[uf-discuss] Easy book citations

[Bruce D'Arcus]

On 7/31/06, Ross Singer <ross.singer at library.gatech.edu> wrote:

> I think one of the stumbling blocks we're having here is trying to
> figure out what we're really using citations for.
>
> 1)  There's obviously a group that wants this data to be used with
> bibliographic management software
> 2)  There's a group that wants these citations to be able to link to
> fulltext/print/etc. for any person's library
> 3)  There's a group (I think?) that wants to be able to display
> properly formatted citations (or, at least more properly).
>
> Are we leaving a scenario out?
>
> #3 seems the most complicated.  If the goals of #1 are met, then #2
> will most likely be met, as well (although not necessarily the
> reverse).
>
> Does this seem accurate?

On 3, I've been working on cracking the formatting nut for the past
couple years, and am just about done [1]. It is indeed quite
difficult, but I mostly see it as distantly related to hCite.

But I see citation metadata as a cycle. I want ulitmately to be able
to output good uF metadata such that users can:

- view a nicely formatted document in their browser, complete with
proper citations
- click some button and go to the original article or book
- click some other thingy and import citations into my browser-based
reference database (coming real soon, GPL licensed!), or copy-and
paste the citation content directly into Word or OpenOffice
- be able to use that data to create other documents with citations

So yeah, a good data format supports 3, though is not so much its own
requirement.

Bruce

[1] <http://netapps.muohio.edu/blogs/darcusb/darcusb/archives/2006/07/29/csl-progress>