference Manager's "Import References/Database Services" menu. The "Compact Cambridge" import option actually imports only Compact Cambridge Medline references. The Reference Manager reformat utility renames ASFA CDROM's field tags/names to Compact Cambridge Medline's field tags/names. It works best with journal articles; references for non-journal articles will have to monitored during import and edited for completeness. Since Reference Manager readily accommodates editing individual records during import, a printout of the references being imported can be scanned during import in order to ensure that complete bibliographic citations are created. Provided by Steven Shaner (of Kinnetic Laboratories in Carlsbad, California), the Shaner reformat utility converts ASFA CDROM references into field-tagged output similar to references downloaded from online databanks. Dialog (format 4 output), BRS, and STN databanks all tag their fields with a two letter tag. On these databanks, field tags are justified at the left margin with field information being indented behind the tags. ASFA CDROM differs. ASFA CDROM field tags are followed by field names. ASFA CDROM field information is not indented behind tags but is justified at the left margin on a new line under the field tags. The Shaner reformat utility alters all of this. It renames or reuses ASFA CDROM field tags, deletes the unnecessary field names, indents all field information after field tags, and deletes other extraneous information (eg ASFA CDROM output header). The Shaner reformat utility runs either automatically wherein ASFA CDROM field tags are reused or interactively wherein one can rename ASFA CDROM field tags. For example, ASFA CDROM's descriptor tags (SD, BD, GD, OD) can all be renamed to DE. Since several bibliographic file management software import references from online databanks, the Shaner reformat utility is extremely useful for making ASFA CDROM references resemble output from an online databank. However the resemblance is only external. Successful import may depend on how strictly the bibliographic file management software looks at the internal format of field information (eg, spaces, punctuation, word proximity). EndNote/EndLink is very flexible in this regard since it imports field information using an algorithm rather than a pre-specified format. Reference Manager is less flexible; attempts to mimic Dialog BIOSIS references with ASFA CDROM references failed. Perhaps mimicking other import options (databases) for Reference Manager would be successful. If all of this sounds like it is a hassle........well, it is. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts needs to fully consider how ASFA CDROM can be productively used by researchers. Increasingly, researchers will want to incorporate ASFA CDROM references into their personal databases. With the wide variety of databases available both online and CDROM and on different databanks, bibliographic file management software can only be expected to recognize formats of high-usage databases on high-usage online and CDROM systems. ASFA CDROM will not make the cut since it has a relatively small audience. Cambridge should program FORMAT option(s) into the ASFA CDROM software so that ASFA references can be downloaded to disk (KEEP) in regular output format(s). Dialog's tagged output format is one US standard with other databanks' (BRS, STN) output formats also being standards. At minimum, ASFA CDROM should be able to deliver output in a tagged format identical to tagged output from databanks offering the online ASFA (eg Dialog et al). The goal of these suggested changes is increase the utility of ASFA CDROM references beyond appearance on a printout. Both the Reference Manager and the Shaner reformat utilities are available from Peter Brueggeman, Scripps Inst Oceanogr Library, UCSD C075C, La Jolla, CA 92093-0175, USA. Please send an IBM formatted floppy disk. More information on the bibliographic file management software referred to above is available from the following addresses: Reference Manager Research Information Systems 1991 Village Park Way, Suite 205 Encinitas, CA 92024 (800)722-1227 in Calif, (619)753-3914 EndNote/EndLink Niles & Associates 2200 Powell, Suite 765 Emeryville CA 94608 (415)655-6666 Pro-Cite/Biblio-Link Personal Bibliographic Software PO Box 4250 Ann Arbor MI 48106 (313)996-1580